Hi:

Safari is my default browser. Lately, Firefox has made itself the default browser. It pops up when I boot up my Mac each morning. I haven't changed anything. It is not checked in the Log-in page. When I checked Firefox prefs, it said Firefox is not my default browser. When I check Safari prefs, it says Safari IS my default browser.

Is there something I can check in the Library or somewhere to get rid of a plist or something?

I use Firefox occasionally when I have problems with Safari, so I don't want to trash Firefox.

Thanks.

Rita

Since nobody else has answered, I'll take a stab at this. I see two Safari plists in ~/Library/Preferences. One is named com.apple.Safari.plist and the other is com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist. Move one of them to the desktop and then log out/in. If the problem is solved, reset the appropriate preferences and trash the plist. If not, put it back and try the other one.*

If the above suggestions are unsuccessful, you can play with the contents of ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox in a similar manner.

*Actually, here's something else that you could try first: Play with com.apple.loginitems.plist and com.apple.loginwindow.plist. Both are located in ~/Library/Preferences.

So, it's not "checked" --- but it is there then?

Because the checkmark only toggles whether the app will be visible or hidden. If it's checkmarked, it will be hidden. If it's not checkmarked, it will be visible. (as in your situation now)

But so long as it even exists in that list, it will be launched.

So select it and click the the minus sign in the [+|-] widget at the bottom, to remove it from the Login Items list.


Too bad, i just cooked up a wicked cool terminal command, but we probably don't need it...

grep -i Firefox {,/System,~}/Library/{Launch{Agents,Daemons}/,\
Preferences/com.apple.login,StartupItems/}* /etc/mach_init*/* 2>/dev/null

Hi:

It's there in the logins because I wanted it on the Dock when I needed it. It's been unchecked in the logins for a long time. It's just now loading up when I boot up. I had Safari checked because I wanted it to launch. I thought that's how it was done. At least it's been working until now. Guess I'll remove Firefox from the Login page since it's misbehaving.

Thanks for the info.

Rita

Hi Jon:

Thanks for your help. I think I'll just remove it from the Login page as suggested by Hal Itosis. I never actually log out. I have a weird fear of not being able to log back in and forgetting the log in info.

Thanks again.

Rita

You can keep it in the Dock for when you want to use it by dragging the icon from the application's location (in the Applications folder?) to the Dock, dropping it in the Dock wherever you would like it to be positioned. This does not remove it from its original location.

Thanks, Ira. That actually sounds ideal.

there's an app called DefaultApps that gives you one central place to change all the common defaults, browser, email, ftp, etc.

strange that apple insists on placing the default setter individually INSIDE the app that it defaults TO, instead of sticking it in system prefs, where it arguably belongs.

Thanks. I might look into that sometime. I appreciate it.

Rita

The most common complaint I see about placing the switch inside the default app is that if you do the first obvious thing to a new user - delete the offending app (safari, mail, etc) then realized that you get an error when double clicking something, you've already deleted the app that would let you fix the problem.

And the rebuttal, of course, is that there isn't any one single place to choose the default. ANY application that can be the default MAY (and usually does) include a setting to make it the default. A polite application, like most of Apple's, will allow you to set the default to some other app.

For example, Mail and Eudora would both let you set your default mail program, but Eudora would only let you set it to Eudora. Mail lets you choose from among all currently installed apps that support the mailto: protocol.

Similarly, almost any web browser offers a setting to become the default web browser, but Safari (and perhaps a few others) will offer to abdicate in favor of any currently installed app what will respond to http: URLs.