Cycle desktop pictures doesn't loop

Hi,
For my desktop picture, I have a photo album in iPhoto of all my favourite travel photos. I set the System Preferences to change them every minute, in random order. My problem is that I only have about 60 of them, and so after about an hour, it gets to the end and just stops, and stays on one picture. I would like to be able to loop it, so that it keeps changing them indefinitely, like loop on iTunes. The only way I have found to do this is to go into System Preferences when it's reached the end, and untick "Random Order',then retick it. There must be an easier way. Can anyone help me?

Thank you for your feedback. I hope it will help many people having drive letters assignation problems.
have a nice day.
The search box on top-right of this page is your true friend, and the public Knowledge Base too:

Similar Messages

Photo from Iphone as desktop picture doesn't work

Hello,
I use my Iphone for a lot of pictures. When I transfer them to Iphoto, they look fine. However, i would like to use some as my desktop picture and they come out very big and cut half of the picture off. I have gone to edit, crop and tried changing the picture size but nothing seems to work. Pictures from my regular camera have no problems. Thanks for your help.

get rid of "get selected finder items" action when saving a workflow as a finder plugin. That action is automatically included. the plugin should work ok without it.

Why doesn't my desktop picture stay on my Macbook Pro Retina Display?

I select my desktop picture, and it puts it as it. But once I shut my computer off and turn it back on, it's back to the Lion desktop picture. But when I go into the system preferences, it says that my picture is the one that I selected before. I don't get it, can someone help? Are any of you having the same problem?

Try right clicking the picture and say Set as Desktop Background.

How do I change the desktop picture on *all* windows with Lion?

I'm sure I'm just missing a simple setting, but ... I changed the desktop background to something I found I thought I'd like, using right click/use as desktop background. Didn't like it. Went to System prefs to change it, and selected the Pond Reeds pic that comes preloaded with Lion. Great! Except it only changed it to that in one workspace. All the others still have the background I don't like, and going to each workspace, right clicking and choosing "change desktop picture" just shoots me back to the system prefs workspace and doesn't change anything. What's the right answer (It's an older MacBook Pro, but running Lion, just upgraded to it a few days ago.)

Thank you!!! I knew it must be something simple, that I just haven't had time to figure out yet (the day after I upgraded, my son went into the hospital and had to have heart surgery, so I haven't spent a lot of time getting to know Lion.). Your help is much much appreciated!

Company-wide Desktop Picture on Mavericks Clients

We're looking at rolling out Mavericks on our systems at work, and I have set up a test machine to make sure everything will work as expected. We have a Lion server that is using Workgroup Manager MCX (instead of Profile Manager, which will change) to distribute policies to all the workstations. All of them are working well except for the desktop picture.
Now, I understand that the setting for desktop picture in Mavericks is no longer in a plist, but in an sqlite database. Is there any way to set the desktop picture using the Workgroup or Profile Managers for a Mavericks client? I don't want to replace the default picture on Mavericks systems because we update the desktop picture regularly.
EDIT: I should add, I tried to write a login script to do it, but I couldn't get it to run. The script has this single line:
tell application "System Events" to set picture of every desktop to "/Volumes/Groups/Everyone/Wallpapers/Current.png"

Your script is a kludgy hack that won't prevent users from changing the Desktop for the entirety of their session .
The correct way to do this is with Managed Preferences for OSX also called 'MCX' as you have already seen.
There is a tweak that should still work on 10.9 to import all the Apple based 'managed preference keys'.
Get Workgroup Manager for the same OS as the server (you may need the server admin tools, it varies, search for both). It may need to be the 10.9 version on Mavericks.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/#workgroup%20manager
Open WGM on a client, connect to the server (do not work in the local node!). Select the group or computer group you are managing & select the 'Preferences > Details tab'. Click the + button to add the following…
/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app
This will give you the power to manage a lot of extra keys, find the 'Desktop picture' in the list, double click it, decide how often to manage it (once = first login, often = at each login, always = what it says ).
Select 'Often' & create a New Key, click the new item & select the key to manage (in this case Background). It should autofill the other values (e.g. image path & the path to the current Desktop. Sometimes Always won't create the key correctly, so create it inside often & drag it down.
Once all that is saved login as a member of the managed group & it should pull down the desired MCX prefs (reboot).
Your Macs will need to bound to the server for this to work & I haven't tested on 10.9 (WGM doesn't want to apply these to the local node, which may indicate it isn't possible.
I'd strongly suggest you copy the desired image to the Macs in question to increase reliability, or host it in an auto mount that appears in /Networks.
Good luck

Desktop pictures: is there a limit to number of pictures

Hi there
I have a folder full of pictures (ie 6 thousand) that rotate through the desktop.
Is there a limit to how many pictures I can have in the source folder and still have the display & computer functioning all right?
Also, does changing the pic every 5 seconds have a negative impact on the Mac?
thanks in advance
denis

That is not the best idea in the world to be using a folder with that many images.
It requires a lot of memory usage to change the desktop pictures every 5 seconds, especially when it has to cycle through thousands of images.

