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Resolved something keeps changing my "open with" defaults

wow, it's getting worse. happening about every day now.

feels like my machine's infected. ClamXAV is clean, not sure what else to do.
 
zimv20 said:
wow, it's getting worse. happening about every day now.

feels like my machine's infected. ClamXAV is clean, not sure what else to do.
Click to expand...

Your launch database is in your home directory. You could make an another admin/user account and see how things fare when you log in. Use the Public folder to move or copy the items the items you are working on to that account.

So far things are stable in my account because I removed a lot of Adobe stuff that should not have been there.
 
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First, let's permanently unhide directories and files:

  1. Open Terminal found in Finder > Applications > Utilities
  2. In Terminal, paste the following: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
  3. Press return
  4. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.
Next, in your Home directory there is a Library > Preferences folder, and I did what one article suggested and deleted
all com.apple.launchservices.plist files.

But when I opened and ctrl-clicked oon an image to download it, it showed "Preview" instead of Photoshop.
so best to disregard that, open a new user account and see if the problem goes away.

So I rebooted holding down the Shift key, signed in after I was sure my app was the default for images. This rebuilds the launchservices database without having to use Onyx.
 
hm, i'm seeing that there's a lockfile in there, and no com.apple.LaunchServices.plist whatsoever:
Code: 
[~/Library/Preferences] > ls *LaunchServices*
com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEvents
com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV2
com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.bak
com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.lockfile*

com.apple.LaunchServices:
com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist

[~/Library/Preferences] >

there *used* to be a com.apple.LaunchServices.plist, that's how i made the .bak file.
 
I'm wondering if by removing those files, they could rebuild and solve the issue. Just don't want my Mac black-screening.

I'm still getting the random Photoshop being dropped from the list. I wish I had left well enough alone and stayed with Sierra.
 
that's the crazy thing, i *did* remove com.apple.LaunchServices.plist (and the lockfile), and it never got re-created!
 
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Signum17 said:
Yeah, I don't think that's it. What do you think of this article?

https://eclecticlight.co/2017/08/11/launch-services-database-problems-correcting-and-rebuilding/
Click to expand...
here's my favorite part:
Apple does not tell us which service maintains the Launch Services database, but I have a strong suspicion that it is lsd
Click to expand...
i think that may explain a few things.

but there is this part:
the Launch Services database. Even if someone were to tell you where to find the files, you cannot just trash them.
Click to expand...
do they mean com.apple.LaunchServices.plist?

as i mentioned, that file was never recreated. as an experiment, i restored it from the copy i backed up, then ran Onyx. that was earlier today, i'm waiting to see if the corruption returns. maybe i should never have deleted it in the first place.
 
I'm noticing in the Adobe forums there are reports that this started happening with the 10.13.3 update. So in the end we simply can't fix it and hope Apple is aware of this.

And yep, I was wrong about mucking with System files in an attempt to fix a problem that I don't even know the exact source of. Must note myself not to play OS Systems Tech. :|

Anyway, thanks for chasing this down. I may just have to hang tight until the next update.
 
nope, no luck. it broke again. jpgs are opening up in Color Sync Utility.

i may just upgrade from El Cap to whatever-the-hell-is-current and try my luck.
 
I know. Last time my associations broke was Feb 6th. It's now the eighth and things are lasting longer than normal.

I don't know if and when it will break again, but I'm surprised it hasn't yet.

It is a bit like having to jumpstart your car every couple of trips, but without any mechanics around to take it to.
 
Not sure if this is the cause of your problem but I have been having similar issues. In my case it turns out they are being caused by Firefox Quantum (58.02).

It occurs whenever I drag an image, for example a jpg, from the Firefox browser window to the desktop. Before doing this all jpgs were set to open in Photoshop. Immediately after dragging the image to the desktop all file associations for jpgs are reverted to open in Preview.app, and all .psd documents are changed to associate with Illustrator instead of Photoshop. It does not happen if you right click and save as the image file.

This behavior did not happen with Firefox 56. It only happens on my iMac is running 10.10.05, the same behavior does not occur on my Macbook running 10.13, but I have read reports from other people of the problem also happening on 10.13 with Firefox Quantum.

