PDFs suddenly opening in TextEdit

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Level 1

13 points

PDFs suddenly opening in TextEdit

For some reason some of the PDFs that I had stored on my laptop are now opening as TextEdit files, and are consequently just a jumble of code. I have no idea why this happened, i.e. what caused this change. I've tried right click to open with Preview, but it doesn't even give me that option. The latest one I tried to open is from two months ago, so it's not like these are ancient files. I have a 2020 MacBook Pro bought in 2022 and am running Sonoma 14.2.1. Can anyone help?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Apr 4, 2024 5:22 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,152 points

Apr 4, 2024 6:09 AM in response to AldaKalda

PDFs are binary files and opening them in TextEdit will give you the mess you observe. Select any PDF in the Finder and then press option+cmd+i to open a get information panel of that file. On that panel, there is an Open With section and it should be changed to Preview. Then you click through the Change All… button and close that Get Info panel.

Once the above is done, you should be able to double-click on a PDF in the Finder and it will open in Apple's Preview.

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Answer 2

AldaKalda Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 4, 2024 6:31 AM in response to VikingOSX

I did not choose to open the file in TextEdit, it was automatic, which is strange because in all other cases my PDFs open with Preview.

As I explained above, "open with" does not give me the option of Preview.

It is as though the file itself has changed from PDF to TextEdit, but how I do not know.

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PDFs suddenly opening in TextEdit

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