Desktop picture disappears

10.5.3 on a macbook pro 2.6ghz. I was importing a few hundred pictures in nikon raw format into iphoto. Midway through the import, the existing desktop picture I had set reverted back to the default mac background. I can change it at any time, but if I shut down the computer and restart, it's back to default. disk utility found nothing wrong and all permissions have been repaired. Based on some other recommendations i've read, I also have deleted the desktop plist files as well with no success in repairing the problem. How do I fix this?

I wonder if something went wrong with the cache files? I have two monitors, and both are set to change the Desktop picture upon login, picking randomly, each monitor from a different folder, and every now and again I change the folders. So I have a TON of cache files. They are located here:
"/Users/francine/Library/Caches/Desktop"
You might take a look and see what is in yours. Unfortunately the Cache folder is not backed up by Time Machine, so unless you have a clone from before things went wrong the only option is to remove the cache files and start over. So open the above referenced folder and drag the contents to the Trash, log out and back in, and the try resetting the Desktop in System Prefs.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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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.

When switching between user accounts, the background desktop picture disappears and goes to just a blue background. Whats up with that?

When switching between user accounts, the background desktop picture disappears and goes to just a blue background. Whats up with that?

All fixed! It was TeamViewer that was causing the problem.

Desktop picture disappears, won't return

Hi. When I plug my new MacBook into a projector (mini display to serial port convertor) and then unplug it, my desktop picture is replaced with the standard space one, and choosing my own again under Desktop/Screen Saver in Preferences makes no difference.
It's not crucial - but it is annoying. Any tips?
Thanks
Aidan

Click on the desktop and check Finder > View > Show view options.
Sort by.. snap to grid will have the files flying around..
Disappearing files in folders no idea except I have always been advised not too have too many items in the desktop folder.. (The desktop is actually a folder, see finder)

Client desktop pictures disappear after admin share screen

I share my screen with 15 computers in my lab. When I quit the process and clients have access again, several machines lose their custom desktop pictures. It seems to fix itself if they log out and log back in. Any ideas on what causes this?

What version of the mac os x is the client computers running?
if one of the effected users, on an effected computer sets their desktop picture, then logs out, and then logs back in, do they still keep the custom desktop picture? or dose it default back to the generic picture?
On the effected computers, dose the issue happen on all user accounts? Or just specific user accounts? If you create a new local user account, dose it have the same issue?

My desktop picture disappeared!

I logged on this morning to find the "galaxy." I had a jpeg in the "tile" layout there yesterday and it's no longer there. I went to System Preferences to change it back, but when I clicked on the pictures folder none of my pictures showed up. There is a big question mark. Can anyone please help? Thanks.

The same thing happened to me this morning. I opened iPhoto and some of my albums had zero pictures. Fortunately I have an external hard drive which I used to restore my iPhoto albums.Like you, I would like to know why this happened.

Is iTunes changing my OS X desktop picture momentarily?

I am running a clean install OS X, including my third-party applications, and this five-year-old machine has never run better. However, an anomaly has arisen. Whenever I push play (iTunes) my desktop picture disappears briefly, replaced by a neutral gray screen, before reappearing.
As I write this, I quit and re-launched iTunes and the problem still exists. I am loathe to restart my computer as I am in the middle of some pressing business. I will check back if a restart resolves this issue, otherwise, feel free to comment.
With iTunes running, pushing Play starts the song and one-second later my desktop picture disappears briefly. Pushing the button (Pause) again stops the song but nothing else happens.
I am currently listening to iTunes DJ and just now the O'Jays started playing and without my doing anything, the desktop picture disappeared and reappeared. I have iShowUHD and will make a recording of it, if it continues.
TIA

