Unable to set Chrome as default web browser in OS X

Question

On my Mac (Catalina Version 10.15.5), I'm not able to change my default browser to Google Chrome.

When I go to Settings -> General, under Default Web Browser, I only see options for Safari and Firefox. When I open my Chrome settings and click on Make default, I get a notification saying

Do you want to change your default web browser to "com.google.Chrome" or keep using "Safari"?

I click on Use com.google.Chrome but it doesn't do anything and links still open in Safari. Any ideas on what might be happening and how to fix?

Answer 1

I had the same exact problem immediately after a kernel panic restart and I was able to resolve this by performing a system reboot. After the reboot, chrome was restored as my default browser. My laptop is a work laptop and the chrome policy is managed by my employer, FYI.

Answer 2

In my case there was a pending update of Chrome. After re-launching it the option for setting Chrome as default bowser was available again in:

Apple menu  > System Preferences -> General -> ”Default web browser” 

Answer 3

Google Apple Menu -> System Settings -> search for Default web Browser and you can see a drop down for default browser, set to safari -> change it as per your need.

Answer 4

I had a similar issue where Chrome was not getting listed as an option in Default Browsers option in System Preferences. Only Safari, Edge and Firefox where shown.

In chrome://settings, there is a tab about Default Browser, where you can trigger this from within Chrome browser.

Answer 5

That happened to me as well. One thing I noticed was that in the upper right corner of the Chrome browser window there was an "Update Chrome" button.

After updating Chrome and letting it restart, Chrome once again appeared in the list in the System->General->DefaultBrowser drop-down widget.

Answer 6

Restarting my mac also fixed this issue