Stop TextEdit saving as RTF on Mac

TextEdit saves as .rtf because it opens new documents in rich-text mode by default. Switch that default to plain text — in TextEdit → Settings, or with one Terminal command — and every new file you create saves as a real .txt file instead. Existing .rtf files convert with a single menu command.

Why you keep getting .rtf files

Rich Text Format stores fonts, sizes, colours, and layout alongside your words. TextEdit uses it as the out-of-the-box document type, so when you press Cmd+S, the save sheet offers .rtf and that's what lands on disk — even if you typed nothing but plain words. That's a problem when something else needs to read the file: a website upload that expects .txt, a script that reads a config, or another app that shows you raw RTF markup instead of your text. The fix isn't to fight the save sheet each time; it's to change what a "new document" means.

Make plain text the default format

1. Open TextEdit and choose TextEdit → Settings in the menu bar.
2. Click the New Document tab.
3. Under Format, choose Plain text.
4. While you're here, open the Open and Save tab and tick Add ".txt" extension to plain text files so saved files always carry the extension.

From now on, new documents save as UTF-8 .txt files. If you'd rather set it without clicking, this is the exact same preference from Terminal — with the reverse command underneath to restore RTF:

# Save new documents as plain text (.txt)
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit RichText -int 0

# Undo — make rich text (.rtf) the default again
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit RichText -int 1

Relaunch TextEdit afterward. The behaviour is identical on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia, and it changes only your account's default — nothing system-wide.

Convert an .rtf file you already have

Changing the default doesn't touch files you saved earlier. To turn an existing rich-text file into a plain text file:

1. Open the .rtf file in TextEdit.
2. Choose Format → Make Plain Text (or press Shift+Cmd+T) and confirm when it warns about removing styling.
3. Choose File → Save. TextEdit now writes a .txt file.

Because the original was saved as .rtf, you may end up with both files; delete the .rtf once you've confirmed the .txt looks right.

Batch-convert without opening each file

If you have a folder full of .rtf files to turn into text, macOS ships textutil for exactly that — one command converts a whole directory at once. See converting files with textutil for the syntax, and turn on visible file extensions in Finder so you can always tell a .txt from a .rtf at a glance.