White desktop background upon backup

After doing a complete backup in Time Machine last night, I logged on to found that my background was white. I tried to change my background in System Preferences, but the white background stuck.
The transparent taskbar however, shows the changed background. I heard that creating a guest account and logging into it fixed the problem. Tried & didn't work. Any ideas?

Thanks. Just removed the three files that were indicated - but the background is still white.
Note that you'll need to log out and back in to see any change.
@musicwind95: What do you mean by ByHosts folder?
That folder is also located in your Preferences folder.

Similar Messages

  • White desktop background

    Hi everyone. I'm having a problem with my Macbook's desktop wallpaper. It's stuck on white and won't let me change no matter what I do! Everything else works perfectly fine and it's not a pressing matter, but I must admit it's quite annoying. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

    Hello nilabs,
    Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing issues with your desktop wallpaper. To isolate this issue further, you may want to attempt these troubleshooting steps:
    First, try booting your computer into Safe Mode:
    Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
    Additionally, you can further isolate the issue by creating a new user account and testing:
    Isolating an issue by using another user account
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4053
    Thanks,
    Matt M.

  • Thin white lines on desktop background

    After having my computer on for a while, one or two thin horizontal white lines will appear on the screen. They are around a few inches long, and never appear in the same place twice. They only affect my desktop background, not any windows or screen saver at all.
    Reloading the desktop background or restarting the computer makes the lines go away, but I'm wondering what is causing them, and if it's a sign of some underlying problem.

    Insert your MacOSX DVD
    reboot while pressing ALT key
    when icons appear on the screen select Apple Hardware Test and run extended test.
    Perhaps a video memory problem. If yes motherboard is dead !

  • Desktop background turns to white

    Hi, this just started today. During startup, the selected desktop background picture flashes. When all applications that are set to open at startup have loaded and all disks have loaded, the desktop background turns all white, except the menu bar which still displays the selected desktop background. I have tried restarting several times, I have tried using different background pictures, all the same result, my desktop is all white which makes it hard to discern various open windows since most window backgrounds are white too. Please help.
    Thank you.

    I am having the same problem, have you had any luck fixing it?

  • My desktop background reverts to previous one upon restart

    Hi,
    I got my MBP with OSX 10.8.4 this May, and since changed my desktop background once to another image.
    Now, whenever I want to change to another one, OSX accepts the change, but whenever I reboot or even change the user ( only 1 present, which is me = admin, though tried to log out and in to see what happens), OSX reverts to the first image and discards any changes made to the background.
    Strange enough: when I go to the PrefPane and see what background has been selected, it is the new one! But the old one is showing up nevertheless.
    What I tried so far:
    I deleted the file that was selected as the background image ( it still keeps showing up as the background! )
    I deleted the plists com.apple.desktop & com.apple.systempreferences, nothing changed
    this is quite annoying!
    i dont think i have anything on my machine that would interfere with the background image... no wallpaper programs & stuff like that.
    any help is much appreciated!! thanks!
    PS: no I dont want to use geektool etc. for things like that. it is an "unclean" solution to this problem which should not appear at all.

    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
    Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac. 
    These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing. 
    Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects. 
    Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands. 
    Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply. 
    Launch the 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. 
    When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign. 
    Step 1 
    Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it:
    kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -f -a TextEdit 
    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
    Step 2 
    Repeat with this line:
    { sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'; sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook; sudo crontab -l; } 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit 
    This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. 
    Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step. 
    Step 3
    { launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'; crontab -l 2> /dev/null; } | open -f -a TextEdit 
    Step 4
    ls -1A /e*/{la,mach}* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts .la* 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit  
    Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting. 
    Step 5
    osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' | open -f -a TextEdit 
    Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output. 
    You can then quit Terminal.

