Controlling Launch Services in Sequoia

Howard Oakley:

LaunchServices compiles a large registry database of apps and their associations with and capabilities for handling different document types. Its records determine which app opens a document when you double-click on its icon in the Finder, and most prominently which are listed when you open the Open With… item in the Finder’s contextual menu. Apps are registered there automatically, and their details are updated each time they’re run. Although the user can’t interact directly with LaunchServices, there is a command tool that offers control over it, lsregister, although it’s buried deep in the system frameworks, doesn’t have a man page, and now works differently.

[…]

In the past, apps used to populate the LaunchServices registry were those located in the traditional Applications folders, but recent versions of macOS have extended that to cover almost any accessible folder. This has been explored by Jeff Johnson, who has shown that excluding folders and volumes from Spotlight indexing, by adding them to the list in Search Privacy… in Spotlight settings, will exclude those apps from LaunchServices’ list.

[…]

Running [lsregister -kill] in recent versions of macOS including Sequoia is likely to wreak havoc, though. While this appears to be effective with the Open With… list, its effects on System Settings can be catastrophic. This can remove its entire contents, and even blow the wallpaper away. Normal function should start to return after restarting the Mac, but even then problems can persist.

See also: Oakley’s posts on Ventura and Sonoma.

Previously:

• Fixing Launch Services Problems
• Launch Services Browser 2.1
• Rebuilding the Launch Services Database

Update (2025-04-02): Howard Oakley:

Recognising that we often want to open a document using a different app rather than the default, the Finder’s contextual menu offers a list of suitable apps in its Open With command. That list is built and maintained by LaunchServices, and has changed in recent versions of macOS. Whereas those lists used to consist of apps installed in the traditional Application folders, LaunchServices now scours every accessible volume and folder using Spotlight’s indexes to build the biggest lists possible. If you happen to have an old copy of an app tucked away in a dusty corner, LaunchServices will find it and proudly display it alongside those in everyday use, like a game dog triumphantly presenting not one dead pheasant but every one from miles around.

[…]

Unfortunately, there’s no lasting way to block unwanted apps from being added to the list LaunchServices builds for this Open With feature. You can gain temporary relief by excluding them from Spotlight search, but should you ever open the folder they’re in using the Finder, those are all added back. This also afflicts apps in folders shared with a Virtual Machine, where the list includes App Store apps that can’t even be run from within that VM.

[…]

[Why] not empower me to determine which of those 70 apps should be offered in the Open With list? This is such a radical idea that it used to be possible with the lsregister command that has become progressively impotent, as LaunchServices has cast its net further in quest of more apps to flood me with.

Launch Services Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Spotlight System Preferences

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