How to set default apps on macOS

Maybe you don’t spend much time thinking about the default apps you’ve set up in macOS until suddenly they’re set up the wrong way – and you discover that, say, the app that appears when you click on an image file isn’t the one you want. want to use.

Out of the box, your Mac will use Apple’s own tools for most tasks: click a web link in Mail and you’ll see Safari, for example, or double-click an image you’ve downloaded to your system and Photos will appear. However, you may want to use different applications, or perhaps a newly installed application has decided to become the default and you want to undo the change (web browsers often do this, asking to become the default when they are first launched ) .

Therefore, it is useful to know how to set default applications yourself. We’ll cover setting the default apps for specific file types and setting the default browser and email app (which is a slightly different process).

To set the default app for a specific file type on macOS, first use the Finder to find a file in that format:

There is another way to do this that you can use if you prefer.

Email applications and web browsers handle links rather than files, so they are configured differently. One scenario where your default email app comes into play is when you follow a “send me an email” or “contact me” link on a website.

The change is applied instantly and the next time you follow a web link (or double-click an HTML file stored on your system), your chosen browser will appear.

Keep in mind that browsers can also handle a variety of file types, including PDF documents and popular image formats, so you can also implement them as basic file viewers if you want.