Duplicates and non-existent apps in the "Open with" list

My "Open with" list is a mess for nearly all kinds of files. I'm not sure how I could clean this up or edit it. Look at the image below for example. I have some idea about how this happened, but no idea on how to fix it.

That's LaunchServices. These are only cache files but can get corrupted. Launch /Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this at the command line to rebuild LaunchServices: (be sure to copy the entire line it's a scroll)
Code:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Then press return. Wait until terminal returns to the command line. Quit Terminal. After that, log out and back in or restart. Let us know

Similar Messages

How do I remove apps from the "open with" menu in Mountain Lion?

If I right-click a document in Finder, I get a contextual menu offering all of the potential applications with which I might open that document. My problem is that some of those applications are no longer operational and I want them to be removed from the menu. How can I do that?

I'm not sure how the order is determined. Clearly, the first level sort is ascending by application name these days (since Lion, I think), but it seems to be random after that. It's not by version, though that would be convenient.
Also, I notice that on my relatively clean Mountain Lion system I sometimes get duplicate entries in the "open with" list that cannot be explained by duplicate copies of the application. On a text file, I get two each of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Equation Editor, Evernote, and Xcode; none of these is duplicated on this system. I get only one entry each for the Notepad stub application, a few Adobe apps, TextWrangler, Safari, Numbers, Pages, and several others.
Where there are duplicated entries, it doesn't seem to matter which one I select; I get the same instance of the program no matter which I select. I take this to mean that one is an alias for the other.
That's my mystery and not necessarily yours. Are your "unhelpful but working stub applications" also duplicates?

Apps showing up twice in the "Open With" list

I'm having a bit of a weird issue. When I right-click on a file and go to Open With (for example, a Word document, but really it's happening with every file type), every program that can open that file shows up in the list twice, except for the default which shows up three times. I've repaired permissions with Disk Utility twice and run Cocktail, but it's still happening. Has anyone had this happen to them, and if so, how did you fix it?

Yeah it's an annoyance.
Trashing the two "com.apple.LaunchServices-xxxxx.csstore" files (and a restart) should set the Open With menu to it's default
The path is: HD > Library > Caches > "com.apple.LaunchServices-xxxxx.csstore"
Note: the xxxxx's represent numbers and are random so I can't say specifically what numbers you have.
You might need to enter your Admin password to Trash them.

Is there a way to shorten the "Open With" list?

Hi -
This may be a question for Apple because it is a uniquely Apple Finder problem.
Or maybe some clever 3rd party Apple developer will take this on - because this is an Apple Finder problem (hint).
Is there a way to shorten the "Open With" list that appears when I right-click on a file?
Heres why this is important to me.
1- I'm seeing multiple versions of the same app on the list, like Photoshop CS5, Photoshop CS5.1, Photoshop CS 5.5. I can't think of any reason why I would ever want to use an older version of Photoshop. And it's not only Photoshop or even Adobe products.
2- I see incorrect apps being suggested. If I right click on an Illustrator file I see that TextEdit is one of the choices. I get Photoshop as an option to open HTML files. I see BBEdit as an option to open JPEG files. These are bizarre associations. Why are they even on the list?
3- With so many irrelevant choices the possibility of selecting the wrong application increases and doing so is a waste of time and resources. Once I accidentally selected a text editor to open a JPEG. After about 3 minutes of RAM-sucking processing I got a huge file of jibberish text characters that was thousands of lines long. Waste of time!
I KNOW I'm not the only one with this question.
Is there anyone out there with an answer???
Thanks,
JL

baltwo - thank you for the expert advice.
I did as you instructed and the situation is better but I don't believe it's solved.
I still get 3 versions of Photoshop when I right click on a PSD. I also get Dashcode and Textwrangler - which are the oddest associations. All together I get 25 apps responding to "Open With" on a PSD. And this is an improvement.
Do you think I would get even better results if I ran the same command again?
Thanks again.
JL

Pages does not appear in the open with list

when I open a doc from email, dropbox, etc, using my ipad I don t get the option of Pages in the OPEN WITH list
how I resolve that?
thank you

Ok, I found pages on the iCloud drive. But the behavior of Pages is still the same, problem unchanged.

How do we add apps to the 'Open With' contextual menu?

After I updated to Mavericks, all of the apps, except the Apple ones, were blown away (eg. Word and Excel in my VM).
How do I put them back?

'Open With > Other' would not show the apps in my VM. I tried.
I tried something different. I left Word open in my Parallels (Vista) VM and ignored it for a while to see if Maverics would pick it up eventually.
It did.
It seems like that it takes some time for Maverics to find the apps in a VM before we can use it in the 'Open With' menu.

Can I clear the "open with" list

I now have the Adobe suite from 4-CC showing up on my "open with" list and it's annoying to say the least...can I clear it and if so how?

Take a look at this link, https://discussions.apple.com/message/2791046#2791046

Adding entries to the ``Open With'' List

hi, when you right click on a file, there is an option to open the file with an application other than the default application viz. the ``Open With'' option which brings up a list of applications. How do I add an application so that it appears on this list so that I won't have to click on ``Other..'' to find the app? Cheers.
iBook G3 500

Zingg! is one way...
http://www.brockerhoff.net/zingg/index.html
HTH,
~FifthWheel

Duplicate apps in the "Open with-" menu

Hi, I have this small and annoying problem... Randomly, some programs seem to duplicate themselves in my "Open with..." menu.
For example, if I try to open a JPEG, Firefox will show this behavior. Any idea?

Do you have another copy of Firefox floating around on a mounted volume or in the Downloads folder?
I don't think it is Launch Services database problem since all apps are not duplicated.

