How to Make Another File Manager Open Instead of the Finder on a Mac
You've switched to another file manager, yet the Finder keeps coming back: click the magnifying glass next to a download in Safari, or choose Show in Finder in another app, and a Finder window opens. You look in System Settings for a "default file manager" option, and there isn't one.
The short answer: macOS has no setting that replaces the Finder, but it has a file viewer preference. When an app asks macOS to show a file, macOS hands the request to the app named there, which is the Finder unless you change it. Name another file manager and those Show in Finder commands open it instead. In Folia Files, that's one switch: Settings › General › Mac Integration › Use Folia Files as the default file viewer. The Finder keeps running either way: it still draws your desktop.
Why a Mac has no "default file manager" setting
The Finder isn't one app among others: it's part of macOS. It starts with your session, draws the desktop and its icons, sits on the protected system volume, and its menu doesn't even have a Quit command. You can't uninstall it or swap it for another app.
What you can change is where requests to show a file end up. That fixes the most common annoyance: other apps sending you back to the Finder. The rest is habit, keeping your file manager one keystroke away (see the end of this article).
What the file viewer setting does
Apps that show you where a file is rarely talk to the Finder themselves. Many call a standard macOS function (part of Apple's AppKit framework) that reveals items "in the file viewer". That function reads a preference named NSFileViewer: when it holds another app's identifier, macOS opens the items with that app instead of revealing them in the Finder.
In practice:
- Apps read it when they start. Each app keeps the value until it quits. After a change, quit and reopen Safari, Mail and the other apps you use: until then, their Show in Finder still leads to the Finder.
- The command keeps its name. The menu item still says "Show in Finder": that text belongs to the app. Only where it leads changes.
- The app you name gets an "open" request. A file manager built for this shows the item in its folder; any other app would just open the file. Only name an app that offers the option.
- It covers your whole user account. It's one setting for every app you run, not a choice per app.
What it doesn't change
- The Finder keeps running. It still draws the desktop and its icons, its icon stays in the Dock, and a folder you double-click on the desktop opens in a Finder window.
- Apps that ask the Finder by name still get the Finder. Some apps and scripts send their request straight to the Finder (with AppleScript, for example) instead of going through the file viewer. Those keep opening Finder windows.
- Open and Save dialogs belong to macOS. They aren't Finder windows, and this setting doesn't touch them. To jump to the right folder in them anyway, see how to get to the right folder in every Open and Save dialog.
Make Folia Files the default file viewer
- In Folia Files, choose Folia Files › Settings… (⌘,).
- Click General, then scroll down to Mac Integration.
- Turn on Use Folia Files as the default file viewer.
- Quit and reopen the apps whose Show in Finder you use.
The welcome tour offers the same switch on its Always Within Reach page: Open other apps' "Show in Finder" in Folia Files.
From then on, when an app shows a file, Folia Files comes to the front with the file selected in its folder: in the active pane if it already shows that folder, otherwise in a new tab of the front window. Several items from the same folder are selected together; a folder opens in a tab of its own. If Folia Files isn't open, it opens, brings back your windows, then shows the item.
Two more things to know:
- Folia Files' own Show in Finder still opens the Finder. When you need a real Finder window, the command is in the right-click menu of any file or folder.
- To go back, turn the option off. Folia Files removes the preference, and Show in Finder leads to the Finder again once you reopen the other apps.
The switch is in the version of Folia Files you download from our website. The Mac App Store version, coming later, leaves it out: App Store apps can't change this macOS-wide setting.
Set it yourself in Terminal
For a file manager without such a switch, or just to see what's set, you can read and write the same preference with defaults in Terminal. Apple doesn't document NSFileViewer: treat this as a power-user tweak, not an official setting.
To see what's set now:
defaults read -g NSFileViewer
An app identifier means that app is the file viewer. An error saying the key can't be found means nothing is set, so the Finder is used.
To find an app's identifier (put its name between the quotes):
osascript -e 'id of app "Folia Files"'
To set it (-g is the global domain, which every app reads), replacing com.example.filemanager with the identifier you got:
defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string com.example.filemanager
To undo it and go back to the Finder:
defaults delete -g NSFileViewer
Either way, quit and reopen the apps you use. And before you delete a file manager you set this way, delete the setting first.
Keep your file manager one keystroke away
The file viewer covers what other apps show you. For what you open yourself, a few settings help Folia Files take over the Finder's daily job:
- Open Folia Files at login, in Settings › General › Startup.
- Show / Hide Folia Files from any app with ⌃⌥F, a shortcut you can change in Settings › Shortcuts.
- From the Finder, right-click a folder and choose Services › Open in Folia Files, or drag a folder onto the Folia Files icon in the Dock to open it in a new tab.
- Your Finder favorites: Settings › General › Finder settings › Bring Over from the Finder… brings over its sidebar favorites, its default view and its hidden-file and extension settings.
Still choosing the app that takes over from the Finder? Our comparison of Finder alternatives shows what each one does.
