MacOS already comes with some well-thought-of pre-installed apps that are designed to be used for different functions and services. These apps let you use your Mac straight out of the box. However, even though macOS’s exclusive apps are by far some of the most reliable ones to date, each of us tends to have personal preferences. For instance, you might favor using Chrome over Safari for web browsing. In this article, we’ll share with you how to change default apps in Mac to your preferred ones.
What Are Default Mac Apps?
Default apps are the programs that automatically launch when you perform an action on your Mac. For example, if you haven’t installed and set up a different browser yet, any web link you click will open on Safari, Apple’s proprietary web browser. To give you an idea, here are some of the most basic pre-installed apps you may find on your Mac:
- App Store
- Automator
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Dashboard
- FaceTime
- DVD Player
- Game Center
- iBooks
- iMovie
- iTunes
- Launchpad
- Maps
- Photos
- QuickTime Player
- Safari
- Time Machine
Right now, Mail is likely the default email app on your Mac. The steps below outline how to change default program on Mac to a third-party one. If you have some email client already downloaded, you can still use the steps below to change the default email client from Mail. Just sub the name of your app in place of Canary. Make sure that the other email app is installed. Although you might be able to use a web browser for email (webmail), a web browser isn't an email app. Open the Mail app. Choose Mail Preferences, then click General. Choose an email app from the ”Default email reader” menu.
Some of these apps are indispensable, such as Automator and Time Machine. On the other hand, some are plainly extras that you can live without, such as Game Center and Launchpad. Meanwhile, there are those apps that are actually quite useful, but can be substituted by other apps that may do the job better. These include iBooks, QuickTime Player, Mail, Maps, and as exampled earlier, Safari. If you want to use another app in place of the default apps in Mac, you have two options: temporarily use a different app or permanently change the default app for specific functions.
Temporarily Using Another App To Perform A Task
It is straightforward and won’t require you to tinker with your Mac’s settings in any way. To try doing this, do the following steps:
- Download the app you want to use. For instance, VLC Player for playing movies and other video files. If you already have it, go to the next step.
- Open Finder. Look for the file you want to play. Right-click on it. On the menu, select Open With. The list of usable apps relevant to the file will appear. You will see the default app at the top of the list.
- Select the alternative app you want to use. The file will now open in that app.
How To Change The Mac Default App Settings
If you think you’re going to use alternative apps for a long time, it’s better to just set them up as default apps instead of doing the method above every single time. However, keep in mind that you can’t change default app settings in one go. But, don’t worry. Switching default apps shouldn’t take long. What’s good about this is you can always change your default apps.
Changing Default Browser
Safari is the default browser for all Apple devices. If you have installed other browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, you probably got a message asking to make them your default browser. If you ignored that request before, you could make any of them your default browser now.
- Go to System Preferences > General.
- Locate Default Web Browser.
- Click the drop-down menu to see the available browsers that can be set as default.
- Click on your browser of choice to set it as default.
Changing Default Email App
Apple’s Mail app is pretty straightforward and easy to use. However, for some, it can be too honest that it lacks some cool features that other email apps have. To switch from Mail to another email app you’ve downloaded and installed, do these:
- Open the Mail app. Go to Mail > Preferences.
- Find Default Email Reader. Click it to open the list of other email clients on your mac.
- Select the email app you want to use.
Changing Default Apps For Various Types Of Files
You can also change the default app or program to open certain file types, such as photos and videos. How to erase an app on mac. Here’s how:
- Open Finder. Right-click on the file you want to open a different app.
- On the menu, click Get Info.
- A box will appear. Find “Open with:” Click it.
- Click the drop-down menu to choose a new default app.
- Click Choose All. Now, all files of that type will open on your newly set default app.
On a final note, no matter what apps you set as default, it’s essential that you keep your Mac in tip-top condition. Tweakbit MacRepair can help you with that. By taking care of your Mac’s storage space, RAM, and battery, you are sure to enjoy using your Mac better and longer.
If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy Policy.
See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy Policy.
