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I have Galaxy Nexus with JB. I got stock browser on it and Chrome and I also installed Firefox just to keep it there since I'm a developer and I can test stuff on all three.

But the question I'm having is, what happens if I set a particular browser as "always" when it asks me which one I'd like to use? I keep pressing "just once" because I don't know hot would I change it later if I desire to do so?

  1. Is it possible to change/reset this later? How?
  2. Does "always" set it as default just for that particular app that's redirecting to browser or does it set OS-wide?
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3

Disabling the default action for an intent is easy enough to do on ICS.

  1. From the launcher, press the menu button, and choose Manage apps.

  2. Select the app that you chose as the default for the action.

  3. Scroll down and touch Clear defaults.

enter image description here

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  • Great! I suppose JB should be no different in this regard? – Robert Koritnik Sep 9 '12 at 0:19
  • I don't see why it would be. This functionality has been in Android since nearly the beginning. – Michael Hampton Sep 9 '12 at 0:33
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    @RobertKoritnik I just booted up the JB emulator and it looks identical there. So go for it. – Michael Hampton Sep 9 '12 at 0:40
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If you can not find an appropriate setting on your device, you may have another app take care for that. There are some on the playstore addressing exactly your problem, e.g.: DefaultApp Reset1 explicitly states This will work on android 1.5-2.3.3+ & 3.0-3.2+ & 4.0-4.0.3+ & 4.1+, Default App Manager2 does not explicitly state (but is free, so you could check).

DefaultApp Reset Default App Manager

To your second question: It's rather system-wide for the same action. For example, if you open an audio file from the file manager, and select the player for "always" -- this will also be used if you select an audio file from, say, the browser. A second screenshot3 from the Default App Manager app may be helpful to understand this part:

Default App Manager

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  • AD1: Is there no other way to reset this apart from third party apps? – Robert Koritnik Sep 8 '12 at 22:38
  • AD2: But sometimes I get asked to select a browser, but sometimes browser+youtube? What happens in the second case if I set browser as always when an app asked me and only presented browsers? Do you know what I mean? – Robert Koritnik Sep 8 '12 at 22:40
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    I guess I get what you mean -- and maybe I wasn't clear enough with my explanation: If you select an .html file, it might ask you only for a browser. In this case, your selection will be remembered for .html files, regardless of from where you called it. Some Flash stuff (e.g. a Youtube link) might ask for browser+youtube -- again, your selection would be remembered for this special "file type" -- but not for .html (so in that case, you should be asked again when encountering an .html). Hard to explain in words -- I hope I made it this time? – Izzy♦ Sep 8 '12 at 22:51
  • Makes perfect sense. I just didn't know that this is related to file type. It makes perfect sense now. I can see myself selecting some "always" from now on. :) – Robert Koritnik Sep 9 '12 at 0:22
  • At least it is revertable, in case of an error. Besides: It automatically reverts if you update/re-install the affected app (it does so in Gingerbread at least). Besides: If this solves your issue, feel free to accept the answer by clicking the checkmark next to it ;) – Izzy♦ Sep 9 '12 at 0:41
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On the Kindle Fire (Gingerbread), I go into Settings > Applications > Third Party Applications and select Dolphin Browser, my usual default browser. There is a Clear Defaults button on Dolphin's page. That button un-defaults my browser and restores the question.

I would expect you'd have to do something similar - use system-settings for a given application - to undo it's default-ness.

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  • Thanks but... Gingerbread is a completely diff OS than ICS or JB (which could at least be considered very similar to some extent). And second, you're talking about Kindle Fire which is an Android but I think we agree that of all the companies that skin Android Fire is the most changed OS. Long(er) story short: No such setting on my Galaxy Nexus with JB. – Robert Koritnik Sep 8 '12 at 22:12

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