Changing Open With Default App Won't Stick...

I have a couple of versions of the same app installed and I need the older version of the app to be the default app that globally opens whenever I double-click one of its files.
I've tried the Get Info -> Open With -> Select App ->Change All procedure but after clicking the Change All button, it immediately reverts back to the newer version of the application.
I need to be able to support both versions of the app. I've tried downloading RCDefaultApp but that didn't help. Moving the newer version app to another partition is not option. Re-installing the newer version of the app onto another partition is not an option either.
I would be grateful for any suggestions
Thanks,
Jon
Message was edited by: Jon Morgan1

The two Get Info options seem to use different methods to select the application. The 'Open with:' changes the Finder's default application property, but it looks like the 'Change All…' button uses the file type identifier to find the default application. Since the file type identifier is usually the same for all versions, the latest version is apparently the one that gets used. You should be able to select the older version on a file-by-file basis, or use the file inspector to change multiple documents. An AppleScript could also be used, perhaps a folder action to change the default application for files dropped into a folder.

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How to change "open with" defaults via command line?!?

folks,
i know that if i get info on a file -- in this case, a filemaker 5.5 file -- i can choose the default "open with" settings and apply those settings to all files of that kind. see the attached image for what i mean.
but how do i do that via the command line?
thus far, here's what i've got: i know that i can open a document called "scrubbing shell.sh" on my desktop WITH either MS Word of TextEdit by calling:
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or
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no sweat. BUT....how do i set the defaults so that it ALWAYS opens with that app in the future when double-clicking via the GUI?
many thanks, ya'll!
david koff
associate systems admin
the j. paul getty trust
dkoff AT getty DOT edu

