How to remove specific items from the “Open With…” menu in High Sierra

finderhigh sierra

For certain file types (like PDF) my "Open With…" Finder menu has become uselessly long, and I would like to remove some specific items from it.

How do I remove specific items from my "Open With…" menu in High Sierra?

Note, this is not a duplicate of the many similar questions about how to reset the menu, nor (I hope) of the several very old questions with no or outdated answers on the same topic.

Best Answer

To prevent a specific app from showing up under the "Open With..." for a particular file:

  • Go to your Applications folder and right click on the app you want
  • Right click and select "Show Package Contents"
  • In the Contents folder, open the file Info.plist with your favorite text editor
  • Under CFBundleTypeExtensions (there will be multiple), find the XML properties with <string>file extension</string>.
  • Delete the XML property that matches the file type you no longer want to associate. (i.e. <string>gif</string>) then save the file.
  • In Terminal, restart Finder (killall Finder)
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