How to Set Default Apps on Your Mac

  Matt Cone       November 8, 2021      Tutorials Mac Apps

Your Mac has a default application that it uses to open all files of a certain type (like images and Markdown files), and it remembers to use that application every time you open one of those files. For example, your Mac uses the Preview application to open files with the .png extension. If you’d like to change the default application for a file type, you’re in luck — your Mac provides a quick and easy way to change the default application for a file type.

Here’s how to change the default application on your Mac for a certain file type:

1. In the Finder, locate a file with the extension type you’d like to change the default application for. For example, if you’d like to change the default application for files with the .png extension, find a PNG image file.

2. Click on the file once, then select Get Info from the File menu.

3. In the the Open with section of the window, select another application from the menu, as shown below.

   

4. To set the application as the default for all files of this type, click the Change All button.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully changed the default application for files of that type on your Mac. Now when you double click files like that in the future, your Mac will open them using the default application you specified.

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