Desktop background not working correctly

Hi all,

I've had my iMac about 3 months now & when I first had it I could browse my thumbnails in the "Desktop" tab of "Desktop & Screen Saver" (Library, Last Roll, 12 Months etc...), click each image & they'd change my background.

Normal behavior.

That doesn't work now though. I'm not sure what I've done between it working before & it not working now because I didn't attempt to change my background for quite a while. When I click the thumbnails, I just get a single colour background.

The only way I can get a new background is to select one of the "Apple Images" or to use the "Choose Folder" option & manually go to the directory then select the image.

Has anyone else come across this & how can I fix it?

FuZion.

Sounds like it has reverted to the OS's default location for background images?

I would hate to suggest you move to the trash the Finder's plist file if it didn't solve this because you might lose some tweakings to the interface you've done since using your Mac.

Let's see what others suggest next...

Being a relatively new user, part of that sounded like another language to me ;-)

However, I will add that all of my pictures are shown in the thumbnails list. Even brand new images show but still they aren't shown on my background if I select them.

FuZion.

Ok I think that outside from the font and the highlight colour choices you made, you won't be too hindered by trashing the Finder .plist file so here goes...

Go to Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your User Account ---> Library ---> Preferences ---> grab the com.apple.finder.plist and bring it to the trash. Don't empty it right now.

Log out of your account and log back in. Or do a restart and see if that doesn't fix this problem.

Are you up to date in your OS updates, btw?

@MacHeadCase

That's worked to a degree. The images in "Apple Images" are still working. Nature, Plants, Black & White etc... are now working. As are images that are immediately in the "Pictures Folder" AND the folder that holds other pictures after selecting one manually (You know how it shows you the folder name after picking a pic?).

Everything below the dividing line in the left hand list, is still not being places on as my background when clicked. I've done a quick grab so you can see.

http://www.deceptiveaudio.co.uk/images/amiga/QuickGrab.jpg

FuZion.

Slightly off topic ... but they are a beautiful array of pics! I actually almost tried to scroll down to see the rest ... lol

Everything that doesn't work is in your iPhoto library. If they have been moved then that's why they don't show as your desktop background.

You should check your iPhoto library.

Everything that doesn't work is in your iPhoto library. If they have been moved then that's why they don't show as your desktop background.

You should check your iPhoto library.

Click to expand...

Not knowing how to 'repair' an iPhoto library (I think I did move my images about at some point now you mention it), I deleted my iPhoto folder along with any other iphoto files that spotlight could show me & re-imported my images from scratch. This hasn't worked either :-( Thanks for that idea though.

FuZion.

I popped into my local Apple store earlier today & asked if they had any suggestions to my problem.

One of the guys suggested going into D"isk Utility" & clicking the "Repair Permissions" button. He explained that this is basically the part that allows the applications installed to access other parts of the system.

I've just done that, rebooted & still no joy.

Another extra note I'll add, the Slideshow Screen Saver is working fine during all of this. The Screen Saver is having no troubles finding & displaying the images.

FuZion.

I'm still not having any joy with this issue, although I have just found out something I didn't know.

I have just gone into iPhoto & to take an image from i{hoto & throw it on my Desktop, I can select the image then select the menu item Share/Desktop. I have just done the same with multiple images selected.

Now, 'folder' is showing in my Desktop settings called "iPhoto Selection" with all of these selected images. I can happily click on these thumbnails & they background will change accordingly.

So... As a temporary fix, I could run iPhoto, select every image & then Share/Desktop. They would all show in this new 'folder' in the Desktop settings & I could select the one I want.

The main problem, however, still remains.

FuZion.

This is almost silly. Is there no further ideas as to why this happening?

On my Amiga I have an app called SnoopDOS, this monitors disk & ram access (Amongst other things) & reports if anything failed. It helps massively in helping to work out why something isn't working. Is there something similar on Mac OS X?

FuZion.

Hi Fuzion,
You Solved My Numlock Problem So I Am Desperte To Help.

I Too Have The Same Problem. I Notice Any Photo I Take With The Internal Webcam On My Imac Can Be Selected And Used As The Desktop But Any Other Photos In Library Or Other Locations Cannot. They Have Been Either Downloaded Or Imported Via My Compact Flash Card Reader.

There Are Only Two Differences?

The Location Of The .jpg File Or The Resolution. I Will Try Altering Either Or Both And Get Back To You...

Good Luck With The Problem..

Sidturbo

HI FUZION,

I MAY HAVE CRACKED IT. THE CHOICE OF ' LIBRARIES' IS A A WAY OF VIEWING THE PHOTOS ON YOUR MAC.

THIS IS MERELY A SORT OF PREVEW FUNCTION.

NOTE THAT THERE IS A SEPERATER BAR BETWEEN ALL THE .JPG'S YOU MAY CHOOSE AS A DESKTOP AND THE LIBRARY.

THE .JPG.s you can choose as a desktop are above this seperator. If you want to add folders or .jpg's click on 'CHOOSE FOLDERS' that is just above that seperator and navigate to where the relevant photo is on your computer.

Hope this helps.

I SidTurbo,

Thanks for having a look at this. I already have your suggestion working, in short, there's a a way of getting any image working by selecting either an individual image, folder or by selecting a group of images in iPhoto.

These all work fine, it seems to be the folders below that separator line (i.e., My picture library & the albums that are created & edited in iPhoto) that do not want to work correctly.

FuZion.

This still isn't working. Am I alone with this one?

FuZion.

Hi,

Fuzion, have you managed to solve this problem yet? I've been having this issue for months on my Mac too - though with certain images in my iPhoto library it DOES work.

Let me know if you have any solutions, I'm scouring the internet now to see if I can find any other information on this prob...

Adrian

I am a Mac newbie and had this problem - I think I got it by deleting import files. I had all my photos but with zero bytes (?). I did a restore of photos from Time Machine and everything works fine now.