.csv Files default to Excel 2011, not Excel 2016

I found a solution! You may have too, but if anyone like me stumbles across this thread, here it is.

You have to modify the contents of the Excel 2011 app as described here for Word 2008 (because this issue is not new and is an MS problem and not an Apple one):

https://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2129

Following those steps and changing "XCEL" in the files it talks about to "XCEl" (lower case L) took care of it and my csv files now default to Excel 2016.

To give full credit, I found that link via this link: Setting default version of Excel to open XLSX

Yes, it's the same general idea as Windows. Or, I should say, the original Mac OS.

You probably already know all of this: In Mac OS 1 through 9, the system kept track of what files were, and what belonged to what by each item's Type and Creator codes. All EPS files had a Type of EPFS. To prevent EPS files from being locked to only one app, each also had a creator code. So, an Illustrator EPS would have a Creator of ART5, Photoshop 8***, and so on. Each the same file type, but they open in the app that created them when double clicked. Much of this carried on through OS X/macOS, which also uses file extensions to determine what is what.

Windows has always had the problem of one extension - one app. If you mark .eps files to open in Illustrator, there is no way to separate that extension out for the app that actually created it. So, if you double click a Quark XPress .eps, it will try to open in Illustrator. If you change .eps to open in Quark XPress, then all .eps files will attempt to open in Quark, including those created with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

That brings us to Snow Leopard, where Apple declared Type/Creator codes deprecated (dead). Now you're looking at the one extension - one app scenario. How do you keep .eps, or other files types that can be created by multiple apps from being locked to one app? Apple came up with Uniform Type Identifiers, which is written as part of each file data. Each app writes its identifying data as part of the file. When you double click a Photoshop .eps, the OS knows it belongs to Photoshop and not some other app.

Problem. You can break this method of app separation by clicking Change All. If I do that to an Illustrator .eps in Get Info and click Change All to open in Photoshop, all .eps files from there forward will try to open in PS, no matter what app created it. The only fix is to rebuild the Launch Services database so such manual changes are tossed and the OS once again pays attention to the Uniform Type Identifiers of each file so they open in their correct apps.

Anyway, your Mac is doing something it shouldn't. When you change Excel files to open in the Office 2016 version, that should be all you have to do. In no way should the OS be tossing the association back to Office 2011. At least, it's not supposed to. Since hydawaybottle was also seeing this issue, it may be a bug in High Sierra.

The only other thing I could suggest is to first do a full, restorable backup. Then, reinstall the OS. If even that doesn't help, than this is likely a repeatable bug.

“may22.csv can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store and identified developers."

The message by the OS makes so sense whatsoever. It's treating the .csv file as if it's an application. It of course, isn't. It's a tab delimited (comma separated) text file.

If I create a .csv file and then double click on it, it does just what it's supposed to do. It opens in Excel without any errant message from the OS complaining it's an app from an unidentified developer.

I guess one question is; why have Office 2011 on your Mac at all when you also have Office 2016 installed? Remove the old version.

It can be.

No, it can't. Your Mac is seriously misbehaving. As I said before, it is treating a simple text file as if it were an application. That message should never, ever appear when opening a .csv file. It's data, not a program/application.

"It has been mentioned that users are having problems with version 16.9 and higher of Office. Office for the Mac has undergone dramatic changes in Office 365.

No, definitely not true if you're running Office 2016, and not Office 365.

If you drag and drop those old Word documents onto the 2016 version, they'll open. You aren't forced to use the Open dialogue box with Word to open files. What you're seeing there is Office 2016 has been updated to ignore Type and Creator codes. Since it isn't reading them, it doesn't know what a file without an extension is.

