How to open .md files on a Mac

To open an .md file on a Mac, Control-click it in the Finder, choose Open With, and pick an app. An .md file is plain text with a few Markdown marks, so you can read and edit it in a text editor, or see it formatted in an editor with a Markdown preview such as VS Code. To make one app open every .md file, select a file, choose File > Get Info, pick the app under Open with, and click Change All.

The macOS steps below are from Apple's Mac User Guide and TextEdit User Guide, checked in October 2026 against macOS 27. If the # and ** marks inside the file are new to you, Markdown for beginners explains them in a few minutes.

How do you open an .md file once?

Apple lists four ways to open a file with an app you choose, without changing anything for other files (Apple Support, checked in October 2026):

1. Drag the file onto the app's icon in the Finder or the Dock.
2. Select the file in the Finder, choose File > Open With, then choose an app.
3. Control-click the file, choose Open With, then choose an app.
4. Open the app first, then choose File > Open and select the file.

How do you preview an .md file without opening an app?

Use Quick Look. According to Apple's Quick Look guide (checked in October 2026):

• Select one or more files in the Finder and press the Space bar. Press it again, or click the Close button, to close the preview.
• Zoom with Command-Plus (+) and Command-Minus (–).
• With several files selected, move between them with the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys, or press Command-Return for an index sheet.
• To start editing, click Open with [App] at the top of the preview.

Apple's page doesn't say how Quick Look displays Markdown, so press Space on one of your files and see what you get. It's a fast way to check which note is which before you open anything.

How do you make one app open every .md file?

To change the app that opens every .md file when you double-click it, follow Apple's steps (Apple Support, checked in October 2026):

1. Select an .md file, then choose File > Get Info. You can also Control-click the file and choose Get Info.
2. In the Info window, click the arrow next to Open with.
3. Click the pop-up menu, choose an app, then click Change All.

Apple's own caution applies: "Don't click Change All if you only want the specific file you selected to open with that app." Choosing an app without clicking Change All affects only that one file.

If you keep notes with other Markdown extensions, such as .markdown, open Get Info on one of those as well and check that it points to the same app.

Can TextEdit open Markdown files?

TextEdit comes with every Mac and works with plain text, which is what an .md file contains. To open a file from inside the app, Apple's steps are: "In the TextEdit app on your Mac, choose File > Open," then "Select the document, then click Open" (TextEdit User Guide, checked in October 2026).

Don't expect formatting. The formats that guide lists are Word, OpenDocument, Web Archive, HTML, rich text and plain text, with PDF as an export. Markdown isn't among them, so treat TextEdit as a way to edit the text itself, marks and all.

A few settings keep TextEdit from changing what you type in new documents. They live in TextEdit > Settings (Apple Support, checked in October 2026):

Pane	Setting	What to do for new Markdown notes
New Document	Format: Plain text	Select it, so new notes start as plain text
New Document	Smart quotes, Smart dashes	Turn off if you write code or exact punctuation
New Document	Text replacement	Turn off if replacements change your Markdown marks
Open and Save	Add ".txt" extension to plain text files	Turn off, so a note you name notes.md isn't given a .txt ending

One menu to avoid on an .md file: Format > Make Rich Text. Apple says the document then "saves as a .rtf file," which is no longer Markdown.

How do you see Markdown formatted on a Mac?

You need an app that renders Markdown. Two from large vendors:

Visual Studio Code. "VS Code supports Markdown files out of the box," according to its Markdown documentation (checked in October 2026). To set it up, per the macOS setup guide:

1. Download VS Code and open the downloaded .dmg file.
2. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to the Applications folder. It runs on Intel Macs and Macs with Apple silicon.
3. Open an .md file, then press ⇧⌘V to switch to the preview, or ⌘K V to open it to the side, per the Markdown documentation. You can also right-click the editor tab and choose Open Preview.

If you work in Terminal, open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P), type shell command, and run the command that installs code in PATH (setup guide, checked in October 2026). After that, code . opens the current folder. For Mermaid diagrams, export routes and more, see Markdown in VS Code.

Xcode. If you already have Xcode for development, Apple's Xcode updates page lists "Edit Markdown files with the new visual editor" under its June 2026 entry, and Xcode 27 was released on September 14, 2026 (both checked in October 2026). If Xcode 27 is already on your Mac, try its Markdown editor before you install anything else.

Which app should you use for .md files?

It depends on what you're doing with the file:

You want to	Use	Why
Glance at a note	Quick Look	Nothing to launch; select and press Space
Fix a typo or add a line	TextEdit	Already installed, opens plain text
Read a README or docs with formatting	VS Code or Xcode	Shows the formatting; made by Microsoft or Apple
Change what double-click does	Get Info > Change All	Applies to every file of that type
Write notes in Markdown every day	A dedicated Markdown editor	Formatting as you type, a folder of files

What if an .md file won't open or opens in the wrong app?

• It opens in the wrong app. Run Get Info > Change All again with the app you want.
• The app refuses it. Apple's advice: "If you can't open a file with a specific app, the file may be damaged or may not be recognized by that app. Try opening it with a different app." A text editor is a good second try, since an .md file is text.
• It now ends in .txt or .rtf. A .rtf ending means it was saved after Format > Make Rich Text. A .txt ending on a new note usually comes from TextEdit's 'Add ".txt" extension to plain text files' setting. Rename it back to .md if it still contains plain Markdown.

What if you want to write in Markdown, not just open it?

A dedicated editor shows headings, lists and tables formatted as you type, and opens a folder of notes instead of one file at a time. Noteline, which we make, is one option. Its Mac app adds itself to the Open With list for .md files without asking to be the default. To make it the default, use Get Info > Change All or File > Use Noteline for all .md Files. It has real gaps: it doesn't render math, shows images as their alt text rather than the picture, has no plugins and no built-in sync, and Word and PDF export are in the desktop app only. The notarized Mac downloads for Apple silicon and Intel are on the download page, and the terms are on the pricing page.