File Associations Keep Changing

A great discussion on this very issue in Mac Rumors. The consensus is that Firefox Quantum is causing the issues. Somehow they are making API calls to the OS and it is messing up the file associations. Not sure how to stop this. Firefox is a great alternative to Safari. You can set up a lot of the Mozilla addons used for Firefox in Google Chrome, too.

Resolved - something keeps changing my "open with" defaults | MacRumors Forums

Some good news about a workaround I've been trying and it seems to be holding.

Courtesy of https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1437281#c23

"For a workaround, browsing to about:config and setting "security.sandbox.content.level" to 2 (instead of the current default value of 3) and then restarting your browser may work. This makes the security sandbox more permissive, but doesn't completely disable it."

It's Firefox and the workaround is to enter about:config in the address bar. Accept the warning.

Then set security.sandbox.content.level from default 3 to 2

Although this has been mentioned before, here is the reference:

1437281 - OSX dragging image to desktop changes OSX File associations

The problem is still there with OSX 10.13.4 and FF 59.0.2 So keep it at 2 for now.

Gene

It sounds like Launch Services is corrupt. You can either use the Terminal method to fix it explained here…

https://eclecticlight.co/2017/08/11/launch-services-database-problems-correcting -and-rebuilding/

Or install Onyx which is mentioned in the article and run the Maintenance routine.

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

I ran Onyx last night - full maintenance - and so far it appears to have corrected this problem. Will report back if it reoccurs. Pretty sure it was due to Firefox update which itself has become lethargic so have switched to Safari and am trying to like it 🙂

I also have this issue of file associations constantly changing, in particular Photoshop PSD files try to open in Illustrator and jpeg files to revert back opening in Preview (despite being set to open in Photoshop).

For me it is definitely an issue with Firefox Quantum 58.

As soon as I drag an image file from the browser to the desktop or a folder, for example a JPEG file, then the file association for all JPEGs reverts to Preview.app and PSD files change to Illustrator.app

However, on examining the com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist, it does not appear to get updated, so I am unclear as to where the file association is being changed (or is it stored in a temporary location).

If I trash it and restart com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist everything is OK again.

Is there a temporary location where com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist details are held until they are updated? I was wondering where/if the OS would store the file association change the moment that an image is dragged from the Firefox window?

I haven't tried it yet but I was considering locking down the com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist using the following command in the terminal:

chmod 444 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.LaunchServices.secure.plist

and to unlock:

chmod 644 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.LaunchServices.secure.plist

but if the com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist is not actually being changed when the image is dragged out of Firefox I don't see that this will have any affect (I'll report back once I have a chance to test).

I've found a workaround by using an app called MAGIC LAUNCH. It's an old app designed for 10.6 but still works now. It enables you to assign JPG and PSD files to always open with Adobe, and stops Firefox from changing that association when the file is dragged to the desktop.

It does this by actually assigning these file to the MAGIC LAUNCH (when you click the GET INFO it shows MAGIC LAUNCH as the application to open them with) and the rules you set in MAGIC LAUNCH open the files in Adobe.

I've also found that some website image uploaders also cause Firefox to change file association - I assume its dependent on the javascript scripts used by specific sites.

Did you ever rebuild Launch Services as suggested?

Please install EtreCheck and post the report.

http://etrecheck.com/

I've had a rash of wrong file associations on Mavericks with various types of file, sometimes corrected by force-quitting (and thus rebooting) the Finder. I've run the Onyx maintenance as suggested and we'll see what happens: but meantime in both Safari and FireFox dragging an image out of a web page changes the association for all images of that type to the browser if you double-click the file (this didn't happen previously) - if you drag the image to the icon of the program you want to use it opens correctly and doesn't change the association. I suspect this is some sort of 'improvement'.