I’m used to opening a file on the desktop by Ctrl-clicking ‘Open With’ from the pop-up menu and then selecting the app I wanted to use. But of late it now shows all the versions of an app starting with the latest version and below that however many versions I have updated (I think that’s what it’s doing.) The example below is me clicking on a JPG…
Is there some switch in System Settings I can throw to stop this happening? HNY Y’all.
This is going to happen if you have multiple versions of the apps installed on your Mac. I used to see it years ago when I maintained an on-line mirror as an “emergency backup” bootable partition. Between the time when updating an app (on the primary partition) and when I cloned it to the backup partition, the “Open With” option would show both versions.
From the screen-shot, it looks like you have been keeping multiple versions on-line (e.g. Firefox_v001.app, Firefox_v002.app, etc.) Since they’re all valid applications, the Finder can’t know (and shouldn’t assume) which one you want.
If you need to keep these old versions around, see if you can move them to off-line storage. Maybe copy them to backup media that isn’t normally mounted. Or move them into a disk image that is only mounted when you’re using it.
If you’re not deliberately keeping old versions, then you may need to do a bit of searching to figure out where these apps are coming from. Finder shouldn’t be finding apps in the Trash (if you delete old versions before installing new ones), so that may be the bug.
What I often do it just create a zip archive of the old app (select it and choose “Compress” from the Finder’s File menu). Then you can throw away the original, but if you ever need the old app, you can easily decompress it to use it again. I often keep old versions that way just in case the new app doesn’t work right or regressed.
That will work, but I would suggest using a compressed disk image. Like a Zip file, the contents will be compressed to save space. But it is easier to work with a disk image - you can mount it with a double-click and then drag/drop files in/out. You can also (depending on the app) execute the app from the mounted image file.
Thanks all. I have a Chronosync backup running that is saved to a NAS. It would appear that ‘archived’ files that were deleted from Apps - i.e. older versions, are being saved on the NAS. And I guess they are being cataloged by Spotlight. I’ll jump into Chronosync and work out how to not archive Apps.
I appreciate the help. Weird how I’ve been doing this for years but only recently it started manifesting these files. I guess there has been a change in what disks are indexed by Spotlight…
Les
