Right click on file offers to open another instance (2.1.2)

[NisusUser]

I've got a .txt file I wanted to open from the Finder. I right (two-finger) clicked and selected Open With > Nisus Writer Pro.app. When I did that, the attached message came up. I checked to be sure that the NWP that was running was also 2.1.2, and it is. I didn't open another instance. However, I'm wondering why this is happening. I don't recall it ever happening before, and I open files (admittedly usually .rtf files) from the Finder all the time.

Is there something that can be "reset" so I can do this normally? Thanks.

Open another instance of NWP.png (31.82 KiB) Viewed 9925 times

[martin]

Which copy of Nisus Writer Pro (NWP) is launched when you open a file is solely decided by the Finder. As you already know, you can control the Finder's decision using the "Open with" area of the Get Info dialog, but sometimes things go screwy.

To reset something like this, I would recommend that you delete all copies of NWP from your Mac. You can ensure you've cleared them all out if existing documents no longer open in NWP– perhaps the Finder will choose TextEdit or another app. If there's some forgotten copy of NWP on your Mac, the Finder would use it.

Once all copies are cleared out, you can download a fresh copy from our website. That way you can be absolutely sure you only have one copy of NWP on your Mac.

I hope that helps.

[NisusUser]

Thanks, Martin. I just used the app Find Any File to search for Nisus Writer Pro.app on all my hard drives (2 internal, 2 external). It only found 2 real versions - one in my home folder's Applications folder, and one in the backup of that drive.

NWP app files on hard drives.png (35.42 KiB) Viewed 9916 times

I ran AppCleaner (3.0.2) hoping it might find something suspicious, but it has a padlock on NWP and won't let me select it. (I did make sure NWP was not running.)

AppCleaner with padlocked NWP.png (37.33 KiB) Viewed 9916 times

Of course, I can manually delete the Nisus Writer Pro.app files (as you said), but it seems as if I don't have any duplicate instances on my machine. I admit that I didn't really want to delete anything if I wasn't sure I was getting a real duplicate.

[martin]

I can understand that you don't want to delete files unnecessarily, but you shouldn't see that error alert unless there really is another copy of NWP running. If it happens again, maybe you can check Activity Monitor and look if there are two Nisus Writer apps open.

[NisusUser]

Well, Martin, I must learn to let you specialists have the last word on this stuff! I deleted all three instances (that one with 0KB was there), and then I reinstalled. I can now open two files in a row from Finder without it opening two versions of NWP. THANKS!

[martin]

That's great, I'm glad the problem is gone! I'm happy to have helped

[NisusUser]

Guess what? I just got the same message again. And once again I already had an RTF file open with NWP, and was right-clicking from Finder to open a TXT file. I think I sense a pattern here.

[martin]

I'm not sure why this problem has returned again, but somehow the Finder must be getting confused and is launching two different copies of NWP from your Mac. The next time it happens, why don't you right-click each of the two NWP icons in your Dock and choose the menu Options > Show in Finder. That way you can at least see which copies the Finder is using and eliminate one of them.

[NisusUser]

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup of my machine every night. I think that NWP was launching from the external back up disk.

I think this fixed it: (1) Set System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy so that the external drive is not indexed [whether this step is needed or not, I don't know]. (2) Eject the back up drive so it's not even attached to the computer. [I had to shut down NWP first since it was running off of that disk.] (3) Cmd-I (or right click) on an .rtf file name in Finder. Click to the "Open With" tab and select some other word processor (not NWP) to open RTF files. Do the same thing again, but this time select NWP. Then select "Apply to All". And then click on a file in Finder and it will open the file with the version of NWP on the main HD of the computer, not the external backup drive. (4) Re-attach the external drive (so CCC can find it in the night and do the backup). (5) Enjoy writing with NWP.

As of right now, all is well, and the problem hasn't recurred after taking the above steps.

[martin]

That's great, I'm glad you solved the problem. Hopefully your Finder doesn't make any screwy choices in the future! Honestly it used to be pretty bad about selecting the wrong application — it used to sometimes even launch apps from the Trash — but it's been much better for a long time now.