You're very welcome.
Completely unrelated, albeit unsettlingly too coincidental, was a sudden slow down (freezing) of my Safari and other internet functions. It's like a UFO landed on my roof and scrambled my Mac's internal settings. Apparently, this same UFO flew across the state, because this occurred simultaneously with 3 different people, me and 2 of my friends, all in 3 seperate counties.
The other things we had to do to get our Macs back to resembling "normal" was...
Turn OFF iCloud unless you really need it (you could lose all Calendar events - Thanks, Apple!) or you're using a screamingly fast connection. - It ties up your modem, especially DSL.
Make your first DNS entry "2001:4860:4860::8888". - It speeds up accessing webpages. (Without quotes. Yes, there is a colon-colon, it's not an error. Weird numbers, I know.)
Set your ethernet's MTU to "Manual" with a number lower than 1500. Try "1460". - Apparently, your Mac is trying to bite off more than it can chew. MTU is the maximum ethernet byte size.
I found all of these tips scattered within the Apple Discussion areas. Do a search on them for more information on how to make these adjustments (don't worry, just system prefs changes, no UNIX is necessary).
This could apply to only older (more than 3 years) Macs. Still a pain nonetheless.
Side note: Starting at the sametime, 2 of us are experiencing random system-wide Kernal Panics and freezing. One Mac panics over 8 times per day, the other about once every 2 days. If our 7th trip (in 2 months) to the Genius bar miraculaously nets a solution, I'll post it.
If you are a conspiracy theorist, you'd be in heaven. An undisclosed virus? ...from Microsoft? Apple or Intel (both?) intentionally crippling old Macs, and forcing purchasing of new computers? ... and is this a test for installing (BIOS) programmed obsolescence/aging into current computers? Why no offer for replacement after 6 failed repair attempts? Is Apple quietly reducing expensive programming staff (sloppy coding, numerous updates, no OSX Server, reduced Pro apps, just as MS is dying) with cheap unknowledgeable retail staff? Mountain Lion and iTunes 11, more eye candy, less innovation... much like MS Windows 8. Something's afoot.

"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.

My desktop picture on startup reverts to apple pink space and not the photo I selected in preferences.

When I start my iMac the desktop picture is the apple red and pink space thing. In the preferences I have chosen a folder containing pictues and selected to change the pictures every 5 seconds and that works fine but when I shut down or restart the apple red/pink picture comes up so how do I correct this problem?
John128

Thanks I have just rebooted it, but still to no avail, have you got any other suggestions? I've inserted a couple of
images to show you exactly what I mean. As you can see the toolbar at the top there are no buttons on safari or finder, only a couple the rest have disappeared.

Desktop icons disappear intermittently with Lion 10.7.3

Some of my desktop icons "disappear" intermittently ( not always the same icon(s)). The title
still appears but the icon is blank. I can still click on the blank spot and the app will launch.
Annoying but not "fatal" - Anyone have any ideas ??
Oh and my personal "Avatar" photo also reverts to an earlier choice ( intermittently ) as well.
Can change it to the one I want to use but it reverts back to the old picture also from time to time ...
Maybe part of the same "problem".

Hi..
MIght be corrupted preferences (.plist)
Go to ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
For Lion v10.7x: To find the Home folder in OS X Lion, open the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose Go > Library
Move the com.apple.desktop.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Trash. Restart your Mac.

Desktop Pictures Not Showing Up in Desktop Preference Pane

In a previous discussion, the user reported this behavior:
"I clicked on System Preferences, cause I wanted to adjust the
color of surrounding the image I had on my desktop.
"I then clicked on Desktop & Screen Saver.
"I then clicked on the little "color adjuster window" and my
desktop image disappeared, and my screen suddenly reverted back
to the default leopard desktop image. That purple nova haze thing.
"And now, when I click on the "Apple Images, Nature, Plants, Black
& White, Abstract, Solid colors, Pictures Folder," under the "Apple"
Menu,nothing happens.
"And when I click the folders I have under the "Folders" Menu listing
called "Desktop" and "Black and White," nothing happens. None of the
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I had the exact same problem. Deleting the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist fixes the problem.

Yeah, when a change in settings suddenly either has new settings not sticking, or reverts back to some default setting, then a removal of the associated preferences file seems to be the best fix. For users who're unfamiliar with them though, they may be tough to pinpoint.

90% of pictures disappeared after new program. Time machine folders mostly empty. Downloaded my Carbonite file. Can I restore directly from this file or do I have to drag and drop 20,000 pix?

90% of pictures disappeared after adding Maverick. My Time Machine folders were in the right order but mostly empty so useless for restore. Repair and rebuild attempts were not effective. Downloaded my Carbonite file which is now sitting on my desktop. Is there any way to use the restore command to rebuild my portfolio or do I have to drag & drop approx 20,000 pictures? Can album groupings and faces be retained?

