How to Change Default Apps in macOS Sierra – macOS Sierra, the most recent cycle of Apple’s desktop operating systems comes stacked with a plenty of stock applications. Applications that can perform a variety of functions on your Mac, and do them well. However, not each stock Mac application is the best, and you might need to change the default application for various reasons, such as getting extra functionality, faster loading times, and more. So, if you want to switch from using the default Mac apps (such as the default Mail client), here is the means by which to change default applications in macOS Sierra:
[ad type=”banner”]Change Default Apps on Mac:
Generally, the default Mac applications function admirably enough. In any case, you might need to utilize an outsider application, which gives additional usefulness, or just works better for you. The technique for changing default applications in macOS Sierra is the same for almost every file type that you use. For the purpose of illustration, I will change the default app for opening Images (Preview) to GIMP. Here’s how to do it:
- Firstselect an imagefile in Finder, and then press “command + I “. You can also right click on the file, and click on “Get Info“.
- This will open up the Info dialog box for the file. Under “Open with“, click on the dropdown menu, andselect the applicationyou want to use. I’m choosing GIMP.
- Once done, click on “Change All” to ensure that every file of the same file type opens up in GIMP.
Now, you can close the Info dialog box, and whenever you double click on a JPG file, it will open up in GIMP, by default.
Note: This technique only changes the default application for files of the filetype you’ve changed. If you used this technique on a JPG file, all JPG files will open in GIMP, but PNGs, GIFs, etc will continue opening in Preview. You will have to repeat this process for every file type that you want to change the default application for.
You can utilize this technique on any file. So, if you want to open PDFs in a third party PDF app for Mac, such as PDF Expert (download), instead of Preview. You can take after this strategy, by clicking on any PDF file, and changing the default app it opens with. All PDF documents will open in PDF Expert after that.
Change Default Web Browser in macOS Sierra:
While the strategy said above works impeccably fine for documents that you have on your Mac, what about changing your default web browser? Most people don’t like Safari, at least not as much as they’d prefer using Google Chrome. So, if you downloaded Google Chrome, and need to set it as your default web program on Mac, here is the way you can do it:
- LaunchSystem Preferences, and go to “General“.
- Here, you will find an option for “Default Web Browser “. Just click on the dropdown menu, and select “Google Chrome” (or the browser you want to use).
You can now quit System Preferences, and the default web browser on your Mac will be switched to Google Chrome (or the app you selected).
Change Default Email Client in macOS Sierra
While the default Mail app on a Mac has been very improved in macOS Sierra, chances are, you quiet have a preferred third party email app that you’ve been using for quite some time. However, changing the default email client on a Mac is not as straightforward as changing the default image viewer, or even changing the default web browser is. If you need to change the default email client in macOS Sierra, you can just follow the steps below:
- Launch the Mail appon your Mac, and press “command + ,“. You can also go to “Mail -> Preferences“.
- In the Preferences window, under the “General” tab, change the “Default email reader” to your preferred application. I’m using Spark.
Easily Change Default Apps in macOS Sierra
With these methods, you can easily change the default apps on Mac to any third party app that you prefer using. Changing default apps in macOS Sierra can help you automatically open files, and documents in the app of your choice. There are a number of third party apps for Mac, that are very powerful.