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?
Open the Mail app. Choose Mail Preferences, then click General. Choose an email app from the ”Default email reader” menu. You may be prompted to add an email account before you can change the setting in Mail. If you don't want to do that, check the preferences of the other email app. You may be able to set a default email app from there. MacOS comes with a plethora of useful pre-installed apps, all of which make the Mac ready to go as soon as you take it out of the box. But you don't have to use these programs if you don't want to. It’s really easy to change the default application a type of file opens in. Just click on one of the files and choose File Get Info from the main menu or use the Cmd+I keyboard shortcut. You can also right-click, Ctrl-click, or two-finger clicking the file and select “Get Info”. Once that dialog shows up, you can head down the “Open With” section, change it to the application you’d prefer, and then click “Change All”.
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
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. 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.
Macos Change Default App For Text
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The Mac default apps that come with your new Mac are great for everyday functionality. They fulfill their core purpose elegantly and simply. But when it comes to preferences to adjust and knobs to twist, Mac default apps have never been the best choice. That void is filled by third-party app makers, who include more customizable options in their own apps.
There are also apps out there that awful major upgrades from Mac default app functionality. Take Mail.app, for example: a truly broken email application that doesn’t seem to get any better. There are far better options out there on the Mac App Store, which you should definitely explore.
Once you’ve found a better default application, what do you do with the old app? It will keep popping up on contextual links and actions until you tell it to stop. Change your Mac default apps for email and everything else by following the instructions below.
Change Your Mac Default Apps: Mail
1. Open Mail.app from your Applications folder.
2. In the menu bar, choose Mail > Preferences or press Command + , as a shortcut.
3. Pick your preferred email application from the drop-down menu next to “Default email reader” at the top of the window.
If you see some non-email applications in there, just ignore them. Applications can sometimes be overly broad with their file type associates, leading to things like iTerm showing as email apps. Don’t select those: they just won’t work.
Change Your Mac Default Apps: Calendar
1. Open Calendar.app from the Applications menu.
2. In the menu bar, choose Calendar > Preferences or press Command + , as a shortcut.
3. Select your preferred calendar application from the “Default calendar app” drop-down at the top of the window.
Change Your Mac Default Apps: Web Browser
Change your Mac’s default web browser in the General pane of System Preferences.
In the General pane, click the drop-down menu next to “Default web browser” and choose your desired default browser.
Again, some non-browser applications might pop up. Make sure not to select something like Evernote.
Setting Chrome as your Default Browser
Chrome can also set itself as the default web browser from within the browser.
Change Default App Macos Installer
1. In the menu bar, click Google Chrome > Preferences.
2. Under the “Default browser” section, click “Make Default” on the right.
3. Click “Use ‘Chrome’” in the macOS dialog box to confirm.
Setting Firefox as your Default Browser
Firefox can also adjust your Mac’s default web browser from within the app.
Change Default App Macos High Sierra
1. Click Firefox > Preferences in the menu bar.
2. In the Startup section of the General preference tab, click the “Make Default…” button.
3. Click the “Use ‘Firefox’” button in the macOS dialog box to confirm your change.
Change Your Mac Default Apps: Image Viewer
The default image viewer on your Mac is Preview. It’s a totally acceptable application for viewing files, but it has limited editing capability. If you want to adjust your image files, you might set a photo editor as your default image viewer application instead of Preview. This is the same process for changing default apps for any other file type, as seen below.
1. Default application associations are sorted on a file extension basis. Each file extension has its own default application. Find an image file with a common image extension to change the default image viewer application for all files of that type. The most common image extensions are .jpg, .gif, and .png.
2. Right-click on the image and select “Get Info.”
3. Find the Open With section of the Get Info window, towards the middle.
4. Click the Open With drop-down menu. Select the app you want to use as your image viewer.
If you don’t see the app you want, click “Other…” at the bottom of the menu.
6. At this point, the change only applies to this individual file. To propagate the change to all images with that same extension, click the “Change All …” button below the Open With drop-down.
This change will apply to all JPG files on this Mac. Preferences for other image types, like PNG and GIF, will need to be set separately. While this might be time-consuming, it does allow a greater degree of flexibility. You might not want to open an animated GIF, for example, with the same program you use to edit photos.
Change Default Mail App Macos
Change Your Mac Default App for All Other File Types
Other files don’t always open with the application you prefer. Take HTML files, which open in your Mac’s default web browser. That’s not so useful for web developers, so you can change the default application to your preferred text editor instead.
1. Find the file you want to change and right-click it to choose the “Get Info” option.
2. Go to the Open With section in the Get Info window and choose the application you want to open this file type.
3. Click “Change All …” to apply the change to all files that share that extension.
Conclusion
If you’re not seeing the apps you expect in the Open With dialog, or apps are appearing multiple times, you might need to manually edit the file type associations by customizing the macOS context menu.
Apart from the changes on the list, there’s not much you can change using the system dialogs. But there are other ways to adjust Mac default apps. Some application, like Path Finder, provide a way to suppress macOS’s built-in Finder and replace it with its own functionality. That’s a rare option, but it does exist. If you find a system replacement app, you should look for it. You might be able to wiggle around your Mac default apps for app types not listed here.
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