How to change default browser on Mac

How to change the default browser in System Settings

1. Install the browser you want to use, if you haven’t yet.
2. Choose Apple menu › System Settings and click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar.
3. Scroll down on the right and choose the browser from the Default web browser menu.

The change works at once, without a restart. The menu lists only the browsers installed on this Mac, and Safari is always there.

The setting has been in Desktop & Dock since macOS Ventura. Older instructions that send you to General were written for System Preferences on earlier systems.

Make a browser the default from its own settings

Many browsers ask on their first launch whether to become the default, or have a button for it in their settings. For example, in Chrome click the three dots at the top right, choose Settings, and in Default browser click Make default. If the button isn’t there, Chrome already is the default.

If macOS then asks whether to change the default browser, confirm the new one. Either way, the result is the same as choosing it in System Settings.

What changes and what stays

• Links you click in other apps open in the new browser.
• Bookmarks, saved passwords and history stay in the old browser until you import them into the new one.
• The old browser keeps working. To go back, choose it again in Default web browser.

How to change the default email app

Which app opens when you click an email address is set in Mail, not in System Settings:

1. Open Mail. It needs at least one email account set up. You can remove that account once you’ve finished.
2. Choose Mail › Settings and click General.
3. Choose your email app from the Default email reader menu. If it isn’t listed, choose Select and pick the app.

Some email apps can make themselves the default in their own settings. Check there first. If yours has such a setting, you don’t need Mail at all.