TextEdit acts like default text editor at times

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Brian Gollands

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Nov 29, 2021, 10:23:17 AM11/29/21
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rMBP 2012 / OS10.15 / BBEdit 14

Anybody else have a problem with TextEdit being invoked when double-clicking on a .txt file that is set to be opened with BBEdit? This has been an annoyance over several versions of the OS.

All .txt files are set to BB and their file icons reflect this. But double-clicking them or choosing Open opens them in TextEdit. Choosing my contextual command Open in BBEdit works OK. The latest straw was in using Hook's command to Make a New Note in BBEdit. It, too, makes the file in TextEdit.

Have tried making a zip of TE and deleting the original (so I didn't lose it completely), but can't seem to do this even in Terminal due to some magical protection conveyed by its living in /System/Applications/ I guess.

I have a lot of apps installed, but don't recall any other setting I've changed that would cause this. Is there a default text editor config I'm missing?

Thanks for any help,
Brian


eu...@gmx.de

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Nov 29, 2021, 10:59:50 AM11/29/21
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Hi Brian

Did you try to „First Aid“ from the Disk Utility App on your startup volume?
This helped for me some years ago.

You may also try to assign .text and .txt files to another application like Atom (Don’t forget to use „Change All…“!) and then set it back to BBEdit again.

Otherwise you may want to delete the TextEdit App, because it’s mostly useless anyway…
I could tell you how to do this. But without any warranty!

Cheers!
Ulrich



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jj

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Nov 29, 2021, 12:10:10 PM11/29/21
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Hi Brian,

The duti command line utility might help you.

You can install it with Homebrew:
    
    % brew install duti
    
Read the man page:

    % man duti
    
To get default applications information for .txt files:

    % duti -x txt
    BBEdit.app
    /Applications/BBEdit.app
    com.barebones.bbedit
 
To set BBEdit as the default application for .txt files:
 
    % duti -s com.barebones.bbedit txt all
    
HTH,

Jean Jourdain

Bruce Van Allen

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Nov 29, 2021, 12:31:54 PM11/29/21
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This reminds me of a problem I had a few years ago with opening files. I
fixed it with a Terminal command that clears and re-sets the
LaunchServices database.

Try this (all one line):
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister
-kill -r -domain local -domain user;killall Finder;echo "Open With has
been rebuilt, Finder will relaunch"

See <https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/118198/glitch-in-open-with>
The question is old but the useful answer from Tony Williams was posted
in January 2021.

I just ran it on macOS Big Sur and it still seemed to work (although my
"Open With" wasn't currently giving me problems).


Brian Gollands wrote on 2021-11-29 7:22 AM:
> Anybody else have a problem with TextEdit being invoked when
> double-clicking on a .txt file that is set to be opened with BBEdit?
> This has been an annoyance over several versions of the OS.
>
> All .txt files are set to BB and their file icons reflect this.



--
    - Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz__ca_

Luc Bressinck

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Nov 29, 2021, 1:02:41 PM11/29/21
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Hello,

With Get Info from a txt file in the Finder change open with to bbedit.
That changes only for that file but you can also set to use that app (bbedit) to open all documents of that type.

Luc Bressinck
August Wautersstraat 40 C
B-9140 Temse
Belgium
03 771 20 10
0497 55 08 66

Op 29 nov. 2021 om 16:23 heeft Brian Gollands <bgol...@gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:

rMBP 2012 / OS10.15 / BBEdit 14

Darren Duncan

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Nov 29, 2021, 5:58:55 PM11/29/21
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I have found for years a generic thing with MacOS is that it sometimes forgets
that particular applications exist and so ignores them when resolving what
double-clicking a file does. So when that happens, typically the only fix
required is to just open the BBEdit application directly, which reminds the OS
that it exists, and then files associated with it work again for
double-clicking. This assumes a scenario where double-clicking used to work
right and then suddenly stopped. -- Darren Duncan
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