Setting Desktop Picture

I changed my sidebar icons to large from medium, now I can NO longer set a photo as my desktop background. Any help? when I look in System preference, under Desktop and Screen Saver it shows my photo, but all I get is a blue backgroun

Well I answered my own question in case anyone else has the same problem; it seems I have to manually add the other folders by clicking on the plus sign in the lower left. Then the folders showed up

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Why can't I right-click and set desktop picture?

Greetings.
I am having a lot of trouble changing my desktop picture. From what I understand, you right-click the image and click on 'set as desktop picture'. I click it and nothing changes. I have tried to download the image and set it manually through System Preferences but when I go into Desktop & Screen Saver but there are no other folders other than the 'Apple' one that have the wallpapers that come with the computer.
If it's relevant at all, my macbook pro is a 10.6.8 version.

You should be able to do it three ways, some of which you already know:
Right-click image, choose "Set Desktop Picture"
Right-click desktop, choose "Change Desktop Background"
Go into System Preferences, click "Desktop and Screen Saver"
Note when you are in System Preferences, the current desktop is shown in an indented "well." That always indicates that it is a drop target. You don't need to be able to see in the list the pictures or folder you want. Just drag it from the desktop, or iPhoto, or whatever app you're looking at your photo in, and drop it in that well, and it will be set.
muffinpirate wrote:
I have tried to download the image and set it manually through System Preferences but when I go into Desktop & Screen Saver but there are no other folders other than the 'Apple' one that have the wallpapers that come with the computer.
If you did want to do it the old-fashioned way and drill through folders and files, you can click the plus symbol [ + ] below the list there and then you can add any folder to the list. In case you have a folder full of desktop backgrounds, for instance.
(I might be wrong about some of this since I am using 10.8)

German "Set Desktop Picture"

I just noticed when I right click a picture in finder the menu item that is meant to say "Set Desktop Picture" is in German for some strange reason.
I have only noticed this after I updated to 10.6.6 but I could have been like that for a while.
Everything else in OS X is in English so I'm not sure why that one item is like that.
Anyone else experiencing this or know why its happening?

When I had this problem, although I had Portuguese, German and Chinese(?) scattered throughout, I solved it by removing a couple of items from my system, including their associated login items, and restarting. I don't know if one of those items was causing the problem by itself, or if two or more items were causing a conflict that the system couldn't resolve. I was able to narrow the field – partly guesswork – to iMedia Browser, FolderGlance, and FinderPop. I removed the first two and restarted: the contextual menu items were back to the right language. (I can't remember the steps necessary to remove those items.)
If you don't have any of those items on your system, look for stuff that acts on the system and the contextual menu items.
(I haven't had the political will to recreate the problem and test some crackpot theories about it.)
Good luck!

How can you disable "set desktop picture" from the finder contextual menu

I teach high school. And MUST find a way to keep my students from changing their desktops.
First I basically got rid of Firefox when it had that feature in the Tiger days.
Then for Leopard I had to create dummy "locked" Safari Desktop Picture files for all my user accounts so the kids couldn't use Safari to set their desktop pictures.
NOW I discover (maybe this was here before) Snow Leopard lets you change the desktop right from the Finder itself! Just right click on any image file and the contextual menu will give them the option to "set desktop picture".
Come on Apple, every educator I know has complained about what a distraction and constant battle images are for students who use computers. While not all students are inappropriate, quite a few are...meaning no one can be allowed the privilege. Why is this such a huge battle to try and lock down? Please allow Parental Controls or Server managed preferences to keep our students from being able to change their desktop pictures, ever, at all, from anywhere or any program.
Does anyone know if this is even possible?

The only way (I have found) to shut down using Safari's "Use Image as a Desktop Picture" feature is to create a bunch of blank documents that the users have no permission to change (i.e. set permission to only allow, say YOU to read it and no access to write to it for anyone)
Create a number of these blank documents and rename them
Safari Desktop Picture.jpg
Safari Desktop Picture.tiff
Safari Desktop Picture.gif
Safari Desktop Picture.jpeg
Safari Desktop Picture.png
(you get the point....come up with as many .3 extensions of photo files that you can think of)
Put these locked and unchangeable files into the following directory of each of your student accounts
Macintosh HD/Users/~User Name/Library/Safari/
What this does is create a bunch of dummy files that will "block" Safari (or the system or user) from trying to replace them. Even though the right click comman will still be there, Safari will not be able to put the picture in the correct part of the system for it to be used as a Desktop Picture.

Can't use set desktop picture

I recently upgraded to OS Maverick and when I set it up I was allready using one of picture that I just kept in folders (they were either downloaded from the net or I took with my camera and/or phone, I don't keep them in IPhoto) . Then I transfered it to a Desktop picture that was provided in the Desktop & Screen Saver option on my laptop (I'm using a MacBook Pro laptop). Now I want to change it back to a picture that isn't in he Desktop & Screen Saver option but from a folder and no matter how many times I click it, it won't work. I even rebooted and tried again and nothing's happening. Please help!

nevermind... fixed it

Can't set Desktop picture in Yosemite

Since I started using the Yosemite OS, I cant save a particular photo as Desktop Picture. It always reverts back to a mountion scene that is the OS default, I guess.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Never mind, I fixed the problem. I was reseting the Help Viewer and had to restart my computer. I was able to change the desktop pic after that.

