Open applications for devices or discs

You can have an application automatically start when you plug in a device or insert a disc or media card. For example, you might want your photo organizer to start when you plug in a digital camera. You can also turn this off, so that nothing happens when you plug something in.

To decide which applications should start when you plug in various devices:

  1. Open the Activities overview and start typing Removable Media.

  2. Select Settings ▸ Apps from the results. This will open the Apps panel.

  3. Select Default Apps to open the panel.

  4. In the Removeable Media section, switch the Automatically Launch Apps switch to on.

  5. Find your desired device or media type, and then choose an application or action for that media type. See below for a description of the different types of devices and media.

    Instead of starting an application, you can also set it so that the device will be shown in the file manager, with the Open folder option. When that happens, you will be asked what to do, or nothing will happen automatically.

  6. If you do not see the device or media type that you want to change in the list (such as Blu-ray discs or E-book readers), click Other Media to see a more detailed list of devices. Select the type of device or media from the Type drop-down and the application or action from the Action drop-down.

If you do not want any applications to be opened automatically, whatever you plug in, switch the Automatically Launch Apps switch to off.

Types of devices and media

Audio discs

Choose your favorite music application or CD audio extractor to handle audio CDs. If you use audio DVDs (DVD-A), select how to open them under Other Media. If you open an audio disc with the file manager, the tracks will appear as WAV files that you can play in any audio player application.

Video discs

Choose your favorite video application to handle video DVDs. Use the Other Media button to set an application for Blu-ray, HD DVD, video CD (VCD), and super video CD (SVCD). If DVDs or other video discs do not work correctly when you insert them, see Why won’t DVDs play?.

Blank discs

Use the Other Media button to select a disc-writing application for blank CDs, blank DVDs, blank Blu-ray discs, and blank HD DVDs.

Cameras and photos

Use the Photos drop-down to choose a photo-management application to run when you plug in your digital camera, or when you insert a media card from a camera, such as a CF, SD, MMC, or MS card. You can also simply browse your photos using the file manager.

Under Other Media, you can select an application to open Kodak picture CDs, such as those you might have made in a store. These are regular data CDs with JPEG images in a folder called Pictures.

Music players

Choose an application to manage the music library on your portable music player, or manage the files yourself using the file manager.

E-book readers

Use the Other Media button to choose an application to manage the books on your e-book reader, or manage the files yourself using the file manager.

Software

Some discs and removable media contain software that is supposed to be run automatically when the media is inserted. Use the Software option to control what to do when media with autorun software is inserted. You will always be prompted for a confirmation before software is run.

Never run software from media you don’t trust.