I would like to set Obsidian as the default app to open markdown files but this does not seem to be an option.
I’m keeping all research in DT but my summary research notes in Obsidian (Obsidian has a better editor and I occasionally do want to use backlinks) though I seldom “link my thinking.”
Is there a workaround? I can use iA Writer or Drafts or even TextEdit but I’d rather use Obsidian.
Any advice?
I think that dropdown field towards the bottom can be changed to something other than “Recommended Applications.” That should give you more choices.
Yes, that is what I did and then took the screenshot. Obsidian is grayed out. 
If I change the dropdown field towards the bottom from “Recommended Applications” to “All Applications” then I can choose from any of the items in my Applications folders, however inappropriate that app might be. 
It is the universe’s way of telling you to stop using Obsidian!
(I have no real useful info to add, sorry. Good luck getting it sorted!)
You are correct! I made the first “other selection” but failed to do so on the second screen. I should have noticed that second screen option, my bad. Thanks!
I tried this solution, and it doesn’t work. Obsidian opens, but the markdown file doesn’t open.
An alternative solution:
I have not tried it.
“I tried this solution, and it doesn’t work. Obsidian opens, but the markdown file doesn’t open.”
Me too! Just tried to open an MD file on my Mac from finder and it didn’t default to Obsidian. Discovered the above method of setting default application on a Mac for the md filetype (with ‘all applications’ option) and it now launches Obsidian but doesn’t open the file. Then found this thread. Surely there is a solution to this by now other than writing an automation script as suggested in the alternative solution…???
Any advice Mitch?
Thanks!
I’m afraid I never did solve the problem.
Oh well, thanks for the reply!
When looking at the suggested solution in the Obsidian forum that @MitchWagner linked to, I found it odd at first that nowhere was the provided script directly calling Obsidian. In fact, it only calls the command open path/to/file when the file is in Obsidian’s vault. Then I realized that MacOS already considers Obsidian as the default application for any files within the vault. The only useful thing that script is doing is defining which application to use for Markdown files which are not located in the vault.
In other words, if you are having a problem getting files to properly open from the vault in Obsidian without the script, then that script will not help at all. It simply tells MacOS to open the specified file in the default application. It seems to me that as MacOS is passing the file path on to Obsidian, if Obsidian is failing to open it, then the fault lies with Obsidian. Either an internal setting needs to be changed, or a bug needs to be fixed.
Good answer. But I suspect what’s going on here is that I am asking the script to do something it was not designed to do.
The reason you can’t do that is because Obsidian is the glue on top of the plain .md files. The strength of Onbsidian is that it’s not required to edit them.
Setting Obsidian to open all .md files makes no sense because unless they are already in your vault Obsidian can’t see or link to them.
Iy’s disabled because it could cause conflicts if Obsidian is trying to access stuff outside your vault which is not allowed or reasonable. Since Obsidian can’t know that you might have files elsewhere it sets the limitation to access for Obsidian from within Obsidian.
Ah thanks, I hadn’t considered that about Obsidian.