  • Desktop background disappears, Mission Control doesn't work correctly

    Sometimes it happens that my desktop background completely dissappears, and Mission Control stops working as well.
    It seems to happen when I open a new window in a fullscreen app (like Safari), and while it's opening I switch to another space.
    Whenever this happens, my desktop changes to the Dashboard background, and Mission Control doesn't show the other spaces anymore (but you can see active windows in your main space). I've added pictures below.
    I can still swipe between spaces, my dock still works and all apps still work in all spaces.
    Any way to fix this without rebooting? To avoid this happening (apart from me being more patient)?
    This is my desktop at the moment:
    And this is Mission Control:
    I am using: Macbook Pro 5,4
    OS X 10.7.1
    2,53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
    4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

    I am experiencing the same thing as most of us, exactly as explained by - Acid_Raccoon.
    UK-Max - This is not just a specific problem involving external screens. The dissappearing wallpaper, and loss of function of mission control (do not show spaces, but you can click in empty area where it should be located and it actually works as normal) occurs also when there is no
    external screen input involved - You have to restart computer for it to return to normal. As a matter of fact, I am experiencing it right now for the 10th time in 1 week period, and it´s quite annoying. I would guess more than just a few people are experiencing this, and as postmechanical mentioned about having a brand new computer - this shouldn´t occur, and if so should get a fix immediately.
    Over time, I have experiencing other system problems produced from installing OS lion. Sure it deliver a few smart, and smooth features, but since more and more bugs are discovered (and not fixed by apple), I am considering returning to snow leopard. For instance, sometimes when my computer goes into screensaver, it can shift to a picture of pixels (black&white) in 4:3 screen ration. This has never occurred before installing Lion. Another thing which is extremely annoying is that since installing lion, my computer refuses to go to sleep when I close my lid. Nothing happens, and it just stays on. I have to manually select in apple-menu to sleep.
    I really hope Apple take these notes people have mentioned in this forum (and others) seriously, and fix them. I really hope Apple show more custumer service-spirits, than Apple´s lack of hardware-quality. (I have owned 4 apple computers(1 powerbook G4, 1 macbook & 2 macbook pro), brand new, and 3 of them have experienced hardware-failure on more than one occasion in less than a year. The one that didnt required service was my powerbook G4 titanium, released in 2001, and kept going for 4 years straight without any problems.) (Actually, the last one experienced 3 times in-a-row mother-card failure). I only go for Apple´s products due to its smart and clean features (and seriously PC is not an alternative if you want to stay mentally healthy), but what I´ve been reading on multiple forums over the web, more than a few, experience occuring hardware problems with their Apple computer.
    I guess this is the result of Apple trying to push for higher revenues. If Apple keep go in the same directions as it has been doing in the last 4-5 years it will be its doom, and loose the customers that once caught the Apple-wave due to it´s innovative and personal aspect, but most important - it´s superiour quality it once had! Apple´s products is quite expensive, and thus should be combined with its smart and innovative system, along with lasting quality. But if $ revenue is the only thing that keep Apple going nowdays, and produce smart product that is meant to last for only 2-3 years maximum, it is deeply disturbing and the company will loose track of what stevie was initially producing - clean, smooth system (just works, no migraine), with everlasting quality far seen in PC-world. Apple - please consider !

  • Change the desktop background colour of Acrobat 9 Professional?

    Is it possible to change the desktop background colour in Acrobat 9? The reason I ask is we are supplied newspaper ads and sometimes they have a black keyline on the border of the PDF.
    The dark background on the desktop can make it difficult to see a fine keyline. We were previously using Acrobat 7 Professional which had a white background.

    Doesn't work
              ^                                                                                    ^
    Obviously, I can't, in this particular screenshot show everything.
    This is what the fellow is talking about.  Naturally if his keyline item is in Black it ain't going to show up  In Acrobat previous to 9 all this back Ground was grey.

  • 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.)

