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How do you remove the default open with application for a file extension? Not change it but remove it so when I try to open it a popup says "There is no application set to open the document “file.blabla”.

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  • Why would you want to do that?
    – lhf
    Dec 20, 2018 at 10:45
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    @lhf because sometimes the application associated with the file is changed to something that was not the default system association and you lose the system associated functionality.
    – Mike Kormendy
    Jan 2, 2020 at 15:51

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Use RCDefaultApp. With it, you can set the file association to <disabled>
Another option is to use the command line and lsregister. lsregister is located in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/ To see all the available commands, run /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister. See this article for more information.

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    I know that, but I want to be able to remove the association, not change it.
    – stas
    Apr 3, 2012 at 17:59
  • @stas Sorry! Updated my answer.
    – daviesgeek
    Apr 3, 2012 at 18:01
  • Thanks but would you happen to know how to do this with the command line? If you don't I'll just use the app.
    – stas
    Apr 3, 2012 at 18:03
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    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -u /Applications/Foo.app && killall Finder
    – Manav
    Mar 24, 2018 at 16:09
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    I had an app that wasn't in Applications so to find the path to the .app I used /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -apps local -dump | grep AppName
    – Joe Niland
    Sep 24, 2019 at 2:35
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@Manav proposes in a comment a straightforward and non intrusive way which worked perfectly for me, and I think should be an answer. In a terminal window, run:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -u /Applications/Foo.app && killall Finder

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    Yes if you want to remove ALL of the associations for an app. But not if you want to choose which extensions to reset that were associated with that app.
    – Mike Kormendy
    Jan 2, 2020 at 15:48
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All you need to do is right click on the file that you want to open, click "get info" (in the dropdown list) then click "Open with"

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After that, select the application you want to open it up with, and select "Change all"

enter image description here

Hope this helps!

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    This replaces the default file association, not removes.
    – XPMai
    Nov 17, 2020 at 13:12

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