Desktop pictures do NOT rotate/change on secondary display

For some peculiar reason, my desktop pictures do NOT change / rotate on my secondary display.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2007) running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and I have dual displays. My primary display (the MBP screen) DOES change / rotate picture every minute, but I want my secondary display to do the same.
It seems that restarting does fix it, but only temporarily. I think it might have to do with plugging/unplugging the secondary display and sometimes if it's working, I disconnect and reconnect the monitor and then the pictures stop rotating.
All my desktop picture settings are correct in System Preferences. I tried unchecking then rechecking the "Change picture:" checkmark, but that doesn't fix anything. I also tried clicking on different folders in the left column of the Pref Pane, then clicking back on my chosen desktop pictures folder.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I discovered that for this particular file if you check the "random order" box under Desktop preferences, then the pictures will rotate like the rest of the photo files in the collection

Feature Request: Cover Flow for Selecting Desktop Picture

Cover Flow is a great way to scan through a set of images within a defined visual real estate. It would be perfect for the Desktop System Preferences, where we users have had to suffer forever with squinting at 72x51pixel images (at 1440x900 resolution) of our desktops. It's nearly impossible at this thumbnail size to tell what image one is looking at, and selecting to view it in the preview at 128x73 pixels is only marginally better. And of course, there's no way I know of to expand the System Preferences window to expand this whole scanario. It's the year 2009 guys; please give us your great Cover Flow to help us choose our Desktop Pictures in a reasonable way.

Hi Scott,
I know this isn't the best place, but Apple doesn't make easily apparent where to submit such requests, and I know its staff do occasionally visit these boards.
As to the appropriateness of the expectation, I have to disagree. I make my living in user interface and usability, and Apple has clearly set the expectation in the user's mind that System Preferences is the primary method for setting all sorts of Finder behaviors, including screensavers and desktop pictures. I see no reason for the user to either accept a substandard main method of setting this preference or have to learn a secondary one simply to avoid the main method.
As to the System Preference not lending itself to Cover Flow, there may be some underlying technology of which I'm unaware, but interface-wise, it seems to fit right into the Preference screen:
http://www.loungelife.com/DesktopSystemPref.jpg

Zooming desktop pictures without "pixelating"?

Greetings. I have a number of photos I downloaded that I want to use as desktop pictures. The photo size is 800 x 600 (pixels). The native screen resolution on my MacBook is 1280 x 800. When I set the picture in the "Desktop" system pref, I am not happy with the CENTERING option. But when I select the FILL SCREEN option the photos become all "pixelated" on the display (because, of course, they are not large enough to fill the screen at native resolution).
Curiously though, when I set the same photos to display in the "Screen Saver" system pref, they zoom in WITHOUT ANY "PIXELATING!" Can anyone explain to me why the zoom effect in "Screen Saver" doesn't pixelate the photos, and is there anyway to tap into this zoom capability in the "Desktop" system pref to view smaller photos at full screen? Is there a third party utility that can do this?
Thanks!

Greetings. I found several "screen saver run as desktop picture" options (including a cool widget called "Desktopsaver Plus") that essentially accomplishes what I'm after.

Custom desktop picture disappears after restart

Ever since I purchased my MacBook Pro my custom desktop picture disappears after a restart. I select a photo either from the internet or my iphoto library and when I reboot the computer it goes back to the original desktop pattern, my photo is gone. Has anybody noticed the same problem on theirs and if so, have you found a solution? Its not a big deal, mostly goes under 'curious why this happens and how can I fix it' category . . .

Try running the combo update.
10.9.4 Combo Update
If that doesn't work, go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Restart and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.
You might need to redo the View settings after an update.

Desktop pictures include non-choice

This is a strange one: I went to the system preferences and chose the desktop picture that I want, and have it changing every minute - the only thing is, it ADDS pictures from one of the other folders that I have NOT chosen. It doesn't stay on the desktop as long as the ones that I have picked - but it still is included in the random display!! I read many of the posts, and went to disk utilities and attempted to repair permissions, but there were no problems - and the problem is continuing!
MacBookPro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

It seems to me that the option does not appear if you select an Apple default folder that contains pix that are the max size for your monitor. If you pick one of your own folders and click on one of the pix therein the options reappear.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Folders added to "Desktop Pictures" not visible in System Prefs...