Learn how to make Adobe Photoshop your default image viewer and editor for popular file formats like JPEG, PNG and TIFF, as well as Photoshop's own PSD format, in Mac OS X.
Even though every copy of Photoshop, whether it's a standalone version or part of a Creative Cloud subscription, includes a free and powerful file management program called Adobe Bridge, many Mac users still prefer the Finder for locating and opening their images.
While there's nothing technically wrong with that, there is one annoying problem; Mac OS X, at least by default, ignores Photoshop when we open images directly from within a Finder window. Instead, it prefers to open them in Apple's own Preview app with its basic and very limited set of image editing features. Since Photoshop is obviously our editor of choice, let's learn how to easily configure Mac OS X so that our images will automatically open for us in Photoshop every time.
Note that this tutorial is specifically for Mac users. For the PC version, see Make Photoshop Your Default Image Editor in Windows 10. Mac terminal master unlock allow apps downloaded from anywhere.
This is lesson 2 of 10 in Chapter 2 - Opening Images into Photoshop.
Turning On File Name Extensions
First, navigate to a folder on your Mac that contains one or more images. Here, I've opened a folder that's sitting on my Desktop. Inside the folder are four image files. Starting from the left, we have a PNG file, a JPEG file, a Photoshop PSD file, and a TIFF file. How do we know which file type we're looking at? We know because of the three letter extension at the end of each name:
A Finder window showing four image files.
If you're not seeing the extensions at the end of your file names, go up to the Finder menu in the top left of your screen and choose Preferences:
This opens the Finder Preferences dialog box. Click the Advanced tab at the top, then select Show all filename extensions by clicking inside its checkbox. Close the dialog box when you're done. You should now see the file extensions listed at the end of your file names:
Click the Advanced tab, then check 'Show all filename extensions'.
The Default Image Viewer
Let's try opening one of the images to see what happens. I'll double-click on my JPEG image ('fashion.jpg') to open it:
Opening a photo by double-clicking on its thumbnail.
Even though I have the latest version of Photoshop installed, and even though Photoshop just happens to be the world's most powerful image editor, Mac OS X completely ignores it and instead opens my photo in its own Preview app (fashion photo from Adobe Stock):
Preview has a few image editing features, but it's no Photoshop.
That's obviously not what I wanted so I'll close out of the Preview app by going up to the Preview menu at the top of the screen and choosing Quit Preview:
Making Photoshop The Default Image Viewer And Editor
So how do we tell Mac OS X to open this image in Photoshop instead of in Preview? And more importantly, how to we tell it to use Photoshop not just for this one image this one time but for every JPEG image we open in the future? It's actually very easy to do. First, Control-click on a JPEG image you want to open:
Control-clicking on the JPEG photo's thumbnail.
Then choose Get Info from the menu that appears:
A long, narrow Info dialog box will open full of details about the image. Look for the section that says Open with. You may need to click the small arrow to the left of the section's name to twirl it open. This section tells us which program Mac OS X is currently using to open JPEG files. By default, it's set to Preview:
Preview is currently our default image editor.
Click on 'Preview.app' to open a list of other apps currently installed on your system and choose Adobe Photoshop from the list. If you have more than one version of Photoshop installed, choose the most recent version. Again, at the time I'm writing this, the most recent version is CC 2015.5:
There's just one step remaining. To set Photoshop as the new default app for opening all JPEG files, not just this one, click the Change All button:
Clicking 'Change All'.
You'll be asked if you're sure you want to open all JPEG files (that is, all files with a '.jpg' extension) with Photoshop. Click Continue to confirm it:
You can close out of the Info dialog box at this point, and that's all there is to it! Photoshop is now set to open all of your JPEG files. I'll double-click once again on my JPEG image in the Finder window:
Opening the same photo again.
And sure enough, instead of opening in the Preview app as it did before, this time the photo opens for me in my latest version of Photoshop:
Photoshop is now my default image editor for JPEG files.
