Fix for Mac OS X extension problem

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Macintosh
August 12th, 2003 • 6:23 pm

A while ago, I described a weird problem that I was HAVING in Mac OS X where I was unable to get Mac OS X to set certain files ending with “.html” to open with BBEdit by default.

Well, I was finally able to try the “hack” (fix) sent to me by a reader, which consisted of the following:

Quit everything, go offline, and so forth.
Run the Terminal and type:
 rm ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore
 sudo -s
(it will ask for an admin password here)
 rm /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore
 sync; reboot
at this point the machine will reboot.

And it worked. I’m still seeing a whole bunch of possible applications that Mac OS X offers to open these “.html” files with (including Eudora, Equation Editor, Nisus Writer Express, Timbuktu Pro, and what not), but at least BBEdit is once again part of the list, and I am able to change all files to use BBEdit by default.

I am also still seeing weird things, such as the document icon for these document files not being changed to the appropriate BBEdit document icon even though they are set to open with BBEdit (this affects some files only), but at least it works.

Needless to say, this hack is for Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) only. Use at your own risk.


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