Hi David,
   OK, I investigated the new format and treatment. It appears that the first entry in the property list file that matches the file being opened wins. The Finder may still honor the new format; when I moved my old Panther file into Tiger it seemed to work. However, in other ways, the Finder doesn't recognize the old format, which is the format of the FileMaker entries you posted.
   The Finder puts all of the new format entries at the beginning of the property list file. If you change a preference that was controlled by an old format entry, the Finder won't edit that entry. What it will do is to create a new entry in the new format closer to the beginning of the file than any of the old-format entries. SInce the new entry comes first, the old one doesn't apply. If you then edit the preference and change it back to what it was before, the Finder will edit the new entry. Consider the following sequence of events and commands:
% cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices_copy.plist
I change all GIF files to be opened by GraphicConverter instead of Preview, which is an old setting in the old format.
% plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
% diff --text ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices_copy.plist
404,409d403
<      <dict>
<         <key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
<         <string>com.compuserve.gif</string>
<         <key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
<         <string>com.lemkesoft.graphicconverter</string>
<      </dict>
Then I change all the GIF files to be opened by Preview again.
% plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
% cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices_copy2.plist
% diff --text ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices_copy.plist
404,409d403
<       <dict>
<          <key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
<          <string>com.compuserve.gif</string>
<          <key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
<          <string>com.apple.preview</string>
<       </dict>
% diff --text ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices_copy2.plist
408c408
<          <string>com.apple.preview</string>
          <string>com.lemkesoft.graphicconverter</string>
   Note that I had to change the file to text after every change because the Finder converted the file to binary format every time it edited it. I didn't have to logout or reboot; the property list file change less than a second after the preference was set. I'm guessing that because you were just looking at the old-format entry, you missed the real changes to your property list file. Did it change from text to binary format? Try the command line tools that I used above.
   Note that this means that it matters where you put your entries in the property list file if you edit it.
Gary
~~~~
   There are only 10 kinds of people in the world. Those
   who understand binary numbers and those who don't.

How to change "Open With" default

When one has, say, a .tiff image stored in the Documents folder how does one change the "open with" default? For instance, if Photoshop is given as the default, how does one change this to Preview?

HI,
Right or control click the file, then click Get Info. Click the Open With discovery triangle and select the application you want to open that file with. You may have to click Other and navigate to the Applications folder to select the app, ie., Preview.
http://www.ehow.com/how4548206quick-change-files-default-application.html
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Simple Question-How to change open with default

This should be a simple thing to do but the system preferences don't allow me to change it. I want to open jpegs with Preview and Photoshop is the default.
Besides,the system preferences is pretty lame to me. Very basic stuff. Can anyone help me with this?
Can I be notified by email? [email protected] Thanks!
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Filevault doesn't remember "open with" default app

Hi All,
I just wanted to start a new thread as this topic seems to be outrageously stupid and still NOT FIXED!
Related thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1781001&tstart=15
Basically if you want to use filevault to encrypt HD then when you restart the mac then your "open with" application gets lost.
Can someone from Apple please comment on this and tell me if this is a registered bug!?
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jt2009 wrote:
thanks V.K. I have road tested it for a few days and it is working.
Still doesn't let apple off the hook though! How do I report bugs?
you can file a bug report but this is an old and a known bug so it's sure to be in the system already
https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/RadarWeb.woa/wa/signIn

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Sherbowe
Just saw your post and wanted to leave a just in case note.
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Hi @reddog2,
I would contact HP Cloud Services for assistance. Call 1-855-785-2777.
Have a nice day!
Thank You.
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!
Gemini02
I work on behalf of HP

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Hello all...
I'm new to scripting but need a script really quickly...
I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find a script that will change the default "Open with" of audio files placed within a certain folder on my desktop...
I'm making sound clips with WireTap and dumping them in a folder called WireTapExports as .mp3. I then need to play them without using iTunes (and importing them by default) but going into the "Get Info" and manualy changing the "Open With" settings for each file is taking ages...and it's very irratating...
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Setting default Office apps won't stick

I'm trying to make MS Office X the default for my appilcations, but it keeps reverting to MS Office 2004. (I'm running 10.8.6 on a Mac Pro.)
I've had "2004" on my drive for many years and "X" for 2-3 years. I've pretty much continued to use 2004 because it's working okay and I haven't had time for something to go wrong. Now I'm trying to make X the default for Word and Excel (I never use Power Point, and I don't want to mess with Entourage right now), but I can't get it to "stick."
I tried all the usual things, and then started digging around. I realized that my System Preferences showed a plugin called "RCDefaultAPP" that I must have installed at some point. I did a search ofmy drive but couldn't find anything by that name. At this site: http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/ I found this about removing the plugin: "Drag RCDefaultApp.prefPane to the trash. Any changed LaunchServices settings remain changed, though "disabled" settings will no longer be disabled." I understand the first sentence, but I have no idea what the second sentence means. So I trashed the icon from my Preferencs Pane, ran "Repair Disk Permissions" just to play it safe, and rebooted. I'm still not getting any further.
I begin by quitting any version of Word that's open. When I open the "Get Info" windwo from a Word document (or right click on a document and choose "Open With"), it shows the icon for 2004 and says "Microsoft Word (default) (090513)." Under that, as always, it says "Use this application to open all documents like this one." From there I choose "Microsoft Word (10.0.0)" and it shows the new icon. If I close the window and launch the document, it launches "X" as expected. However, if I open another document--whether or not "X" is already open--it launches "2004." I can do this manually with any document and that document will launch "X."
So, I go back into the "Get info" window and choose "Microsoft Word (10.0.0)" again. This time, however, I click the "Change All" button. As soon as I do this, the icon reverts from "X" to "2004." It just won't stick. The same is true of Excel.
I haven't messed with any other documents or apps because I'm afraid I'll just mess something up. I've looked up "discussions" in both the Apple community and MS community....I've Googled. I don't see any other discussions about this other than the steps I've just described. I don't know what else to try.
Thoughts? Help?

Launch Services can get "temperamental" at times. For a case like you describe, if it insists of defaulting to app A when you want app B, compress app A (say as a zip file). This basically tells Launch Services "screw you - now try to find A".
