How to open .TSV files on Mac
To open .TSV files on Mac, open the .TSV in a spreadsheet app; if the data appears in one column, re-import it as a tab-delimited text file (delimiter: Tab).
Step-by-step instructions
- Open the .TSV in a spreadsheet app; if the data appears in one column, re-import it as a tab-delimited text file (delimiter: Tab).
- For inspection/troubleshooting, open it in a plain-text editor to verify tabs and line breaks.
Common issues
Everything appears in one column
The app opened the file as plain text without splitting on tabs, or it assumed a different delimiter (like commas).
- Re-open using an import workflow for delimited text and set the delimiter to Tab.
- Verify the file actually contains tab characters (open in a text editor and look for consistent spacing between fields).
Garbled characters (encoding issues)
TSV is plain text, but different tools may assume different character encodings, causing accents/symbols to display incorrectly.
- Re-import the TSV and choose a different text encoding (commonly UTF-8, if available).
- Ask the sender/exporting system which encoding was used and re-export as UTF-8 if possible.
Rows break unexpectedly or data shifts
Inconsistent line endings or embedded newlines/tabs inside fields can confuse parsers and cause records to split incorrectly.
- Open the file in a text editor and check for unexpected line breaks within a single logical record.
- Re-export from the source system with consistent record separators and proper handling of embedded newlines.
Double-click opens the wrong application
Your system’s file association may map .tsv to an app that doesn’t import it as a table.
- Use “Open with” to choose a spreadsheet or text editor.
- On Linux, update the association using your desktop environment’s MIME/file association settings (per the Shared MIME-info approach).
Security note
A .TSV file is typically plain text and does not contain macros by itself, but it can still carry untrusted data that triggers problems in the software that imports it (parser bugs or unexpected data types). Prefer opening in a reputable spreadsheet/text tool and avoid obscure importers for untrusted files.