![]() ![]() This makes sense, as it’s QuickLook which is responsible for using the UTI to work out whether to display a document-specific icon or a QuickLook thumbnail. This used to be handled by LaunchServices, but now appears to be the responsibility of the QuickLookUIHelper app in the Quartz framework in macOS. The Finder identifies the document which the user wishes to open, and passes that for its UTI to be resolved. Given as time in seconds and the message in the log. However, if you do try to follow it, the landmarks to look for are given in this summary.ĭouble-clicking doesn’t normally appear in regular log entries, but as activities: In Catalina, much of the process of opening a document from a double-click is omitted from the unified log. That’s a drastic solution which shouldn’t be used lightly, and sometimes causes even more trouble. If all else fails, you can reset the LaunchServices database usingįollowing which you’ll need to restart and wait for it to be rebuilt. Thanks to Jeff Johnson for pointing this out. To register the preferred copy at pathname2. You may be able to fix that by first using lsregister from the path /System/Library/Frameworks/amework/Versions/A/Frameworks/amework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister to dissociate an app version stored at pathname in One more common issue that can arise is that LaunchServices opens the right type of app, but the wrong version, when you have multiple versions stored on the same Mac. In Classic Mac OS, you then had to force the Desktop database to be rebuilt from scratch, which restored normal function.Īlthough the LaunchServices databases do sometimes become damaged, this is now unusual, and you should never have to force them to be rebuilt in recent versions of macOS. One easy way to tell they were getting into trouble was when custom icons were replaced by generic versions, something which still occasionally happens even in Catalina. The Desktop databases in Classic Mac OS periodically used to become corrupted. If you strip those extended attributes from documents, they will all revert to being opened by the default editor for that UTI. That contains the app identifier, its path, and any specific version to be used. Setting a single document to be opened by a different app adds an extended attribute of type to that document. You can change that default in the Finder’s Get Info dialog, and set any individual document to be opened by a different app if you wish. For each UTI, one app is designated as the default to open documents of that kind for PDF, that’s normally Preview. These match each app against the UTIs which they can open and edit. When that app is installed on your Mac, its ist file is checked and information extracted and added to what are commonly known as LaunchServices databases. The other key piece of information is of course that app’s bundle identifier, the reverse-URL name used to identify the app, such as co.eclecticlight.Podofyllin for my PDF viewer Podofyllin. Because that’s one of the key files sealed when the app is signed, you can’t alter that. ![]() These specify the OS type, extensions, and UTI of each type of document, and are baked into the app’s ist file. When developers build apps, among the many things they include is a list of document types which that app can open and/or edit. You can explore UTIs and other types of identifier using my free tool UTI Utility. If the file has the wrong UTI – for instance, if you change its extension from pdf to text – the system will try to open it with the wrong app. There’s even an old Classic file type associated, 'PDF '. The system also matches that with a MIME type, often used by servers to designate the type of content, here application/pdf. ![]() The overriding way in which this is set is using the filename extension, in this case pdf. For a PDF document, for example, the UTI is. Amazingly, macOS 10.15 Catalina still incorporates support for those old type and creator codes, but has moved on to more sophisticated systems centred on LaunchServices.Įssentially similar processes occur when you open a document using other methods provided by the Finder, including its Open command, which are acted upon by LaunchServices and related sub-systems.Įvery file system object on your Mac, including all its documents and other files, has a designated UTI (Uniform Type Identifier), which looks something like a URL. In Classic days, this was implemented by assigning each file a type and creator code, which then related through a hidden Desktop database to the app which would open files of that type. One of the most revolutionary and magical features of the Mac human interface is that you can double-click on any document and it will automagically be opened in the app currently designated as your editor for that file.
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