The "always open with…" option doesn't work!

The LaunchServices database probably needs to be rebuilt. Download the Snow Leopard version of OnyX. Close all other applications. Launch OnyX and choose the Maintenance heading, then the Rebuild tab. Check the box for Launch Services, all others off. Click Execute. If it doesn't tell you to restart the Mac afterwards, do so.

OS X will be forced to create a new LaunchServices database when it restarts. From there, try setting your "Always open with" option again.

This could then just be a permissions error. Open Disk Utility and do a Repair Permissions. This function does not attempt to do any permissions checking of any user account. So if it is a permissions problem, but has something to do with your account, then nothing will change.

So, after running Repair Permissions, and there's no change, create a new user account and see if the issue repeats there. If it does, I would reinstall the OS and reapply any available updates. If the new account behaves correctly, then there's no need to reinstall the OS as the problem is confined to something in your account.

select any file with a png extension.
perform a get info.
select the application to open the file.
check the always use this application... box.

Sometimes, and for no apparent reason I have been able to find, you may have to do this a second time on a different file with the same extension.

That has always worked for me.

I want to open a few select files with a non-default application (now that the creation code is not used.)...If I work on the file and make/save any changes, it reverts to the default app.

Aha! Okay, I don't think any of us were getting that in the initial posts. You are correct. Snow Leopard no longer uses Type and Creator codes by default, but they are still there. Various things are keeping you from doing what you want.

1) Newer programs that do not use Type and Creator codes at all still need a way to tell the OS what files belong to them. Since at least back as far as Leopard (likely earlier), the system now uses Uniform Type Identifiers. As far as keeping track of what files belong to what applications, they serve the same purpose as Type and Creator codes. So when you save changes, it will indeed revert back to the default app since the file once again gets saved with that program's UTI data.

2) Some programs use both UTI and Type and Creator codes. Usually older apps that have come from PPC code. I would guess that would be either because the developer doesn't want to waste time removing the code that adds the Type and Creator codes to the files, or more likely, to make sure files passed to other users still on older Macs that don't use UTI won't have trouble opening them.

3) I use some much older apps which have still not been rewritten at all for Intel Macs and are still all PPC code. They still write Type and Creator codes.

You may want to make an Automator workflow as a Service that will open whatever file you select in a specific program. Thus, I want my html files to remain as files that open in Safari when I double click them, but I also want to easily open them in TextEdit for manual editing. So I made a Service with Automator and called it "OpenTE"--now whenever I control click (actually right click with my Wacom mouse) on a file, down at the bottom of the Contextual Menu is the service to open the file in TextEdit. Select it and I'm in business. It's not quite as fast as a double click, but right click, slide to bottom of list and click, is still pretty speedy.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Thanks, buddy. I've been trawling forums trying to find why I could not assign a new application to my MPEGs other than Apple's ridiculous Quicktime Player (what kind of ludicrous OS forces a user to open all videos through a player which only supports its own native file extension anyway?!).

Your solution was right on the mark. I'm just glad I scrolled past all the typical "I'd reinstall the OS if I were you" bollocks that seems to plague the first few replies of every forum in existence since the dawn of the internet.

Thanks again.