How to Pause Unrar on CRC Error

This guide explains how to pause the extraction process when unrar encounters a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) error. Because the unrar utility does not possess an internal command-line switch to halt and wait for user input specifically during a checksum mismatch, you must handle the pause by capturing unrar's operational exit code in a shell or batch script.

Understanding the Unrar CRC Exit Code

When unrar unpacks an archive and discovers that a file's checksum does not match, it terminates or finishes the run with an exit status of 3.

Standard unrar exit codes include:

• 0: Successful operation
• 1: Non-fatal error / warning
• 2: Fatal error
• 3: CRC error occurred during unpacking
• 255: User stopped the process

Windows Command Prompt / Batch Command

In Windows, use the %errorlevel% variable to detect exit code 3 and invoke the pause command:

unrar x archive.rar
if %errorlevel% equ 3 pause

To run this as a single-line command directly in the command prompt:

unrar x archive.rar & if errorlevel 3 if not errorlevel 4 pause

Linux and macOS (Bash) Command

In a Unix-like environment, evaluate the $? variable immediately after executing unrar to prompt the user to continue:

unrar x archive.rar
if [ $? -eq 3 ]; then
    read -p "A CRC error was detected. Press [Enter] to continue..."
fi

As a single-line command:

unrar x archive.rar || [ $? -eq 3 ] && read -p "CRC error encountered. Press Enter to pause..."

Preventing File Deletion on CRC Errors (-kb)

By default, unrar deletes damaged files after encountering a CRC mismatch. If your goal in pausing is to inspect or salvage corrupt data, include the -kb (keep broken extracted files) switch:

unrar x -kb archive.rar

Combining -kb with exit-code handling preserves the damaged file on disk while still halting your terminal script when exit code 3 is returned.