Extract text from Nintendo audio archives (BARS)
To convert BARS audio archives to another format, you need Switch Toolbox or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Nintendo Audio Archive" file type, you need software like Switch Toolbox or a similar tool.
The .BARS file is a proprietary Binary Audio Resource Archive primarily used by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch and Wii U video games. It acts as a metadata container that groups multiple audio assets, sound parameters, and game engine configurations into a single, compact package.
To natively open, inspect, or extract audio from these archives, users typically rely on community-developed game modding utilities like Switch Toolbox or specific command-line BARS extractors.
Users frequently need to convert .BARS files because they are completely useless outside of the proprietary Nintendo game engine. Standard media players and web browsers cannot read them. The format is heavily compressed, undocumented, and closed-source, making it highly frustrating for game modders, researchers, or sound designers who simply want to extract sound effects and background music.
The best target formats for the extracted internal audio are standard files like WAV for lossless editing, or MP3 and OGG for general playback. Extracting the audio usually requires unpacking the archive into intermediate Nintendo formats like BWAV or BFSTM first. Keep in mind that converting these files to standard audio formats will strip out all game-specific metadata, such as dynamic loop points and 3D spatial positioning data.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to open or convert directly because it is a closed, proprietary game archive rather than a simple audio stream. Often, only specialized modding tools can properly read or export the embedded data, which is why standard online audio converters fail to process it. However, just drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to identify the format, inspect the file, and view its internal structure. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded audio stream, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your BARS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted BAR, BFSTM, NRO, SUPX, PSI, MPA and ATM files.
If you want to convert BARS file to PSI, MPA, ATM, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, AIFF or OPUS, you can use Switch Toolbox or similar software from the "Game Audio Archive Container" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MIDI, AAC, TTA, AU, WV, DTS, MID, FLAC, RA, MP3, PCM or WAV files to BARS, try Switch Toolbox or another comparable tool in the "Game Audio Archive Container" 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 BARS converter.