In some cases it is necessary to change which application is used for a specific file extension. If you found a found a better movie player, text editor, or image viewer you may want to use that application for all files with the same file extension.
For example, QuickTime Player is the default application for viewing MP4 movie files on OS X, but VLC could be your media player of choice.
Mac Os Set Default App For File Type
Follow these steps to change your default preferences:
- Find a file with an extension you want to change the defaults to.
- Right click on the file to see a menu, and select “Get Info”.
(right click is a two finder click on a trackpad) - A window appears with the file’s information, see the section called “Open with”
- It will display the current application used for this file, use the dropdown box to select you new application. If you do not see your new application in the dropdown box, use the “Other” selection to browse for it.
- Click on the “Change All” button to apply the change to all files ending with the same file extension. That’s all.
Changing default apps associated with certain file types. If you want to change a default app other than your browser or email client then you can still do so. Open up Finder, navigate to the file. By default, the Mac OS X identifies files without file extension as Unix Executable File. But often these can also be found as simple text files with instructions, version history, frequently asked questions, settings etc. And called like README, READ-ME, INFO, SETTINGS, OPTIONS etc. File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac. Disk Utility on Mac supports several file system formats: Apple File System (APFS): The file system used by macOS 10.13 or later. Mac OS Extended: The file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT: File systems that are compatible with Windows. Open Disk Utility for me.
Further notes:
You can always override the default by manually opening the file in a different application with a simple right click, and “Open With” command when the default is not appropriate.
Change Default File Ext
To make it easier to distinguish between file extensions you may want to also enable the option to make all file extensions visible. In Finder, select Preferences in the top menu, and click on the Advanced tab. Check the box that’s labeled “Show all file name extensions”.