Ventura 13.1 opens PDF randomly with differently applications

After upgrading to Ventura 13.1, all PDF files are shown with Adobe Acrobat icons in Finder even though Acrobat is not the default application. When clicked on a PDF file, about 50% of the time, the PDF file was opened with Acrobat. And 40% of the time, the PDF file was opened in the default application. The remaining 10% of the time, the default application tried to open the PDF, but an error saying the default application is untrusted is displayed.


Did anyone experienced this behavior?

MacBook Air

Posted on Jan 22, 2023 07:50 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 23, 2023 02:05 AM

Not here am not experiencing this issue.


Suggestion - on a single PDF file, Control click on the PDF file


As Sub Menu will appear


Choose " Get Information " like in below image


Choose the specific Application you what to Open ALL PDF files.


In the same image with arrow use the, use the " Change ALL " and apply.


Now ALL PDF files should open in the chosen Application is earlier step


10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 23, 2023 02:05 AM in response to pf2222

Not here am not experiencing this issue.


Suggestion - on a single PDF file, Control click on the PDF file


As Sub Menu will appear


Choose " Get Information " like in below image


Choose the specific Application you what to Open ALL PDF files.


In the same image with arrow use the, use the " Change ALL " and apply.


Now ALL PDF files should open in the chosen Application is earlier step


Jan 23, 2023 10:20 AM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for all you help.


Your suggestions reminded me a long time ago I encountered a strange problem and it was fixed by clearing system cache as suggested by Apple Support. I tried booting into Safe Mode a couple of times using instructions from Apple Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support. But the problem remained.


When I double clicked on a PDF file, most of the time, it was opened in Acrobat. If I right clicked on the file and selected "Open With" and then the default application (first entry in the popup menu, which is PDF Expert), it opened with PDF Expert. If I selected "Other..." on the second popup menu and then "PDF Expert.app" in the application folder, it showed an error message.



When I clicked Open on the message, the file was opened in "PDF Expert". If I tried other files, they still opened in Acrobat.


I tried to override application security on "PDF Expert.app" by holding down <Ctrl> while clicking on the application according to this article https://www.lifewire.com/fix-developer-cannot-be-verified-error-5183898. It did not change the behavior. Note that I used PDF Expert for many years and I know it is safe. The last update of the app happened in July 2022, and I opened the app dozens of time every day. The problem was caused by the latest Ventura 13.1 update.


After all the experiments failed, I went back to P. Philips' suggestion. On the Info page, I changed "Open With" to Acrobat. Then I changed it back to "PDF Expert". It worked. Now all PDF files are opened with the default app.


Since there were quite a few things I tried, I cannot tell which step(s) fixed the problem. I am recording the steps here hoping it will help someone else in case they encounter similar problem.


Jan 23, 2023 01:49 PM in response to pf2222

Can say two things.


1 - Have more than one Dedicated PDF reading or creating Application is redundant IMHO.


2 - Year ago in around Mojave, Catalina time, had PDFPen installed along with the General All Purpose Preview.


At that time I used the Get Info and Changed ALL PDF to PDFPen as the Default Application.


From that time forwards, PDFPen would perform as expected. From time to time experimented and switched Default back to Perview but did not experience the Hoops and other Gyrations you have


In Big Sur and up, disbanded using PDFPen and happen with Default to Preview



Jan 23, 2023 02:24 PM in response to Owl-53

I agree with you that having more than one PDF viewer is generally not necessary. But in my case, I need both.


I have been using Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader (or whatever it is call at the moment) since the beginning. A few years ago, I finally had enough of the slow loading of the application and ever evolving user interface. I purchased PDF Expert mainly because of its fast loading and simple user interface that was well designed. I stopped installing Adobe Reader on my computers until an organization that I worked with had problem reading files saved by PDF Expert. They did not have the budget to upgrade to a newer version of Adobe Acrobat which fixes the problem. So I had to fall back to open a PDF file saved by PDF Expert in Acrobat Reader, and save it again before sending the file.


Anyway, thanks for your suggestion, it saved my day.

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Ventura 13.1 opens PDF randomly with differently applications

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