ABR brush files appearing as AFPhoto brush files on iMac

[Tom W]

Hello everyone,

I've got an iMac running Adobe Photoshop 2022 and Affinity Photo 1.10.5.

I've created some brushes in Adobe Photoshop 2022 and when I export them to my desktop the file preview is an AFPhoto icon (see attached screenshot). The files are ABR Photoshop files, so why is my Mac mis-labelling them as AFPHOTO files? Can I change this?

If I right-click on the file and select 'Get Info' the AFPHOTO preview shows there too.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Tom

[firstdefence]

The .abr file is associated with Affinity Photo so it's showing the Affinity Photo icon. You can "neutralise" the association using a small pref pane app called RCdefault, see this Link for details: https://www.guidingtech.com/20779/set-remove-default-file-associations-mac/ scroll down to REMOVING DEFAULT FILE ASSOCIATIONS and install the small prefpane app: https://www.rubicode.com/Software/Bundles.html#RCDefaultApp

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Tom W said:

The files are ABR Photoshop files, so why is my Mac mis-labelling them as AFPHOTO files?

To be clear about it, your Mac is not actually telling you they are *.afphoto files. It is just showing that the *.abr filetype has been set to open in AP by default if you double-click on one of those files. If you right-click on one of those *abr files in Finder & select the "Open With" item, you should see a list of every app on your Mac that can open *.abr files.

It is possible to completely remove these default associations but the OS may create a new default for that filetype if you install a new app that can open them. This is one of those things where the macOS tries to be "helpful" but the result is unwanted. 

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It is possible to completely remove these default associations but the OS may create a new default for that filetype if you install a new app that can open them. This is one of those things where the macOS tries to be "helpful" but the result is unwanted. 

It's probably also possible to reset the file association so it will default to some other application, but I only know how to do that on Windows, not Mac.

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's probably also possible to reset the file association so it will default to some other application, but I only know how to do that on Windows, not Mac.

Yes, it is possible to do that on Macs. The method is explained in detail in the https://www.guidingtech.com/20779/set-remove-default-file-associations-mac/ link @firstdefence posted above, described in that article's Method 2. The main thing is to use the "Change all..." button after choosing the app you want associated with all files of that filetype.

[Tom W]

Hello all,

Thanks very much for these responses I really appreciate it! I'll check out those links.

My main reason for wanting to address this issue is that I'm looking to sell the brushes. I wanted to make sure that the preview is correct, but I'm guessing that each person's Mac or PC will assign a different default app to open them, so it won't matter if I change the default on my Mac right?

Thanks again for taking the time to respond!

Tom

[Dan C]

15 hours ago, Tom W said:

I'm guessing that each person's Mac or PC will assign a different default app to open them, so it won't matter if I change the default on my Mac right?

Absolutely! This is a local setting, which can vary based on the applications you have installed, and any custom choice you may have set through the OS - so changing this on your computer won't affect the file itself

[Tom W]

Thanks very much for clariying that @Dan C!