The OS isn't even assigning the correct app to the ones it is giving an icon for. That's because the ancient version of Word they were created with can't be found. Back in Snow Leopard, Apple announced that Type and Creator codes (the only way OS 9 and earlier could tell files apart from one another) were dead. Vendors were supposed to stop using them. The OS will still recognize the most common ones, but very old images I have from Photoshop of 30+ years ago do the same thing. They're too old to be recognized by their old Type/Creator codes, and the new versions of Photoshop don't pay attention to them. I either have to manually drag and drop them onto Photoshop, or manually add the correct extension so PS will recognize them by double clicking, or opening them within the app.

So, that's what you're seeing. Word 2011 is still seeing and recognizing the old Type/Creator codes. Office 2016 either isn't reading them at all (most likely), or is, but no longer thinks the files are from Word. You can simply add the extension .doc to the files, and Word 2016 will then recognize them. You can do them all at once from the desktop. Highlight all of the files, then right click anywhere over the selected group. Choose Rename xxx files from the contextual menu that appears. Change the drop down menu at the left to Add Text. Type .doc into the field provided and make sure the right drop down menu says after name. Click Rename.

I did this as an example to a bunch of test files I stripped their original extensions from. As you can see, file asdf will be renamed asdf.doc .

Hi Jason. Nice find! To explain why that works, it goes back to the old Type and Creator codes. Note here in an older Excel file I opened in File Buddy that the Creator code is XCEL.

By modifying the 2011 version of Excel's string data, you are changing a setting where it associates itself with the Creator code. Changing it to a nonexistent XCEl, Excel 2011 no longer opens files with a XCEL Creator code because it doesn't match. It then skips to Office 2016. You could put most anything there, as long as it's four characters in length, and doesn't happen to be a real Creator code for an entirely different app.

In other words, it's not a flaw in Office 2011. That version is doing what's it's supposed to do and take first dibs on files with the matching Creator code, XCEL. Something Office 2016 doesn't look for at all, which is why they insist on opening in the 2011 version.

That isn't true. I can open any ancient Word documents I have in Office 2016. Some go back over a decade and haven't been updated since they were created. Sounds like your Mac is having some rather severe issues.

Well, that stinks. Why would MS do that? It's still a Word document. They must have removed the necessary code from Office 2016 to translate the older formats.

The message makes it clear they want you to follow a two-step operation in order to open them in Office 2016. First open the files in Office 2011 and save them back out as a new file. Then they'll open in Office 2016 since it will recognize files written from Office 2011. What a pain.

Yes, mine aren't quite that old anymore. I had some from way back (Word 6 for DOS) that I opened in Office X (the version before Office 2004) just for the sake of updating the files. Office 2016 still recognizes those as is.

That is simply bizarre. I couldn't begin to guess why the OS would do that. Especially after rebuilding the LaunchServices database.

I tried replicating the issue, but all Excel files I have, or save from Office 2016 simply open in Excel 2016 without any messages. No matter how old or new they are, they're all marked to open with Excel 2016 by default. But then, those are all default Excel files, not .csv.

That's only testing with Excel 2016. I'd have to reinstall Office 2011 on my test partition to see if I could replicate all of the steps that way. Can't do that now, though. Big project that will eat up most of this week that must be done first.

Now I'm really intrigued! I probably won't be able to replicate the problem by only installing Office 2011 on my test partition (High Sierra with nothing on it but the OS and a few utility apps).

What I'll likely have to do is first install Office 2011 and create a bunch of .csv files. Then install Office 2016 and test to see what happens. Normally, the version of an app you install last becomes the default for all associated files. So, all of the .csv files may then already be tagged for Office 2016 after installing the newer suite. No way to know until I try. But it sure sounds like I can expect to get the same results you did.

Unfortunately, that's what Steve already tried.

all .csv files are set to open in Excel 2011. If I change through Get Info for the file to Open With Excel 2016, I'm given the same security warning

Even stranger (as noted in his initial post), when he does do a change all, the .csv files revert to Office 2011.

But when I try to change all .csv files to open with Excel 2016, the preference reverts back to Excel 2011.