mreed

Q: How to change Login Window image?

This one has me stumped. After upgrade to OS 10.11 the login window displayed El Capitan desktop picture. I thought this was a cool, unannounced easter egg type thing. After using it though, the image changed to my homescreen desktop image.

I dont know how it happened or how to change it to some default image.

Any ideas?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), B/W G3: Retired

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 4:16 AM

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Q: How to change Login Window image?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Eau Rouge,

    Eau Rouge Eau Rouge Oct 9, 2015 4:21 AM in response to mreed
    Level 4 (2,995 points)
    Mac App Store
    Oct 9, 2015 4:21 AM in response to mreed

    Use System Prefrences> Desktop & Screensaver> Desktop, the image you want is the first to be seen in Apple>Desktop Pictures

     

    Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 12.20.26.jpg

  • by mreed,

    mreed mreed Oct 9, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 2 (413 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    Thanks Eau Rouge. This isn't for my desktop image. It's about user login screen.

  • by Eau Rouge,

    Eau Rouge Eau Rouge Oct 9, 2015 6:06 AM in response to mreed
    Level 4 (2,995 points)
    Mac App Store
    Oct 9, 2015 6:06 AM in response to mreed

    the login screen uses the desktop image. usually from desktop 1, how many dektops do you have.

  • by pinkstones,

    pinkstones pinkstones Oct 9, 2015 6:15 AM in response to mreed
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    Oct 9, 2015 6:15 AM in response to mreed

    Your login screen uses your desktop background, whatever it is.  Also, this isn't something new to El Capitan, the same thing was a part of Yosemite as well.

  • by mreed,

    mreed mreed Oct 9, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 2 (413 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    There are two users. One has three desktops, the other just one.Its the ser desktop users image on the login screen.

  • by Eau Rouge,Solvedanswer

    Eau Rouge Eau Rouge Oct 9, 2015 10:12 AM in response to mreed
    Level 4 (2,995 points)
    Mac App Store
    Oct 9, 2015 10:12 AM in response to mreed

    so if you take user 1 the login image should be their desktop (1) image, if you want to have the el capitan image you first saw you need to change that desktop

    background to the one i mentioned in my first post.

  • by mreed,

    mreed mreed Oct 9, 2015 10:37 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 2 (413 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 10:37 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    Thanks Eau Rouge. After playing around a bit I found that the second user with one desktop controls the login screen. Prior to El Capitan it was tied to my account.

    Its an odd behavior that I'll have to get used to I suppose. Somehow the second user account has taken dominance.

    My wife will say as it should be.

  • by Eau Rouge,

    Eau Rouge Eau Rouge Oct 9, 2015 10:47 AM in response to mreed
    Level 4 (2,995 points)
    Mac App Store
    Oct 9, 2015 10:47 AM in response to mreed

    could be an alphabetical thing, anyhow love honour and obey

     

    enjoy el capitan.

  • by mreed,

    mreed mreed Oct 9, 2015 11:13 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 2 (413 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 11:13 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    I played around some more and renamed my account to be first alphabetically and that wasn't it. I did find that I'm the 501 user so I should be dominant account but not, alas.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Oct 10, 2015 3:17 AM in response to mreed
    Level 6 (12,429 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 10, 2015 3:17 AM in response to mreed

    The login image is surprisingly easy to change.

    It is in

     

      /Library/Caches/com.apple.desktop.<user501>.png

     

    (replace <user501> with the actual short name of that user)

     

    So just take the image you want, put it in the /Library/Caches folder, and rename acoording to the rule as above.

    There is no need to restart your mac. Just log out and you will be presented with the new login window background.

  • by mreed,

    mreed mreed Oct 10, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 2 (413 points)
    Oct 10, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Thanks Luis. That is actually the answer I was looking for. I just found though that you can't change the name but you can delete it and a new one is created. At least now I know how to change it. Dont tell her I said this but I dont like my wife's desktop pix.

  • by act74,

    act74 act74 Dec 12, 2015 3:03 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 12, 2015 3:03 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Thanks Luis. It just worked perfectly for me. The background that was saved there was under my Admin user name. Just need to replace the png file with same name and picture size, then no more blurred image at login !

  • by Burnt,

    Burnt Burnt Feb 23, 2016 5:59 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Feb 23, 2016 5:59 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly in hindsight (but it confused me), if you had an image set as your desktop background and then changed the folder the image is from and set the images to change, your login window image will stay as the last image you set as your desktop image, and will not update to one from the new folder of images. You'll have to chose a single image from your new folder of images, set that as your desktop background, then have the images change.

  • by seppofromca,

    seppofromca seppofromca Sep 25, 2016 12:26 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 12:26 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    This won't work in macOS 10.12 Sierra.  It still worked in the last El Capitan release.  Apple has changed this and some other stuff that has stopped working.  The previous locations are not valid anymore.  The same applies, for example,  to the screensaver timing issue, of which I posted an entry previously.