PNG Files
So far, so good. We've set Photoshop as the default app for opening JPEG files. But we still need to set Photoshop as the default app for opening the other file types as well, so let's run through the steps quickly. I'll return to my Finder window, then I'll Control-click on my PNG file ('butterfly.png') and choose Get Info from the menu:
Control-clicking on the PNG file and choosing 'Get Info'.
This opens the Info dialog box where we see that Preview, not Photoshop, is currently set as the default app for opening PNG files:
I'll click on 'Preview.app' and select my latest version of Photoshop from the list. Then, to set Photoshop as the default app for all PNG files, I'll click Change All:
Changing 'Open with' to Photoshop, then clicking 'Change All'.
How To Make An App The Default Macbook
I'll confirm that I want all PNG files to open in Photoshop by clicking Continue:
Then I'll close out of the Info dialog box. And now, when I open my PNG file from my Finder window by double-clicking on its thumbnail, the image opens in Photoshop, as will all PNG files from now on (butterfly design from Adobe Stock):
The PNG file opens in Photoshop. Image credit: Adobe Stock.
TIFF Files
Let's do the same thing for TIFF files. I'll return once again to my Finder window where I'll Control-click on my TIFF image ('portrait.tif'). Then, I'll choose Get Info from the menu:
Control-clicking on the TIFF file and choosing 'Get Info'.
In the Info dialog box, we see that just like with the JPEG and PNG files, Mac OS X is using Preview to open TIFF files. It's possible that your system may have a different app selected so don't worry if it does. All that matters is that we change it to Photoshop:
I'll once again click on 'Preview.app' and select my latest version of Photoshop from the list. Then I'll make the change apply to all TIFF files by clicking Change All:
Changing 'Open with' to Photoshop, then clicking 'Change All', this time for TIFF files.
I'll click Continue to confirm the change:
Then I'll close out of the Info dialog box. And now when I double-click on my TIFF file to open it in the Finder window, we see that it opens automatically in Photoshop (portrait photo from Adobe Stock):
The TIFF file opens in Photoshop. Image credit: Adobe Stock.
How To Make An App The Default Mac Os
PSD Files
Finally, while Mac OS X will usually set Photoshop as the default app for opening PSD files (since PSD is Photoshop’s native file format), it still never hurts to check. Plus, if you have multiple versions of Photoshop installed on your computer, it’s worth making sure that your PSD files will open in the newest version, as we're about to see.
I'll return one last time to my Finder window where I'll Control-click on my PSD file ('performer.psd') and choose Get Info:
Control-clicking on the PSD file and choosing 'Get Info'.
In the Info dialog box, we see that sure enough, Mac OS X is using Photoshop to open PSD files. But, there's a problem. I still have older versions of Photoshop installed on my system, and Mac OS X has chosen one of the older versions, not the newest version. Here we see that it's set to use Photoshop CC 2014, while the newest version (at the time I'm writing this) is CC 2015.5:
Photoshop is set to open PSD files, but it's the wrong version of Photoshop.
I'll click on 'Adobe Photoshop CC 2014.app' and choose the latest version of Photoshop from the list:
Then, as I've done with the other file types, I'll make the change apply to all PSD files by clicking Change All:
Clicking 'Change All'.
I'll click Continue to confirm the change:
Then I'll close out of the Info dialog box. And now when I double-click on my PSD file in the Finder window, it opens automatically in my latest version of Photoshop (performer photo from Adobe Stock):
The PSD file opens in Photoshop. Image credit: Adobe Stock.
Where to go next..
And there we have it! That's how to make Photoshop your default image editor in Mac OS X! If you're also a Windows user, learn how to make Photoshop your default image editor in Windows 10.
In the next lesson in this chapter, we'll learn how to create a new document in Photoshop using the redesigned New Document dialog box!
https://newzilla210.weebly.com/blog/best-mac-art-apps. Or check out any of the other lessons in this chapter:
- 02. Make Photoshop your default image editor in Mac OS X
For more chapters and for our latest tutorials, visit our Photoshop Basics section!
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