How to change the login screen wallpaper in Catalina?

I could change my login screen display before on Mojave, but it changes in Catalina. I forgot how could I change it again or maybe in Catalina couldn't change the login screen?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Oct 8, 2019 1:10 AM

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34 replies

Oct 16, 2019 5:33 AM in response to Old Toad

Yeah, it looks like the System folder is pretty much locked up. Haven't tried sudo and Terminal commands to rename and replace Catalina.heic, but simple drag and drop doesn't work and doesn't prompt for a password, so maybe root is required. Hope someone figures it out....

Joel.M

Level 1

12 points

Oct 21, 2019 11:19 AM in response to wadesmith

I've tried that through Terminal as admin user and root user, it still prevent any changes. I even tried it through recovery mode terminal, I made the change with ease and back up the original Catalina.heic by rename it. but when booting macOS Catalina, it restart before it reaches to the login window like it crashes everytime it sees a different Catalina.heic. I had to delete Catalina.heic and put the original heic back. While in Terminal, I checked the extended attributes and noticed there's a lot listed under the picture file that I wanted to put on login list. I removed all by typing xattr command with -c under that picture file name. The only thing that's listed is com.apple.macl that cannot be removed.

I typed ls -al@ Catalina*

to show the permission list along with others and the file I change to Catalina.heic shows "@" at the end of the permission read/white. This still did not solve it. This has something to do with the extended attribute because all the original pictures under /System/Library/Desktop Pictures has no extended attributes on any of them. I'm still learning about terminal and Catalina.

x8smile

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2019 7:05 AM in response to wadesmith

Download and prepare your image for login screen. Remember to rename as Catalina.heic
Copy this Catalina to your usb, name the usb anything as you wish
Restart your mac and hold Command + R to boot into Recovery Mode
Enter your password and open Terminal
type the command:

cp /Volumes/Name of your Usb/Catalina.heic /Volumes/Name of your System Hard Drive/System/Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Catalina.heic

Restart your mac > go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > and you need to change your User name's picture, and some Login option to clear the cache.
Log out to see your new login screen.

Article with images can be found here: https://macplanet.vn/huong-dan-cach-thay-man-hinh-login-screen-tren-macos-catalina

Good luck!

applewarm

Level 2

345 points

Oct 16, 2019 7:53 AM in response to wadesmith

I haven't even tried honestly, I'm not expert enough to do that stuff.

I think I'll wait for Onyx, IF they can figure it out.

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How to change the login screen wallpaper in Catalina?