Plughie

Q: Desktop background blurred after reboot

Most of the time, after I reboot, my desktop background is the same blurred version of my background that the login screen shows. There is also a dark alpha channel overlaid on the image. When I close a window on a standard Finder desktop, the desktop on my 2nd monitor will change. When I slide desktops, the image will be briefly clear.

Logging out and back in fixes the problem, but I'd like to not have the problem in the first place.

 

Late 2013 13" MacBook Pro

external monitor connected to Thunderbolt port as DisplayPort

El Capitan 10.11.3 and 10.11.4

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 21, 2016 2:30 PM

Close

Q: Desktop background blurred after reboot

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by pinkstones,

    pinkstones pinkstones Mar 21, 2016 2:32 PM in response to Plughie
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    Mar 21, 2016 2:32 PM in response to Plughie

    Boot your computer into Safe Mode by shutting down, then restarting while holding down the Shift key.  Is your background blurred like you'd see on your login screen?

  • by Plughie,

    Plughie Plughie Mar 21, 2016 2:46 PM in response to pinkstones
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 21, 2016 2:46 PM in response to pinkstones

    About to reboot, but here's what the background looks like.

    Desktop-blurry_3_21_16__14_36.jpg

  • by pinkstones,

    pinkstones pinkstones Mar 21, 2016 2:58 PM in response to Plughie
    Level 5 (4,209 points)
    Safari
    Mar 21, 2016 2:58 PM in response to Plughie

    Right, that's how it is now.  What we need to ascertain is if the same thing will happen when your computer is in Safe Mode.  If it's not, that means that some 3rd party add-on might be the culprit, because they're disabled when in Safe Mode.

  • by Eric Root,Solvedanswer

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 22, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Plughie
    Level 9 (69,881 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 22, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Plughie

    Might be a corrupt .plist.

     

    Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

     

    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 Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist.  Move the .plists to your desktop.

    Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.

    If the same, return the .plists to where you got it  from, overwriting the newer one.

     

    Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.