Do you still have the original library that was present at the time you upgraded to Mavericks? If so apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
Happy Holidays

IMac monitor - desktop items disappear/reappear - applications pause

For about a week now, every 2 minutes all of my desktop icons will disappear and then reappear. If I have a folder open, such as the Pictures folder, it will close during this process.
If I am using Firefox or Safari or Photoshop, when the desktop items disappear, so does my mouse's ability to function on the application. I have to click on the application again for the mouse to function on it.
Today I was attempting to burn files to a DVD, but it fails because of this "refreshing" or whatever you call this symptom. Last night my computer did appear to do its weekly backup, (it said it was successful) but I wanted to copy files onto a DVD just in case.
Can someone give me some direction on how to troubleshoot this? In beginner terms? I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.
P.S. The only new things that happened recently that I can think of was that I did a software upgrade (think it was Quicktime...) and downloaded a Wordpress Theme.

Sometimes, starting up in SafeBoot (shift key held after start tone, login window appears
and semi-normal desktop Finder appears; but this is in a reduced function mode) and a
'repair disk permissions' in Disk Utility of the computer's volume on the Mac HD may help.
And after that, or any other minor repairs done in SafeBoot, the computer gets a normal
restart so the rest of the OS will be up and running. If that does not help, there are other
things one may try and do to help it. The matter involves some troubleshooting and a
cause and effect approach is sometimes taken; or on other occasions, a user may try a
long laundry-list of things and hope some issue just goes away; if one or another thing
happens to work. In this instance, learning of a specific issue's cure may not result.
Some items causing a problem, such as those cited above, may be dealt with while
the computer is started up in SafeBoot mode; since extensions and other parts of
such things may be turned off. So, some items like Stuffit can be removed when
they are disabled in SafeBoot. Be sure to run 'repair disk permissions' before and
after software updates, since for some reason this appears to help the system.
Sometimes, just basic system maintenance such as repair disk permissions, running
time/date cron-like routines (see AppleJack download, or OnyX in automation) can
resolve issues that may otherwise involve knowing more about how the system works.
These kinds of tools, free to download and try, can save a bit of trouble; some of that
is preventive in that the routines can be done per schedule to keep the system well.
The bootable installer system disc can be helpful, since there are optional tools in the
Disk Utility on that disc's boot volume; ahead of actually running the Installer itself. A
menu bar appears in the first full Installer window with drop down menus in it, and of
these a few options appear. And in the Disk Utility, chosen from the Installer menu,
there are a variety of tools which can totally obliterate or attempt a repair to the HDD.
An 'archive & install' and then update the resulting new system to the latest version
of OS X including security update, java, quicktime, safari, and other parts would follow;
in some cases, perhaps extreme, this is one way to resolve system software issue.
There are others, but this is among the last but not least. Further study is recommended
before going the A&I plus update the new system folder route; depending on what else
is going on in the system as it exists now. If this archive & install is performed, be sure
the checkbox to save user account info is marked, so the new system will retain this...
In any event...
Good Luck & happy computing!

My desktop photo disappears when I reboot iMac, replaced with Mac default image. please help?

My desktop photo disappears when I reboot iMac...replaced with default apple image. does anyone know a fix?

First, try to delete the Desktop settings file. First, open Finder, select Go menu > Go to Folder, and type ~/Library/Preferences. Then, delete "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.systempreferences.plist", and restart your computer. Finally, change the wallpaper and see if it stays after restarting your computer
If that does not work try
open the Applications Support folder and then look for the Dock folder and open that. There are two files, one of which is "desktoppicture.db". Move this file to the trash and securely delete it. Restart the computer. A new "desltoppicture.db" will be created on startup.
Finally, reset your desktop picture again using System Preferences.

Virus made my music and pictures disappear

I plugged my phone into my friends laptop. Shortly after all my music and pictures disappeared. My phone won't even store new pictures. Please help

Hello,
So that's why you cannot access them, and all the pictures that are taken are still there but not accessable from your phone.
You will have to plug it into another computer that hasn't been infected by this virus and explore through the BlackBerry files, whether its saved in your Memory card or your device data, after you have found all of them make a new folder in the desktop and move them all to the computer, after doing that you will have to reset your device os so that everything is actually a folder again, then you can move the photos back and your media, you can then take photos again.
Hope this helps
If you have an answer to your question then please click “Accept as Solution”
Click on the LIKE on the bottom right if the post deserves credit.
BB 8700 -> Bold 9000 -> Curve 8520 -> Bold 9700 -> Curve 9320 -> Bold 9900 -> BlackBerry Z10 + PlayBook 64 GB Wi-Fi

Desktop picture disappears

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