Hello,
I am trying to add additional wallpaper images to the "/Library/Desktop Pictures" directory. I can add images to this dir and they are visible in the Desktop & Screen Saver preferences, however newly added folders are not (I would like to add folders so I can keep the pictures organized).
How do I get Desktop & Screen Saver prefs to see new folders?
-Steve

Hi Mike,
Thanks very much! That did the trick!
Just so you know, there is one additional file I edited to make the folders appear with the desired name. Basically if you just add the text to Collections.plist it will display the folder but with the name on the identifier tag. If you want the folder to show a name other than the identifier you have to edit the Collections.strings file in the English.lproj directory.
Here are the instructions I've put together for this whole procedure:
--------------------INSTRUCTIONS------------------------
- cd /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane/Contents/Resou rces/DesktopPictures.prefPane/Contents/Resources
- sudo vi Collections.plist
- add additional items in the following form:
identifier = myPatterns;
path = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/My Patterns";
showScalingPopUp = YES;
- save file and exit
THEN
- cd English.lproj
- sudo vi Collections.strings
add line entries in the following format:
myPatterns = "My Patterns";
(the tag on the left of the '=' sign must match the identifier noted above)
save file and exit
--------------------INSTRUCTIONS------------------------
The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to get the scaling drop-down box to appear; you know, the drop-down box that gives you the following choices on how to display the image: Fill screen, Stretch to fill screen, Center, Tile.
I see in the Collections.plist file there is a tag for showScalingPopUp and I've set this to YES on some folders, but it doesn't bring up the drop-down box when I select an image within that folder.
I can certainly live without this b/c it's not that critical, but still it's curious...
-Steve

Desktop Picture won't change....

My girlfriend just re-installed mac osx 10.3.9 on her ibook, and put some images on the computer to use as desktop pictures. Not only do they not change to them, but none of the pre-installed apple desktops work either. What could be the cause of this?
Thanks,
Steve

Probably she has to check the owner settings and repair the user rights. If that doesn't help, delete the finder.plist and restart. Still no change, create a new user account and try to change the desktop picture in this account.
It should work.
Just my 2 cents.
Greetings, ilikejapan

"set as desktop picture" option completely disappeared!

I'm running snow leopard on a mac mini, and up until yesterday I could select any photo I had on my computer, right click and select "set as desktop picture" at the bottom of the options. Now, my options end at label colours, and is no where to be found. I phone apple tech support and they are completely stumped. anyone who can answer this one is a hero I suppose.
Also, I have selected another user in accounts to test if it happens there when I log out, and it works just fine when I do so, so this is related to a user acount (my main one). The tech support said to find apple.com.finder.plst and drag to the desktop+restart, but this didn't work either. Any ideas?

If your contextual menu stops at Labels, something is blocking the Services menu. I'm not sure why Applecare tech support would start at deleting those plists which have nothing to do with the services menu.
First, Go to an Application menu, like Safari, and select Services>Services Preferences… Look in the Pictures section and make sure that "Set Desktop Picture" is selected.
If that's not it, open up your user Library/Contextual Menu Items folder and see if anything is in there; if so, move them all to the desktop. Log out and log back in. It's likely that folder doesn't even exist there, but just in case. Since it is only your user, I don't think the main Contextual Menu Items folder in /Library/ would cause problems, but you could try the same with anything in there.
The next step would be doing same with your user Library/Services folder. Move everything out of that folder to a folder on your desktop and see if that helps.
If at any time something starts working, you can move items back one at a time and see what happens. When it stops working again, remove the last item you moved back.

Desktop picture won't save

Every time I turn on my MacBood Pro lap top, the desktop picture changes. I put the picture I want up, and then the next time I turn on the computer
the picture is replaced by another one. How do I get it to save the picture I want on my desktop?

You likely have a corrupted preference (.plist) file that needs to deleted and the machine rebooted, which will rebuild the preference file from a master copy.
See #12/#13 here to find the corrupted ones.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Then read here for how to remove it.
Deleting the System Preference or other .plist file
If you have done this and it still doesn't work, then go back and run through the Steps more throughly to be systematic.
Sometimes the master copy of the preference file is corrupted, that may require having to remove all the user data from the account and deleting it, rebooting and then making the same user account again, or simply transfering all the user data to a new account.
What this does is it rebuilds the master copy of the preference file, so that the copy of the preference file your using is also pristine and awaiting your new preferences to be stored in it.

Cycle desktop pictures doesn't loop

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for