Desktop background changing in Mavericks

Hi,
I use Mavericks on my mid 2011 iMac with a desktop background taken from my Aperture photo library. Twice over the last fortnight I have switched on the Mac to find that my background has been replaced by a large wave (presumably the Mavericks wave).
Has anyone else had this?
Jon

You have to click on the picture in the lower frame, not in the preview upper left.
Problem resolved!

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Every time I turn my mac off, the desktop background changes. It always returns to the same picture, which was the second or third thing I changed my desktop to after getting my mac.

Every time I turn my mac off, the desktop background changes. It always returns to the same picture, which was the second or third thing I changed my desktop to after getting my mac. I have background switching unchecked in my preferences, and I have never selected it as an option. Also, when I go to my preferences, it will show the icon of the picture I changed it to, even though the desktop itself has switched back.

I would start with some basic troubleshooting.
REPAIRING DISK PERMISSIONS -
NOTE: refer to article "About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature" found here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452 - for the actual apple article on these step. ----
- click finder in the bottom dock, and in the window that opens, select applications in the left column - scroll through until you see the 'Utilities' folder and double click to open it. Then double click on 'Disk Utility'
- When prompted to select a disk volume or image, select the 'Macintosh HD' in the left column
- ensure the the "first aid" tab is highlighted blue in the middle of the screen
- click the button at the bottom that says 'Repair Disk Permissions'
- this process will take a few minutes to run. It will indicate it's done, by scrolling to the bottom of the "details area" displaying 'Permissions repair complete'
Dan Frankes has written an excellent article for Macworld on "Permissions" and the need to repair them - see - http://www.macworld.com/article/52220/2006/08/repairpermissions.html. Another good web site is - http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/durepairfns.html.
REPAIRING DISK - About OS X Recovery - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718.
- restart your computer hold down command + R keys on the keyboard to boot you into Lion / Mountain Lion Recovery mode
- select english as your main language then the continue arrow
- select "Disk Utility" on the resulting screen then 'Disk Utility' ---
- When prompted to select a disk volume or image, select the 'Macintosh HD' in the left column
- ensure the the "first aid" tab is highlighted blue in the middle of the screen
- click the button at the bottom that says 'REPAIR DISK' .......NOT "Repair disk permissions"
- this process will take a few minutes to run. It will indicate it's done, by scrolling to the bottom of the "details area" displaying "The Macintosh HD appears OK"
If you get any other message OTHER than "The Macintosh HD appears OK", like "the Macintosh HD was repaired successfully" run the "Disk Repair" again, until it displays "The Macintosh HD appears OK".
Once done, restart the computer as normal

Portege R830: desktop background changing

I want to have a desktop background or wallpaper different from the Toshiba one.
I don't succeed in getting it via windows. I use a Portege R830 and Windows 7.
Mia.

Please open option Personalization > click at the bottom on Desktop Background > Change option in Picture location > choose favourite motive and click on Save changes.
Does it work for you?
Sorry but I cannot imagine it cannot work.

Desktop Background changes on it's own after login

Hi everyone!
Ok I have a small but annoying issue with my iMac.
First thing's first, I am using OS X Leopard 10.5.6. I have also enabled "Enable fast user switching"
in System Preferences under the User Accounts menu.
I have my desktop background set to "Change picture every 5mins" & that is working perfectly fine,
however I notice that when I go to the Login window by clicking the "fast user switching" icon on
the top right-hand menu, then logging in back to my account, my desktop background changes to
a default picture that my computer selects each time I log back in. This picture is not even in the
folder of pictures that I use for my "Change picture every 5mins" setting. By the way this picture is one of the pre-loaded ones from Apple; it's from the nature series, the one seen in the latest 17" Macbook Pro ad, anyone seen it? Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/#ad
Is anyone else having the same issue? I would appreciate any help anyone can provide!
Thanks!
zwan

