Overview
Introduction
When you have a list of Base64-encoded values, exported IDs, tokens, or config values, decoding them one at a time by hand is slow and easy to get wrong if even one entry is malformed.
This tool decodes an entire list of Base64 items in one pass, catching and clearly reporting any single item that isn't valid rather than failing silently.
What Is List Base64 Decoder?
The List Base64 Decoder is a per-item decoder: it splits the input on your chosen separator and Base64-decodes each item independently back to UTF-8 text.
It's the exact inverse of the List Base64 Encoder, so a list encoded there decodes back here to the original values.
How List Base64 Decoder Works
The input is split into items on your chosen separator, trimmed, and blank items are dropped.
Each item is passed through the browser's native `atob()`, converted from a binary string back to bytes, and decoded as UTF-8 in strict mode; if `atob()` throws or the bytes aren't valid UTF-8, the error names that item's 1-based position and value.
When To Use List Base64 Decoder
Use this whenever you have a list of independently Base64-encoded values and need the plain text back, for example a batch of encoded tokens from a config file or export.
It's a better fit than the plain Base64 Decoder whenever your input is a list of separate encoded values rather than one combined Base64 blob.
Often used alongside List Base64 Encoder, Base64 Decoder and List URL Decoder.
Features
Advantages
- Names the exact item that fails to decode, instead of a generic "invalid Base64" error for the whole input.
- UTF-8 safe, so decoded text with accented characters or emoji comes back correctly.
- Trims each item automatically, so incidental whitespace doesn't cause false failures.
Limitations
- Stops at the first invalid item rather than decoding the valid ones and skipping the rest, since a corrupted list is likely worth fixing at the source.
- Doesn't decode a single whole-text Base64 blob, use the plain Base64 Decoder for that case.
Examples
Best Practices & Notes
Best Practices
- If decoding fails, check the reported item number first to find the malformed entry quickly in a long list.
- Use the List Base64 Encoder to generate test data if you want to confirm the decoder round-trips correctly.
Developer Notes
Each item is decoded with the native `atob()`, converted to a `Uint8Array` via `Uint8Array.from(binary, char => char.charCodeAt(0))`, then decoded with `new TextDecoder("utf-8", { fatal: true })`; both a thrown `atob()` error and a UTF-8 decode failure are caught and reported with the failing item's position.
List Base64 Decoder Use Cases
- Decoding a batch of Base64-encoded tokens exported from a config file or database
- Validating that a list of encoded values is well-formed before importing it elsewhere
- Round-tripping test data produced by the List Base64 Encoder
Common Mistakes
- Pasting a single combined Base64 blob into this per-item decoder, it will likely fail or produce one nonsensical "item", use the plain Base64 Decoder instead for that case.
- Assuming a failed decode means the whole list is unusable, only the reported item is invalid; the rest can still be decoded once it's fixed or removed.
Tips
- URL-safe Base64 (using "-"/"_" instead of "+"/"/") needs converting back to standard Base64 characters before decoding here.
- Keep an eye out for accidental double-encoding, if an "item" decodes to more Base64-looking text, it may have been encoded twice.