Extract text from AppleDouble & After Dark files (AD)
To convert AD files to another format, you need Apple macOS or other System software.
To convert other file formats to the "Metadata Resource File" file type, you need software like Apple macOS or a similar tool.
The .ad extension is heavily fragmented, serving multiple unrelated purposes depending on the software that created it. Historically, it is most commonly an AppleDouble encoded file generated by Apple macOS when transferring files to non-native file systems like FAT32. It stores the 'resource fork' (metadata, custom icons) separately from the actual data fork. Alternatively, it is a legacy After Dark screensaver module developed by Berkeley Systems.
Other applications also hijack the .ad extension. It can be a JSON city layout blueprint for the Anno Designer tool, a trace data file for Lauterbach TRACE32 hardware debuggers, a UnityFS asset bundle from Unity, an Asterisk PBX RIFF telephony audio recording, or even an Android operating system backup file.
This widespread fragmentation makes .ad files incredibly frustrating to manage. Most operating systems cannot open them natively. AppleDouble files clutter Windows drives with useless 4KB junk that serves no purpose outside a Mac. Legacy After Dark files are obsolete 16-bit or 32-bit executables that crash on modern 64-bit systems. Proprietary formats like TRACE32 require thousands of dollars in hardware to read.
Converting an .ad file depends entirely on its internal structure. Asterisk voice recordings can be converted to standard WAV or MP3 formats. Anno Designer layouts can be read as standard JSON or text. Conversely, AppleDouble files contain no usable media and cannot be converted.
Convert.Guru analyzes your AD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted AD1, ZIP, AI, AB, JPG, PDF, MOV, MP4, PEF, BD1, BME and BS files.
If you want to convert AD file to BS, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT or DB, you can use Apple macOS or similar software from the "macOS Metadata Resource Fork" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to AD, try Apple macOS or another comparable tool in the "macOS Metadata Resource Fork" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our AD converter.