Hi lewisspindlove,
Thanks for your input,
it doesn't happen when i have my desktop in a "single picture" mode, and,
it doesn't happen on other accounts, because besides mine(Admin), there is only
the Guest account and this does not occur on that account.
I tried your method of removing the wallpapers folder from Libary, then I
noticed that the computer will select ANY image which I last used when in
"single picture" mode, not "Change picture every 5mins" mode.
For example, let's say I have a picture which I saved in the Documents folder,
and I use that in "single picture" mode; after which I revert back to the folder which contains the pictures I want for "Change picture every 5mins" mode (which is stored somewhere else).
If i go to the Login window & log back in again, the computer selects the picture
I last used (the one in the Documents folder) as my background, BUT, after 5mins the picture changes to the ones I'm using for "Change picture every 5mins".
I hope I'm not confusing everyone!
This is a complicated & weird but ANNOYING problem!
Any ideas if an Archive & Install would help? Does that erase all of my stored data on my HDD?

Desktop background changes when I change the user

The background changes from solid dark grey to solid dark aqua blue, when I make a quick user change. It happens automatically. Even when both desktops have the same (dark grey) background. This is a mess. Is it a bug?
Thomas

that usuall happens when you are not connected to the internet. if you were running wifi your connection could have been lost for a moment and then recovered.

Desktop background changed to black

After closing Photoshop CS6 my desktop background had turned to black. I had been playing around with the background color choices in the program before i exited.
Winsows 7 starter edition SP 1
1 GB Ram
ATI 7800 video card

I didn't even think you could set a desktop background image in Windows 7 Starter. Did you do something out of the ordinary to get it there? Or are you saying you had a different solid color?
In any case, it's hard to imagine changing Photoshop settings had anything to do with that. Any chance you actually changed the desktop color by accident, thinking you were changing Photoshop's background? What dialog were you using to "play around with the background color choices"?
-Noel

Desktop Background changes with restart

Every time I re-start the computer, my chosen desktop background is replaced with the standard Yosemite mountain picture.

Hi M, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
These are user-to-user forums, so people here may not know what Apple is aware of, and the opposite is also true; Apple may not be aware of things just because they are posted here. If they are aware of the issue, you can hope that they will fix it in the next point update, and/or you can offer feedback to them here. Good luck.

Desktop background changed

When I started my Mac, there was a new desktop background. Anyone know what this means? Thanks!

iMacs don't run iOS. You can customize the desktop background through Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Desktop and Screen Saver with Mac OS X. If you have a different background it could mean a different user is logged in, or you have a program that is defaulting to a Space with a different background through Mission Control in System Preferences. Prior to Mac OS X, the operating system forum you posted to, application such as DéCor let you customize your wallpaper. Without knowing what you are running, it is hard to say. Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac. And then knowing what you are running decide whether to pick a different forum to get your answer:
http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2463

Whenever I shutdown my mac book pro the desktop background changes. How can I fix this?

Please help

If you log in automatically, a bug in some versions of OS X will cause the desktop picture to revert to the default image at every startup. The only known workaround is to disable automatic login in the Users & Groups preference pane.
If the selected Desktop picture is stored in an iPhoto library on an external drive, export it from iPhoto and move it to a folder on the startup volume. (Credit for this solution to ASC member janay.)
If the desktop picture always reverts to a plain blue background, one of your login items may be causing the problem. The "TeamViewer" application can have this effect; see this thread. If it's not that in your case, rule out all other third-party login items as possible causes.
If you have a MacBook Pro model with automatic graphics switching, disable it temporarily in the Energy Saverpreference pane, set the Desktop picture, then reboot and re-enable graphics switching.
If none of the above applies to you, proceed as follows.
Back up all data.
In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following item, if it exists:
Caches/com.apple.systempreferences
and move the following items to the Desktop, if they exist:
Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db
Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
Launch System Preferences and test. If you still have the issue, put the items you moved to the Desktop back where they came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the items.

