Extract text from USB flashing files (UF2)
To convert UF2 flashing files to another format, you need Microsoft MakeCode or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Microcontroller Firmware File" file type, you need software like Microsoft MakeCode or a similar tool.
The .UF2 file extension stands for USB Flashing Format, a specialized container developed by Microsoft for their MakeCode platform. It is primarily used to flash compiled firmware onto microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi Pico, Arduino boards, and Adafruit Circuit Playground. When a supported device is plugged into a computer via USB, it appears as a standard mass storage drive.
The main disadvantage of the .UF2 format is that it is a compiled, hardware-specific binary wrapper. It is unreadable to humans and impossible to edit directly. Because it contains compiled machine code rather than human-readable source code, you cannot simply open it to see the original Python or C++ logic. Standard text editors will only display corrupted, garbled characters if you attempt to open one.
Converting .UF2 files is often necessary when developers need to extract the raw binary data. The best target formats for conversion are BIN or HEX, though this usually requires command-line tools like Microsoft's uf2conv.py script. Reversing a .UF2 file back into readable source code (like PY or CPP) is essentially impossible without advanced decompilation techniques.
Because this is a low-level, proprietary firmware format, standard online converters fail to process it. If our analysis detects a supported underlying structure, viewing or conversion to raw binary formats may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your UF2 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted HEX, BIN, NES, ELF, ZIP, DSK, TXT, XAPK, INO, IDML, BTW, SPV and TSX files.
If you want to convert UF2 file to BIN, HEX, ELF, SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD, 386, COM, BAT or CMD, you can use Microsoft MakeCode or similar software from the "Firmware Flashing Package" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to UF2, try Microsoft MakeCode or another comparable tool in the "Firmware Flashing Package" 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 UF2 converter.