The actual launchservices.plist is not changed, what appears to be changed is the temporary launch services csstore file - on my system it's: com.apple.launchservices-1070501.csstore (stored in Private/Var/Folder/51/xxxxxx/C folder).

Now it might be that something underlying in OSX is actually causing the issue and it is just being triggered by my action of dragging a file to the desktop from Firefox, but then again it doesn't happen if I drag a jpg file from Safari.
 
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mikeytttt said:
Not sure if this is the cause of your problem but I have been having similar issues. In my case it turns out they are being caused by Firefox Quantum (58.02).

This behavior did not happen with Firefox 56. It only happens on my iMac is running 10.10.05, the same behavior does not occur on my Macbook running 10.13, but I have read reports from other people of the problem also happening on 10.13 with Firefox Quantum.

The actual launchservices.plist is not changed, what appears to be changed is the temporary launch services csstore file - on my system it's: com.apple.launchservices-1070501.csstore (stored in Private/Var/Folder/51/xxxxxx/C folder).

Now it might be that something underlying in OSX is actually causing the issue and it is just being triggered by my action of dragging a file to the desktop from Firefox, but then again it doesn't happen if I drag a jpg file from Safari.
Click to expand...

You are on to something. FireFox 58 is my default browser and while it could happen anywhere else, it happens when I save images from FF via ctrl + click in 10.13.3 but not using 10.12.6

I also notice I am randomly logged out with some websites using Quantum under HS.

I'll see if I can forward this to Apple or Mozilla.

Thanks for the tip!
 
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mikeytttt said:
Not sure if this is the cause of your problem but I have been having similar issues. In my case it turns out they are being caused by Firefox Quantum (58.02).

It occurs whenever I drag an image, for example a jpg, from the Firefox browser window to the desktop.
Click to expand...
OMG YES i have reproduced this. THANK YOU, this has been driving me crazy. at least i have a workaround now.
 
I just had another default to Preview saving out of FireFox 58.0.2 Weird thing though, a couple of minutes later, even with FF open, the file associations reverted to Photoshop without me even setting them.

Another weird thing: FF signed me out of one of my websites under High Siierra, something it would not do in Sierra.

Thanks for confirming, zimv20. Tell me, what was your workaround? I don't drag images out of FF, I Ctrl + click on an image and use the Context menu to save it. That where I get the Preview.app glitch.
 
Signum17 said:
Thanks for confirming, zimv20. Tell me, what was your workaround? I don't drag images out of FF, I Ctrl + click on an image and use the Context menu to save it. That where I get the Preview.app glitch.
Click to expand...
workaround #1 is to use the context menu in FF to save. workaround #2 is to not use FF.

sorry, what is the Preview.app glitch?
 
zimv20 said:
workaround #1 is to use the context menu in FF to save. workaround #2 is to not use FF.

sorry, what is the Preview.app glitch?
Click to expand...

Where Preview.app is the default jpg/png file association when Photoshop is somehow removed.

I'm also trying the Terminal command: killall Finder to restore Photoshop if this happens.
 
So far it's holding. I suppose it would sound like common sense to try another browser in the first place, but I never thought a browser could mess up Finder level settings.
 
mikeytttt said:
Not sure if this is the cause of your problem but I have been having similar issues. In my case it turns out they are being caused by Firefox Quantum (58.02).

If I didn't say so before, I did want to thank you for that lead. I stopped using FF for Chrome and Safari since Saturday and up to now, the associations are staying put at Photoshop. I hate to call the game early, but I don't think FF 58 would go this far. FF has been signing me out of a few websites in HS as well. I should have tried another browser, but I've been with FF for years and thought that glitch was on OSX. Now hoping a patch will settle that.

Gene
Click to expand...
 

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."
 
Signum17 said:
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."
Click to expand...
wow, great, my initial test worked. thanks a ton for following up with this.
 
I notice my first post went back to Jan 28th. I don't know how many attempts to fix the problem I made, only to have it pop up in my face a day or two later. Thanks in part to a good lead on Firefox being the culprit in this forum. I'll keep an eye on Bugzilla. The Sandbox level 2 is just until Mozilla fixes the problem.

Appreciate all the good help I got here that I'm not sure I would elsewhere.

Gene
 
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