10.8.4 set desktop picture fail

Upgrade the OS to 10.8.4
Want to change the desktop picture. It seems working, but after shutted down Mac, when I turn back on, the desktop picture back to the previous one (old one before I change it)
anybody experience this?
your sharing is highly appreciated.
thanks

Close all windows and quit all applications.
Hold the option key down and click the "Go" menu in the Finder menubar.
Select "Library" from the dropdown, then "Preferences" folder.
Look for these two files.
com.apple.desktop.plist
com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Right click each one of them and select " Move To Trash" from the contextual menu.
Restart the computer.

"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.

HOw do I change the desktop pictures on macbook air?

I simply can not change the desktop pictures on my macbook air. If anyone knows please help. Thanks.

Right-Click Desktop, Choose "Change Desktop Background..."
There you can choose the desktop image. If you want a custom one,
Choose "Set Desktop Picture".

Can't change desktop picture by right clicking mouse

Hey guys,i don't know what happened to my mbp last night,usually by right clicking mouse,from the bottom of the popup menu bar,there is a "set desktop picture" but i can't find it.WHY!Plz anyone help,Thanks u all very much.
BTW,preferences is working well.

CTRL-click on the Desktop background

Desktop Picture Unchangeable - SysPrefs Crashes

OS X.5 changed my background... grr... but that's ok, I'll just change it back, right?
WRONG.
I can get to screen saver, but when I click on the desktop tab in system preferences, it loads three nature pictures, and then crashes.
Needless to say, I'm pretty frustrated. This purple is fugly. Looks like Halo 2 decided to have a Catholic parade on my desktop.

could be a corrupt preference file. delete the file /users/username/library/preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist and log out/in. then try setting desktop picture again.

Where is the desktop picture stored if you set it from the finder?

I've read several discussions here asking where this is stored but none of them address the location when you use the Finder to set a desktop picture. I've looked in all Libary folders and Safari and can't find it. How can I locate it?

Finder takes the actual directory of the picture you set as a desktop background and the "com.apple.desktop.plist" file in ~/Library/Preferences points to the directory of the picture you set as the desktop background. It's not stored in any other folder

"Set the Desktop Picture" command does not work in certain instances

I've decided to take a try at using automator. Anyways I've created a very simple workflow.
Get Specified Finder Items (points to an image file)
Set the Desktop Picture
Now this usually works when the desktop is set statically to a specified image. But when I set the desktop to change the picture periodically, the automator action fails to change the picture to the specified image, when executed.
Is this a bug? Is there any workaround for this?

Your workflow actually is changing the static desktop picture, it's merely failing to then switch off the "Change picture" feature.
The "Change picture" feature has a somewhat misleading name in that it's not actually changing your static desktop picture at all. Your static desktop picture remains in place as a new dynamic picture layer is continually drawn and redrawn directly on top of it.
I don't see any way of testing for or turning off the desktop slideshow automatically, short of writing a GUI AppleScript that opens System Preferences and clicks through to the relevant toggle setting. If you file feedback with Apple they might take a look at it.
http://apple.com/feedback/

Change desktop picture automatically doesn't work

Hi
I am trying to use the System Preferences Destop Picture "Change Picture automatically" every day feature. I want it to select a picture automatically at random every day from the folder I set. This does not seem to work. If I set it to "every day", it seems to just always pick the same photo--it never changes it. I tried yesterday setting it to "every login", since I login every day, and now no photos show up.
The Console has a whole bunch of the message :
2006-09-10 14:46:22.741 SyndicationAgent[284] WARNING: BestCalendarDateFromString - can't interpret: 'Sat 09 Sep 2006 13:53:23 -800'
Could that be part of the problem? Anyone else have trouble with this feature?
I am using two screens, and trying to set the picture on each from a different folder. Maybe that is the problem?
Thanks
Bob

I have two monitors and it works fine. It is possible that there is something wrong with the preference files, so the system is unable to correctly read them. Try removing these two files:
"/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist"
"/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist"
Then redo your settings, log out and back in and see if it works. If it does you can toss the old plists. You'll probably have to redo some other settings in System Preferences to put them the way you prefer.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

How do I change my Desktop Picture to a solid color?

Hello folks, I'm trying to change my desktop picture to a solid black color in Leopard. How do I do that? I went into the desktop preferences under System Preferences but under solid colors, they do not have black. And I have no idea how to add more colors to the few selections there. Can someone help me out please? Thank you.

http://www.slashdotdash.net/articles/2006/12/19/mac-os-x-desktop-black-backgroun d-wallpaper
That's one idea, they have a solid black .png file on there, and you can either set it as your desktop and tile it, or follow their instructions.

Setting Desktop Picture

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