Desktop Background Change

My brother likes to change his background on his computer every week or so and he gets kinda tired of changing it all the time but he gets bored easily...
He knows i like to program and he asked if i could make one that does it for him...
my problem is i dont know how to set a picture as the background from a java program. i have made a simple piglatin prgram that takes a file and changes the words into pig latin (i was bored)
if i knew how to change the background with the java program then i could just make it select a picture file at random and do it...
Can anyone help me?
and also how do i set up a JAR file?
yes im new

avehey ouyey earchedsey iney esethey orumsfey etyey?
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Some iphoto pictures not usable as desktop background

I want to set my desktop background as a slideshow of my favourite iPhoto'08 pictures. While experimenting, I've discovered that some of my iPhoto pictures don't seem to work as a desktop background.
Here's what I do (and note that I'm translating from a Swedish version of OSX here):
Right-click on the desktop, choose 'Change desktop background'. In the 'Desktop and Screensaver' dialog, Desktop tab, scroll down the left-hand side list of iPhoto albums (among other things), and select my favourite iPhoto album (Flagged). Wait for the previews to load. Select one of the pictures.
Now, what happens can be one of two things. Either I'll see a slightly bigger preview in the left upper corner of the dialog and I'll see the desktop background change to the picture in question. Or I'll only see the slightly bigger preview in the left upper corner, and the desktop background will turn a boring solid color.
Now, iPhoto itself has no problems with these pictures, and shows them properly. Also, if I use the little + below the left-hand side list to add a folder on the harddrive directly to the list, I can get the broken pictures to show up correctly, as long as I don't go through iPhoto.
So, yeah, that gives me a potential workaround: Export my favourite album now and then, and use the exported folder as background slideshow source. I'd rather have a better solution, where things just work like they're supposed to.
The pattern I've noticed is that iPhoto-modified pictures work fine, non-iPhoto-modified pictures don't seem to work. (That is, if right-clicking on a preview in iPhoto has the menu item 'Show original file' active, the picture will work, if the item is greyed out, the picture won't work.)
A relevant detail in this may be that I've set iPhoto to not copy imported pictures into the library.
Any hints, clues? Now what?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
I think this relates to using a Referenced Library:
iPhoto-modified pictures work fine, non-iPhoto-modified pictures don't seem to work.
In other words, iPhoto will share the files it controls (the modifieds are inside the Library Package) and not the ones that it wont.
Simple test: Create a Managed Library (Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library', import a few pics and see if that works as expected.
Regards
TD

Desktop background and system preferances

everytime i turn on my mac the desktop background changes and the system preferances page is open?.....why?

please someone help..........everytime i turn on my mac the desktop background changes and the system preferences page is open......also with the web browser open......i keep changing my preferences but they never stay the same........a pop up said that my disk might be full?....what does that mean?

Desktop background won't stick

a couple of days ago my desktop background changed back to the default background (that blue swirly thing) and now i can't get a new background up. whenever i click on another one, it pops up on the desktop for a split second and then reverts back to the default background.
as a solution, i can create a new folder, put one picture in it, and then set it up so the pictures rotate every 5 seconds. that keeps the one picture up (since there is only one picture for it to rotate), but i can't get one to just stay without putting the rotate option on. this is really bizarre.
also, how do i get support from apple?? is there a number i can call or an email address or something? i've been on this website for a while trying to fix this and can't find any support. everybody talks about how great apple's customer service is so i guess i'm missing somehing.
thank you in advance to those who help me out; i just got this ibook 2 weeks ago and i'm not used to apples yet.

nevermind, it still doesn't work. has anybody else had this problem? also, how do i get help from apple??

How do I change what the desktop background is for new desktops?

I am on OS X Mavericks and I want to change my desktop background so that every new desktop I create has that background, but whenever I change the background, it only changes the background for the desktop I was currently in and all new desktops I create still have the old background. How do you change the background for new desktops?

Create a new Desktop and activate that desktop.
Control click to open the contextual menu>>Change background.
When it opens System preference/Desktop&ScreenSaver but takes you back to Desktop #1, simply drag the SysPreference window to the new Desktop to make the change. You can do this by mission control .

For some reason, I cannot change my desktop background no matter how many times I delete the "active" folder. It's as if it's locked. Any ideas how I can fix it?

For some reason, I cannot change my desktop background no matter how many times I delete the "active" folder. It's as if it's locked. Any ideas how I can fix it?

Yes it sounds like you have a corrupted preference file.
The setting you make in individual programs get saved to a Preference file in your Users/Library/Preferences folder.
All you have to do is drag out the old file to the desktop, reboot and load the program and the preference file gets rebuilt without your preferences which you reset.
For your case I beleive the preference file is
com.apple.desktop.plist

Desktop background changing in Mavericks

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