Old Apps appear in Open With list

After backing up my data to another hard drive, erasing the target hard drive and doing a clean install of Leopard, I see that when I option-click a file, then select Open With, the list of applications include the apps on my backup hard drive in addition to the apps I have installed on my main drive.
I told Spotlight to exclude the backup drive but alas, only after indexing of both drives have finished.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can cure this?
Thanks!

There's a registry entry that has to be changed from the previous version of Photoshop you had installed, presumably CS4. Do a search ("Find" using regedit) on the registry for "Photoshop CS4" (or your previous version, if any). Once you find it, change the entry to "Photoshop CS5" -- making sure that the complete pathway to Photoshop CS5 is accurate (correct it if it is not).

The PDFs from email I need to open then with iBook thebeginning was Ok now the Ebola programs no more show in the open with list

I Need to open PDFs from the mail with iBook or any E book program

Have you tried restarting or resetting your iPad?
Restart: Press On/Off button until the Slide to Power Off slider appears, select Slide to Power Off and, after It shuts down, press the On/Off button until the Apple logo appears.
Reset: Press the Home and On/Off buttons at the same time and hold them until the Apple logo appears (about 10-15 seconds).
No data will be lost.

Paralles and the "open with" menu

Can anyone advise me on how to remove PC applications installed in Parallel
appearing in the "open with" menu within osx.
With most files there is no problem, but using open with in Mail gives a list of
apps and no idea which ones are OSX apps or PC apps.
Thanks in advance

I was under the impression that one reason to use Parallels rather than bootcamp was precisely for that reason, that one can run apps in both systems at the same time.
If a file can be opened with either XP or Leopard apps, then it seems to me both should show up in the "open with" list since they are both available.
With Parallels, XP is just one more app running in Leopard, AFAIK.
If you can exclude Parallels from SpotLight search and then rebuild the data base it might work.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Xcode appears multiple times in the "Open With ..." list

This little problem has been bothering me for a while now.
Whenever I right-click a source code file (c, java but also sh) in the Finder and select the "Open With ..." option, I am presented with a list of possible applications. The first one (default) is Xcode. Then I see a list of alternatives that includes a text editor I use and ... 4 times Xcode again.
I have been faithfully upgrading Xcode whenever the app store offers me to - probably 4 times since I installed it. It looks like each installation just adds one more Xcode option to the list.
Has anyone seen this ?
Is there a way to remove the extraneous items from the "Open With" list ?
Is there a way to customize that list ?
Thanks
Albert

The simplest way to correct Open With list redundancy is to reboot into safe mode, and let the OS clean out the duplicates. After the screen goes dark on a reboot, press and hold the shift key until a grey progress bar appears.
Eventually, you will be brought to a linen background and login box. Enter your credentials, but before you click the right arrow next to the password, press and hold shift again. After you are logged in, reboot the computer again.
The redundant menu items are gone.
I have deliberately not posted the lengthy, arcane, command line sequence that rebuilds the Open With database. It is much simpler to use the above technique for all user levels and it does the same thing.
You do not need to customize the list. If an application is capable of opening a specific file, you can press both option+command while dragging and dropping the file onto the desired application you want to open it. If the application can, it will, otherwise it will not.

Can you add apps to iPad open in list

Can you add apps to the open in list of an iPad

As far as I know, you cannot add apps to the Open In list using any setting or built in feature in iOS. This is controlled by the iOS itself. IIRC, you can delete apps from the iPad that appear in the Open In list in order to make room for apps that you would like to appear in there, and if you continue to use the apps that you want to add to that list, eventually they will appear in the list. I believe that the more that you use one particular app, the more likely it will be for it to appear in the Open In list.

Unwanted Firefox entry in the Open With Windows Explorer menu

Open Windows Explorer and right-click various file types. You'll see there's a submenu called "Open with" that allows you to choose a particular application. Firefox is listed for numerous file types it can't actually handle, like RAR and MKV.
Does anyone know why? I've never attempted to open those file types with Firefox, though I did download such files with Firefox. I can't find any bug reports about this, and the above seems like too little information to file a report.
I'm not the only one with this issue:
* http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2870531

After cleaning the registry manually, I haven't been able to trigger this.
* I now have RAR under Options → Applications again after downloading a file of that type. The respective file type doesn't have Firefox under the "Open with" menu in Windows Explorer.
* I set Firefox as the default browser when installing. Then I set Internet Explorer as the default using the Control Panel, then Firefox again when prompted at startup. Since it's one of the few times Firefox interacts with the registry, I thought it might trigger the issue — it didn't.
Since I can't recreate this, I think we can consider it a rare occurrence and forget about it. Thank you all for replying.
''the-edmeister wrote:''
There's something screwed up in Firefox 31 and 32 with regards to Firefox messing with Windows OS File Associations […]
Being Sunday, I'm too lazy to search for the relevant Bug report.
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1049521 Bug 1049521] - Be less aggressive about non-primary file type associations in Firefox on Windows
That's the bug report about Firefox inadvertently stealing the file association for PDFs. That didn't happen on my system. I also don't see how this could be related. The PDF association is set on install, and reinstalling Firefox didn't change the "Open with" list for the previously affected file types.
Then again, the patch on bug 1049521 touches the ''OpenWithList'' registry keys, which is what I manually cleaned up. It also handles more than PDFs: I spotted media file types like OG? and WEBM, but not MKV or any of the previously affected file types on my system.
''FredMcD wrote:''
Me thinks me smells a virus at work.
The system is clean.

Duplicates and non-existent apps in the "Open with" list

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for