Irritating QuickTime - how to disable it?

[swerfot]

Hello,
so I've run into small, but very annoying problem -- certain video file types ALWAYS opens in QuickTime, despite that I have set VLC Media Player to open those file types by default (and did that several times)... Honestly, QuickTime is unusable as a video player, and overall it feels like QuickTime for Mac is what Internet Explorer 6 was for Windows XP -- completely unusable piece of cr...p, yet impossible to remove. Do any of you have any ideas how to disable QuickTime on the latest macOS to prevent it from "hijacking" video file type associations? Because currently I am forced to resort to right-cliking the file, then pointing to "Open With" and then "VLC" -- EVERY SINGLE TIME I WANT TO WATCH A VIDEO...
Again, sorry if this was solved already, I was unable to find a solution via Google.

 

[Slydude]

I doubt that you can completely disable QuickTime. It's one of the core components of OS X and has been for some time. In fact I think it has been a core component since well before OS X. I do have a few questions that might give us a better shot at helping solve your problem:

1. What Mac and version of OS X are you using? Complete system specs are always a good first step to pinpointing a problem.
2. Is this only happening with certain types of files? Only mp4 for example or only mov?
3. Exactly how did you go about changing the default to VLC?

The answer to question 3 is important. If you simply right-click a file and choose VLC as the player it will only apply to that file. Each time you open a different file it will have to be changed even if it is the same file type. To make the change apply to all files of a certain type you must do the following:

1. Select a file and choose Get Info (Command+I).
2. In the sheet that appears find the triangle that says Open With and chick to expand it if necessary.
3. Once you have chosen a new player such as VLC choose Change all.

Once you have done this for one type of file (such as mp4) you could repeat the process for other files (such as mov) but you should only have to do it once per type of file.

BTW What is it that Makes QuickTime unusable for you?

 

[swerfot]

Oh you are totally right... That is so baffling... I cannot imagine why would anyone ever want to set default program just for one single file :-o I was convinced that every time I right-click, point to "Open With -> Other..." and tick the checkbox "Always open with", that applies to whole file type. I could not ever imagine it's for that particular file only.
I often find things are done differently on Mac (I'm still a recent Mac "convert") and usually I like Mac way, but this case is just beyond unusual for me :-D
Thank you very much for your advice.

 

[Slydude]

So you were thinking that changing the file association on one mp4 file would change it for all of them? I can understand that confusion.

I use that feature from time to time when I have a one off reason to open a file in a specific program. For example, most video files use QuickTime Player Pro as the default for playback. If I need more than basic editing though I need to use a different program such as iMovie. I don't however need to open that file in iMovie every time so the method you were using allows opening the file on a case by case basis.

BTW Just out of curiosity what is making QuickTime unusable for you?

 

[swerfot]

So you were thinking that changing the file association on one mp4 file would change it for all of them? I can understand that confusion.

I use that feature from time to time when I have a one off reason to open a file in a specific program. For example, most video files use QuickTime Player Pro as the default for playback. If I need more than basic editing though I need to use a different program such as iMovie. I don't however need to open that file in iMovie every time so the method you were using allows opening the file on a case by case basis.

BTW Just out of curiosity what is making QuickTime unusable for you?

Well, first and foremost, being used to extensive configuration options, flexibility and ability to open probably any video format in the universe that VLC player offers, QuickTime feels too limited, too basic, suitable maybe just for quick previews but not much more. Of course, this is just my own habits/use case.

Also, and this is just a very specific example, it is by default assigned to open files it cannot handle (.avi), so each time it tries to "convert" them to some other format without asking first, then fails and throws this:

All that process takes some time, and each time I am frantically trying to close it since I did not ask for the file to be converted. I mean, if you cannot play the file natively, don't try to be too "smart" and attempt to convert it without asking the user first (especially since you cannot apparently do the conversion, either). Never ever have I ran into such problems with VLC.

 

[Slydude]

That's a good case for changing the file association is a good idea. One could, for example, associate all .avi files with something like VLC which can play it. There are some .avi files that QuickTime will play but it's a bit of a hit or miss process.

I'll admit I miss the day when users could add components to QuickTime to give it the ability to read other file types.