ARSC File

What are ARSC files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an ARSC file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your ARSC files.

What is an ARSC file?

An .ARSC file is an Android Package Resource file.

An Android Package Resource file is a compiled resource table used inside an Android app archive (APK). It is generated at build time by Android's build tools (such as aapt or aapt2) and holds static resources like strings, styles, colors, dimensions, and configuration-based variants. The operating system reads this file at runtime to resolve resource IDs into actual values depending on device settings (language, screen density, orientation, API level) so that the app displays the correct resources for the current configuration.

This resource table also provides the mapping between named resources in source code or XML files and their integer identifiers (resource IDs) used at runtime. Each package (app or library) included in the application gets its own namespace within this table; each resource entry is tagged with a package ID, a type ID (such as "string" or "layout"), and an entry index. Resources may have many versions - for example, for different locales or screen densities - and the file includes logic to select the version that best matches the current device's configuration.

Internally the file is built as a sequence of binary chunks. It begins with a resource-table header (RES_TABLE_TYPE), followed by a global string-pool chunk, then one or more package chunks. Each package chunk may include type-specification and type-data chunks. Most chunks use a common structure called ResChunk_header, which holds a type code, the size of the header, and the total size for that chunk.

Byte-level identification can rely on signature bytes at the start of the file. At offset zero the first two bytes are 0x0200 and the next two are 0x0C00, which correspond to a RES_TABLE_TYPE header with a 12-byte header size. Another signature appears at offset 7 as a sequence of bytes 0x000100000001001C00.

How to open ARSC files

Important: Different programs may use files with the ARSC file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your ARSC file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 20, 2026

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