  • After 10.6.7 can't get desktop background to display

    This problem is similar to Linc Davis problem solved in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2795229
    In that thread I write: "I tried the [] from Linc Davis and it didn't work for me. I have a MBP bought in may 2010 i Sweden which is where I live. "  When I never got replies I figured it was because Lincs thread was marked as solved (green text). So I created my own discussion (this thread).
    After upgrading today to 10.6.7 I notice the desktop background is replaced by a completely white background. Quoting vr8ce since this is the same for me: "It displays them in System Pref with no problem, and it doesn't give an error when choosing, it just doesn't change the desktop background." Unlike vr8ce, it was not happening in 10.6.6 for me. And unlike vr8ce my background is not blue but white.
    I haven't tried using anything from iPhoto etc - I'm just using the images in System Pref.
    I have upgraded to 10.6.7 (today), rebooted, run Repair Disk on the Install DVD (from another tip). I don't actually remember "fixing permissions".
    As I said, the tip from Linc Davis - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2795229 - didn't work for me. I'm not using a Screen Saver and never have, instead I prefer to close the lid, but not sure if this is the best thing to do.

    Time for the OnyX "nuke em from orbit" approach then.
    Run ALL of the free OnyX cleaning and
    maintainence features and reboot.
    Also run the Verify>Preferences and write down
    any corrupted ones, move these files to your
    desktop (out of yourLibrary/Preferences folder)
    and reboot, they get rebuilt automatically.
    VLC (plays anything)
    Perian (installs additionalQuicktimecodecs)
    FlipForMac (Windows media in Quicktime)
    TheUnarchiver(unpacks just about everything)
    Carbon Copy Cloner (clonesbootdrive to another HFS+j drive, hold option bootable)
    2 free 3D games - NexiuZClassic and Cube 2 Sauerbraten
    LibreOffice (freeofficesuit, reads/writes Office files
    Gimp (free image editor)
    OnyX (free maintainenceandcleaning)
    Pacifist (opens DMG filesforextraction)
    Mactracker (inforonApple products)
    NTFS Mounter (for WindowsNTFSdrives)
    EasyFind(deep search)
    TimeMachineEditor
    TinkerTool
    ClamXav (free anti-virus)
    Caffine (keeps yourMacawake)
    Browswerplug-in check (especially for Flash!)

  • Can't get desktop background to display

    I don't know if this is HW or SW, but I'll start here.
    I have a brand-new MBP (early 2011). I can't get it to display a desktop background for love nor money, i.e. going into System Preferences, Desktop/Screen Save, and choosing a background, I get nothing but a light blue screen. It doesn't matter if I choose one of the pictures that comes with OS X or one of the pictures from my iPhoto library, it won't display them. It displays them in System Pref with no problem, and it doesn't give an error when choosing, it just doesn't change the desktop background.
    For the iPhoto library (although, remember, it doesn't work with the OS X pictures, either, i.e. Desktop Pictures, Plants, etc.), it works fine in both iPhoto and in Screen Saver, i.e. the Screen Saver displays photos without a problem.
    The problem survives a reboot, fixing permissions, and the 10.6.7 upgrade, i.e. it was happening on 10.6.6, and it's still happening after the 10.6.7 upgrade.
    Any ideas?

    I just tried the top from Linc Davis and it didn't work for me. I have a MBP bought in may 2010 i Sweden which is where I live. 
    After upgrading today to 10.6.7 I notice the desktop background is replaced by a completely white background. Quoting vr8ce since this is the same for me: "It displays them in System Pref with no problem, and it doesn't give an error when choosing, it just doesn't change the desktop background." Unlike vr8ce, it was not happening in 10.6.6 for me. And unlike vr8ce my background is not blue but white.
    I haven't tried using anything from iPhoto etc - I'm just using the images in System Pref.
    I have upgraded to 10.6.7 (today), rebooted, run Repair Disk on the Install DVD (from another tip). I don't actually remember "fixing permissions".
    As I said, the tip from Linc Davis  didn't work for me. I'm not using a Screen Saver and never have, instead I prefer to close the lid, but not sure if this is the best thing to do.

