Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

I have installed an application that is associated with a particular file type. When I double click a file of that type in Finder, the application starts, but does not open the file that was clicked. If, within the application, I use “File » Open…” to open the same file, it opens it just fine. At first I thought this was the fault of the application (Simple Comic); however, I have installed an alternative application (Sequential 2) and the behaviour is the same: when double-clicking the file from Finder, the application starts up, but fails to load the file. However files are being opened just fine if I use the “File » Open” dialog.

Both applications are distributed as app bundles (i.e. no installer) and I have placed them into the /Applications folder manually.

I suspect this is a generic OS X issue, that I am not aware of, and is not related to the particular application.

share|improve this question
What happens with .txt or .rtf files do they open in TextEdit correctly? If so then I think you have unluckily found two bad programs – Mark Oct 28 '12 at 12:09
Thanks for the comment Terry. All other applications seem to work fine, however I have searched a bit more on the internet and found others having the very same problem sometimes with Adobe Acrobat or even Photoshop. So I think this is not a problem of bad application (many people use Simple Comic without any problems), but of the particular configuration (settings) on my OSX. – Denis Oct 28 '12 at 12:16
Have you considered useing RCDefaultApp by rubicode to manually check if that application is taking control of the extensions and types . – neeks Oct 31 '12 at 8:52
I would recommend creating a test user account on your Mac and attempting the same task in that account. I have seen apps coded using non-native Apple tools that have trouble opening files passed to it by the file system, so it is certainly possible it is these apps. – bispymusic Mar 13 at 2:17
If you are still experiencing this, please edit some more details or flag this for review. Thanks! – bmike♦ Apr 12 at 19:10
show 1 more comment

closed as too localized by bmike♦ Apr 12 at 19:10

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.