Desktop background never changes

Hi, I've got my desktop backgrounds set to change every day from a folder of artwork, with random order, but it never changes. I tried removing
com.apple.desktop.plist and
com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.plist
to the desktop, as I've seen others suggest, but it made no difference. Any ideas?

Sorry about that, you can add it back in?
Try this, if you dare (that's only a joke)... Quit System Preferences and delete these files:
Delete these files or folders then relaunch System Preferences.
Users/yourname/Library/Preferences /com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/By Host/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
You'll need to reset some prefs...
-mj

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Desktop backgrounds all changed?

Hello internets! So my desktop backgrounds have all been downloaded with a resolution of 1600x1200, while my resolution in settings is 1280x800. And while this has never been a problem before, now all my backgrounds are zoomed in slightly and are cut off on the bottom. I don't have zoom on and the rest of desktop is the same....anyone know what to do?
Thanks!

Take these steps if the cursor changes from an arrow to a white "prohibited" symbol when you try to move an icon on the Desktop.
Sometimes the problem may be solved just by logging out or rebooting. Try that first, if you haven't already done it. Otherwise, continue.
Select the icon of your home folder (a house) in the sidebar of a Finder window and open it. The Desktop folder is one of the subfolders. Select it and open the Info window. In the General section of the window, the Kind will be either Folder or something else, such as Anything.
If the Kind is Folder, uncheck the box marked Locked. Close the Info window and test.
If the Kind is not Folder, make sure the Locked box is not checked and that you have Read & Write privileges in the Sharing & Permissions section. Then close the Info window and do as follows.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo Desktop
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You should get a new line ending in a dollar sign ($). Quit Terminal.
Relaunch the Finder.
If the problem is now resolved, and if you use iPhoto, continue.
Quit iPhoto if it's running. Launch it while holding down the option key. It will prompt you to select a library. Choose the one you want to use (not the Desktop folder.)

How do I get the desktop background to change when it seems to be frozen

I have my desktop background from airliners.net. I went to change the background and it seems to be frozen. I also can't get photos from airliners.net.

You can use these steps to check if images are blocked:
*Open the web page that has the images missing in a browser tab.
*Click the website favicon ([[Site Identity Button]]) on the left end of the location bar.
*Click the "More Information" button to open the "Page Info" window with the Security tab selected (also accessible via "Tools > Page Info").
*Go to the <i>Media</i> tab of the "Tools > Page Info" window.
*Select the first image link and scroll down through the list with the Down arrow key.
*If an image in the list is grayed and there is a check-mark in the box "<i>Block Images from...</i>" then remove that mark to unblock the images from that domain.
Check the permissions for the domain in the current tab in "Tools > Page Info > Permissions"
See also:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Images_or_animations_do_not_load

Mac laptop screen going to sleep and changing desktop background

last weekend my daughter called to say that her Macbook was acting strange. On Friday night she saw the battery icon said 25%, so she shut the system down. The next morning she plugged it in and booted. It took a while and the desktop background had changed to something grey. Also, the screen would blank out after 30 seconds to a minute. If she hit the space bar it would show and then go black after the 30 to 60 second time period. I had her shutdown and boot to her external drive where she had a month old image of her system. It took a minute or two to boot (it always seems like a long time when you are on the phone). It came up as her normal system and background. She left it for over an hour and it did not black out or go to sleep. We were planning on doing a restore the next day, but when she did a normal boot later that day from the internal hard drive, it came up with her normal background and the screen stayed active. She had not tried to set any settings. Is there something that a low battery would do to change the energy settings? We were going to explore the settings when the system magically worked as normal. It seems strange that a boot to the external drive would restore settings so that the system worked normally.

Energy Saver and third party USB often don't go well hand in hand. I would though contact OWC and let them know you are having this problem, since they have a good track record of supporting the Mac platform. In the meantime, use Screen Saver instead of Energy Saver.
And always keep your data backed up at least twice as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Selecting and deselecting desktop background images

Can I select which Apple photos to use when setting desktop background to Change Picture? Put another way, can I deselect pictures I don't want to see? I hoped the "-" box at the bottom of the list would let me deselect folders or even specific images within folders, but it doesn't. I would like to have only the nature pictures in the Change Picture rotation.

You would have to create your own folder or album with select photos for this type control.
Use the + sign to add your album.

Blinking gray desktop background and no dock/launchpad/mission control

I just updated to Mountain Lion and my desktop background keeps changing from the picture to a gray screen. My dock also wont appear on the bottom of my screen and launch pad and mission control also do not work. I called Apple once and I reinstalled ML once already and its still doing it. Any suggestions?

reboot, hold CMD+R .
you'll be in the recovery partition.
go to disk utility, and Verify and Repair your boot disk and its permissions.
exit out of Disk Utility and then go to the area that says reinstall Mountain Lion.
Do so.
This will hopefully fix your issues.

Default Desktop Background

Hi,
Is there anyway to set a default desktop background through Workgroup Manager? I have created a custom background that i would like to use rather than the standard apple ones.
Can anyone help?
Thank You
Dave

Hi
When the default desktop background is changed com.apple.desktop.plist is created in the /Users/Home/Library/Preferences folder. If your server is an OD Master which I assume it is, you can save this preference in each user’s network home folder. You could do this from the server itself by copying the image to the server’s Home Pictures folder, defining the server’s background using this image, then copying the .plist to all the users home folders. Next time users log in they will get that setting. This will work with other settings that are not part of the managed preferences options available in WorkGroup Manager.