  • SWF playing corrupts desktop background

    Using FF 3.6.13 on Fedora 13, KDE
    When playing a SWF file in FF, the last viewed image corrupts the desktop background. Wherever another application has a white color, the latent image from the last SWF shows through.
    As a test, I set the desktop background to solid white. The screen image can be seen at http://www.wrlee.com/Pictures/CorruptedBackground.jpeg This image was taken with a digital camera since the KSnapshot tool does not pick up the corrupted desktop background that is "showing through" the application. The picture shows the FireFox screen when I was typing this message.
    Looking at the picture you can see the ghost image of the last SWF I viewed when I visited a website. (That site was http://www.sunbrella.com/ )
    This is a very annoying bug since YouTube images are SWF, and SWF is used more and more in websites that I visit.
    Logging off and back in (i.e., restarting the KDE window system) cures the problem until I stumble across the next SWF file and it corrupts the background again.
    Need help! Badly!
    Regards,
    Bill Lee

    I have the same issue with the latest Shockwave Flash 10.2 r152 player on Linux.<br />
    I can see the ghosted and crashed Flash player in Firefox if I change the background color to black (Edit > Preferences > Content > Colors).
    I have reverted to Flash 10.1 r102 (10.1.102.65) because of this.<br />

  • Desktop background issues

    I downloaded a photo from the internet to use as my desktop background. I selected the photo as my background and it worked. However, whenever I shut down my computer and turn it back on, the photo I chose has disappeared and my desktop has gone back to the stock Apple background. Does anyone know how I can keep my chosen desktop background whenever I shut down my computer?
    I have a MacBook Pro with Retina display. I am running the latest operating system.
    I looked around on discussion forums and found this possible solution:
    "Open Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and paste this command: rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Desktop.plist
    press 'return' on the keyboard.
    Log out, log back in again. Change the wallpaper to what you want. Log out, log back in once more to test."
    Unfortunately, I tried this and it didn't work. The wallpaper kept going back to the "wave" background.

    Then you need to resolve the conflict/corruption in the original account. This can be a laborious process, but is guaranteed to resolve the problem. Log into the other account if it's an admin user one, otherwise create a new admin user account, log into it, backup the bad account's folder (to another volume, partition, or disk), System Preferences->Accounts->delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. Open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it, keeping track of what you're moving to the new account so you can remove them if you encounter problems in the next step. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Good luck.

  • Cannot change desktop background picture to my own photos

    Hi, in desktop & screen saver I cannot change the desktop background image to any of my own (iphoto) pictures, it shows the list of the images and thumbnails but will only change the pic to the 'Apple' ones (nature,plants,black & white, abstract), if I select any of my photos under 'iphoto albums' the desktop image simply turns light blue.

    Hi.
    I'm seeing what seems to be the exact same problem you described. Were you able to figure it out and fix it? I don't see a solution posted.
    Thanks.

  • Cannot change Desktop Background image

    When I go to change my Desktop Background, it will try and load up the pictures in my Pictures folder (but no subfolders). I can switch my background to one of these images, even though the "Loading" progress bar is still visible.
    Here is the odd thing, however. If I click on any of the other types of images (Apple Images, nature, Plants, Black & White, Abstract, and Solid Colors), nothing appears. I jumped over to another user on the same computer, and those images populated properly. Any ideas on what is going wrong? Why can't I change my background image? I've had this problem with both Mac OS 10.5.0 and 10.5.1.

    I managed to fix this problem.
    I did verify and repair permissions just for kicks. Not sure if that helped or not, but I did it anyway.
    Then I went back into the System Pref pane, and clicked on Apple Images, then clicked on the Change Picture checkbox. While none of the images appear in the white box, my background did change to one of the Apple Images (such as the black and purple Leopard-only background). I then closed System Preferences, opened it back up, and the images loaded up properly this time!

  • 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

Maybe you are looking for