So compress your Word 2004 app. The tell LS to use the newer Word. Even if it doesn't stick I think LS wil find the newer Word since none other can be found for word documents.
To compress a file, right (control) click on the file in the finder to being up its contextual menu and select Compress. A .zip file will be created. You can then trash the uncompressed original. But before you empty the trash double click the zip to recreate the expanded file and run it just to make sure the zip file was valid (this is a paranoid step). If it launches ok trash the expanded file and now you can empty the trash.

Who do "open with" defaults change after rebooting??

All,
I tried to launch this question in different words before but somehow never got a reply.
I know in "get info" you can supposedly change the default with "open with ---> change all".
Supposedly.............it works, until you reboot.
I want NOT to use preview to look at pictures because I do not like the fact that you can`t work with the arrow "next / last" or with the keyboard arrows.
Now people already explained to me how to select all pics in preview etc, but that´s too complicated for just looking at a few picture quickly. Also it´s not my question.............
My question is: how do I change my default picture viewer for good??
I tried it the windows way............right click on a picture, open with and tick the box "always open with" at the bottom but that don´t work either, I´m afraid.
I spent 2 hours trying............I even deleted Preview from "programs" but this defaults to a picture adjustment program..........still not what I want.
I like Xee, went into preferences of "Xee", ticked the files that it has to open, it works fine............until I reboot. Am I the only one in the world that struglles with this??
Please Apple-gurus...........help me!!
Surely Leopard hasn´t got this error?? Why bother with an "open always" button if it gets reset as soon as I happen to switch off my Macbook Pro??????
Does Snow Leopard change this perhaps??
Cheers,
Not a Clue.

Well, not exactly. You said you tried using Open With, but that could have been from the contextual menu as opposed to using Get Info. I interpreted the former from your post.
If they are not permanently changed it could be for a variety of reasons. One is the filetypes/extensions are not similar. For example changing the default for a .doc file is not the same as changing the default for a .docx file. Also changing the default for a document without an extension isn't likely to work. To work properly the document file must have the normal extensions assigned by the default application that opens that file.
Another possibility is a problem with the LaunchServices database. You can try resetting it as follows:
Rebuild LaunchServices Database
For Tiger users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServic es.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.
For Leopard users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.
And, if you haven't done so already I would suggest the precautionary:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Open With default Application in Bridge

When I double click a "RW2" file in Bridge my Photomatix application opens the file. Nowhere in the file associations do I see Photomatix or the "RW2" file format for that matter. I reset to default associations - still no joy. The only app showing in the "Open With" pull down in Bridge is "Photomatix (default)". How so I change this default to PS4?

To my knowledge RW2 is the Raw format for Panasonic ?
The file type association in Bridge prefs should be found under Panasonic.
In your situation it might show Photomatix. (mind you that Photomatix claims
to rather not convert Raw files in their own app because they have no good
converter for that and they are better in working with tiff). See if you
have the option to change this to CS4.
If not you will have to look in the supported Raw formats for your ACR
converter to see if your camera model is supported in the list for the ACR
plug in for CS4:
Try this link (otherwise find it with a search on the Adobe.com site):
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html
Mind that this is already the ACR 6 version that will only work with CS5.
Scroll down for the latest version for CS4 which should be ACR 5.7
Check your version in PSCS4: go to the menu Photoshop / about plug ins /
Camera Raw, This should show only one plug in with version 5.7
Also try to convert the files to DNG using Adobe's free DNG converter. DNG
files have much benefit and work also with older ACR and PS versions:
http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/
Problem is BTW longstanding, every vendor uses his own Camera Raw format and
to makes things worse, they also make a slightly different format for almost
every new type of camera they put on the market.
Adobe kindly delivers about 3 to 4 times a year a free new update for ACR
and DNG with support for most of those cameras.
It is best to first check compatibility with new cameras and third party
software. If you want to work with Raw files you better wait until support
is there or you have to use the vendor software (not always that nice to
work with)
The only app showing in the "Open With" pull down in Bridge is "Photomatix
(default)". How so I change this default to PS4?

Change Open With for all files with a specific extension

Hi, I've been using OS X for quite some time, but more recently cannot see how you do the following which is proving frustrating:
* Open Get Info for a file,
* Use the drop down under Open With to choose Other,
* Select an appropriate application that wasn't on the drop down list (in this case Smultron text editor for CSV files),
* Press the Change All button and the drop down turns back to Excel which was the previous default.
So basically, how do I change all files with CSV extension to Smultron when Smultron wasn't in the list of Open With items and I have to use Other from the list. This is repeatable for any file type with any application that isn't listed and is on both my iMac and my work's MacBook. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean!!
Thanks

Stuart Mchattie wrote:
Thanks NeroWolf,
Your solution does work for that single file, but doesn't change the system wide association of that file extension with a particular application. It is because this works that I believe the problem I am having is uncircumventable and is in fact a bug in the OS. Could anyone else confirm this?
Cheers,
Stuart
It might be a bug. What I found is that the icon does not change unless I log out/in or reboot, even when the app normally puts an icon on the file.
For example if I change an audio file to always open with VLC, it does even though the icon remains as before. However, even though clicking plays the audio with VLC, if I right click the file and select "Open With" it still says iTunes (app) default which is incorrect.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Can't change "Open with" for multiple files

For some reason, all swfs on my computer won't open in the Flash player that came with Flash 9. If I select 1 swf and set it to open with the player, it will work, however, if I select multiple ones, get info and try to set them all to open in the player (or "Change All") I get a dialogue saying I don't "have privileges to change the application for these documents only. Do you want to change all similar documents to open with the application Flash Player.app?" This is rediculous because I could so this in Tiger just fine. Also, I'm the admin and i'm in MY account, so I should be able to do anything I want, right?
Any insights? I've repaired disk permissions by the way.
Dan P.

This is sometimes a problem with the launchservices database. You can try the following to fix it:
Rebuild LaunchServices Database
For Tiger users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServic es.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.
For Leopard users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.
If this isn't successful then there may be other problems involved. You can try this:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
You can install the freeware preference pane, RCDefaultApp - VersionTracker or MacUpdate - which is useful for extensive control over various file associations.

Changing Open With Default App Won't Stick...

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