How do I change the PS desktop background to a .JPG or other suitable file format of my choosing?

Greetings,
I asked this question a couple months ago and never really received a satisfactory answer. Maybe Adobe holds these secrets close to the vest.
What I would like to accomplish is changing my PS desktop background so that every time I open PS it has a background that I have chosen. (Yes I know you can change the black and grey in the preferences panel) What I want is not necessarily in the preferences panel, unless I'm missing something altogether.
Now here I'm adding a screenshot of a fairly well known PS user CB (who is especially good at 3D) who has his background basically the way I would like mine. If anyone can tell me how to accomplish this thank you!
Sincerely,
Jim
What I'm looking for is something similar to the dark blue background. I have a JPG file similar to this that I would like to use. Now I was able to change the splash opening screen in Lightroom, so I imagine the fix is something similar.

Thanks,
That did work and it's the same as the frame in the sample I provided. Unfortunately not what I wanted. I guess I need to be much more specific. I would like to change the background to look similar to what that sample is, AND be able to have PS as an application that's on top of my desktop and not take up the entire desktop. (which is what happens if I break out the application frame) Probably not something that is doable. I was hoping that similar to changing the Lightroom Splash screen I could change the PS desktop background to something of my choosing other than black or shades of gray. Oh and I am on an iMac.
Thank you again Warunicorn for you help.

How to block the desktop picture /background from changing?

Since I have the Magic Mouse, some time my background changes the desktop photo
It happens when I move a photo in iPhoto or even when I move it on the desktop: I guess it happens
with the combination of the mouse and my movements with the fingers on the mouse itself
Never happened before. Every system preferences has a lock but the desktop.
Any good idea would be much appreciated : )

as you say there is no lock in that preference pane. you can do the following. set the desktop background as you want. in finder go to home directory/library/preferences. select the file com.apple.desktop.plist and enter command+i. in the resulting popup check the box "locked". this file contains preferences for desktop background and locking it will prevent any changes to the desktop background until you unlock it.

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

When I try to change my desktop background nothing happens

When I find a new image on the internet, for example with google images, and I attempt to change it to be the desktop background nothing happens. I attempted to save the file to the desktop or downloads and then set it to be the desktop background but again nothing happens. This has happened to me a couple of times and I am not sure what is causing it. When I restart the laptop the new background is set but this is really getting annoying.

No problem using PC terms with me. Most of my computer are Windows PCs. I'm fully versed on both platforms.
Well you are setting it to the desktop background. "Sorry" all you need to do is reboot to make it active.
Never done that and have no desire to try it. But I would think that if you Right Clicked (two finger click or control left click) on the image, selected Save As and saved it in the folder I pointed to in my other post or to any folder on your hard drive and then went to Sys Pref, Desktop & Screen Saver and selected that image, whether in the default desktop pictures folder or in another folder on your drive, it would change right then and there without a reboot.
Doing it from Safari makes you reboot to have it displayed.

I can't change my Desktop Background anymore, Used The Diptic app to create a collage and now i cannot change my desktop picture, on Mac Book pro

I can't change my Desktop Background anymore, Used The Diptic app to create a collage and now i cannot change my desktop picture, on Mac Book pro

You can't go to System Preferences>Desktop&Screen Savers and change the display? Try it and see. I've never seen that problem.
Clinton

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

How to change desktop background in AppleScript in 10.7?

I'm just now upgrading from 10.6 to 10.7, and I'm having trouble with a script that I wrote that worked fine under 10.6. In part, it executes the following command:
     osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to set destop picture to POSIX file \"<path>\""
to change the desktop background image to one of two different files based on other conditions.
In 10.7, this command completes with no error code, but it only changes the background of one of my four desktops. Is there a way to programmatically change the background image of all of my desktops simultaneously? Failing that, is there a way to a) find out how many desktops I have and b) loop through them, setting each of their backgrounds in turn?
I did search the web and found the following suggestion:
     osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to set picture of every desktop to \"<path>\""
Unfortunately, that also changes only the current desktop's picture.
The larger script is in Perl, so I'd prefer a technology that works well with that language, but if I have to change to a different scripting language, that's not the end of the world.
Thanks much for any suggestions!
Richard

Actually, “repeat with k from 18 to (18 + N - 1)” was not a good idea, since it works only with N < 5, as I discovered after posting the script.
So here's an improved version of the previous script that should work with any number of desktops:
set theFile to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Isles.jpg" -- just an example
-- Find out how many desktops you have:
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "shortcutsTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
    tell application "System Events" to tell window "Keyboard" of process "System Preferences"
        set N to count (UI elements of rows of outline 1 of scroll area 2 of splitter group 1 of tab group 1 whose name begins with "Switch to Desktop")
    end tell
    quit
end tell
-- Loop through the desktops, setting each of their backgrounds in turn:
tell application "System Events" to key code 18 using {control down} -- Desktop 1
tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to theFile
repeat (N - 1) times
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events" to key code 124 using {control down} -- ⌘→
    delay 1
    tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to theFile
end repeat

HT2478 how do you make the setting to change desktop background every time you shut down your mac

how to make setting to change desktop background every time you close your mac
because i want to make it if anybody tries to change my dekstop picture i want it to go backto set desktop picture

Don't let other people access your Mac in admin mode - they might change something a lot more important than the Desktop picture.
However you can use Automator: create an Application in it, and select 'Set the Desktop Picture' from the Library. Choose the picture you want. Save the application, then go to System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items and select the Automator application you just created. This will then run at startup and set your chosen picture.

Desktop background never changes

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