
Now, this works only because the application is smart enough to differentiate between different kinds of files (audio, video, text document).īut, it fails to work when you change the file format to a completely different file type.
#Open any file type mp4
On the other hand, changing file type may work in the case of similar files like DOC to TXT, MP3 to WAV, or MP4 to MKV. mp3 file, your image wouldn’t magically convert to an audio file. This happens because renaming doesn’t actually change the file format. For instance, even if you rename and change a. Instead, you get an error like “Can’t open this file” or receive garbage text which makes no sense. While you can rename the file and change its file type, it won’t work most of the time. Then, under the Advanced tab, enable the Show all filename extensions checkbox.Click Finder in the top left corner and select Preferences.On Windows 11, select Show > File name extensions. On Windows 10, enable the File name extensions checkbox.Nonetheless, here’s how you can view the file extension on Windows and Mac. For instance, if a supposed text file you downloaded off the Internet is in EXE format, it’s likely a virus.įurthermore, you can also reveal the file type to rename and change it to a different format.

However, you can easily view the extension of any file.Īfter a file is downloaded, your system’s security flags them as a virus or not based on their file type.
#Open any file type mac
Check File Typeīy default, file type/ file extension isn’t displayed on both Windows and Mac systems. Likewise, you can also use a third-party application or convert it using online converters. Since renaming doesn’t always work as expected, you can use the application’s save as/export feature to change the file type. So how do you actually change the file type? In this article, we have mentioned various ways to change the file type successfully. And, if done incorrectly, you may corrupt the file or lose some data in the process.

Have you ever wondered how the operating system shows a suitable application to open your specific file type? Well, they use the file extension to determine which available app might be able to open your file successfully and thus recommend it to you.Īlthough you could just rename the file and change it to a different format, it isn’t as simple as that and might not work perfectly.
