Extract text from BB files
To convert your BB file to another format, you need UCSC Genome Browser or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Genomic Data Track" file type, you need software like UCSC Genome Browser or a similar tool.
The .bb file extension is most frequently associated with the bigBed format, a binary indexed file type developed for the UCSC Genome Browser. While highly efficient for visualizing massive genomic datasets without loading the entire file into memory, this format is a common headache for researchers who need to access the raw data. Because .bb files are binary and compressed, they cannot be opened in standard text editors like Notepad or Excel, and they are essentially 'read-only' in their native state. Users often struggle with the command-line utility bigBedToBed required to extract readable information, especially on non-Linux systems. To analyze, edit, or archive this data, the best workflow is converting the .bb file back to a standard BED (tab-delimited text) format or TXT.
Alternatively, a .bb file may be legacy source code written in Blitz Basic (specifically Blitz3D or BlitzPlus). These are plain text files containing game logic, but modern IDEs may not recognize the extension, treating it as an unknown binary. For these files, the most practical solution is changing the extension to TXT for quick viewing or converting the logic to a modern language like C# or C++ if attempting to port legacy Blitz3D projects.
Convert.Guru analyzes your BB file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted BIN, JPG, WIG, BEDGRAPH, BIGBED, BED and FB files.
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 BB converter.