I’m not sure why – I must’ve changed a setting somewhere – but recently whenever I click ‘send an email’ in OS X it opens up a Chrome browser window and tries to send a new email through Gmail.

I wanted to send email with the old fashioned OS X Mail app. I went searching through the Apple ‘System Preferences’ and could not find a setting anywhere to set the default email client. Even if you search for ‘Mail’ in the System Preferences nothing comes up. That’s because the default app for opening email is set from within the mail app itself.

To set the default application that automatically launches when you open a new email, you have to open the OS X built-in mail app, go to preferences, and then select the app you want to use.

This is actually the way it works across all of OS X, although it is a little inconsistent.

So to set the default calendar application it’s the same. You go into the calendar application and from there you can choose any default calendar application.

Setting the default browser is slightly different. You cannot do it from Safari. You need to go into the browser that you would like to use, for example Chrome or Firefox, then select preferences, then select ‘ make this the default browser’.