Wallpaper not saved between reboots

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9 points

Wallpaper not saved between reboots

I'm running Catalina 10.15.5 on a MacBookPro. There are 4 Spaces setup each setup to change the wallpaper every hour in random order from a sub folder of my Pictures folder. The Pictures folder and sub-folder is on the MacBookPro's main drive partition. Everything works OK until the MacBookPro is rebooted. After a reboot the wallpaper for all 4 spaces has reverted back to the Catalina defaults.

This used to work in previous versions of the operating system. What can I do to make it work in Catalina 10.15.5? (at the time of writing this is the most recent version of macOS)

Thank you for your help.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 3, 2020 3:51 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

i_rina

Community Specialist

Jun 7, 2020 1:09 PM in response to Andy E

Hi Andy E,

It's good to see what happened with the new user. That lets you know that your system is behaving correctly, but there may be something causing this in your main user, such as an old login item, security or anti-virus software, or some setting that may have been corrupted over years of updates.

Check out this article about testing login items: If your Mac has a blue screen or other startup problems - Apple Support

That will help you check for outdated or conflicting items that load when you log in to your user account.

All the best.

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Answer 2

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jun 4, 2020 1:34 PM in response to Andy E

Hi Andy E,

Thanks for reaching out here in the Apple Support Communities. I understand that the wallpaper you have set to change every hour on four separate spaces on your Mac won't stay selected after restarting the Mac.

I'm glad to help with this.

It sounds as though everything is set up correctly, but just to make sure, review the steps here:

Work in multiple spaces on Mac - Apple Support

Customize the desktop picture on your Mac - Apple Support

If everything is in order, some additional information could help narrow down what's happening.

If you create a new, administrative user on your Mac, and just have one space, does the desktop picture settings remain after a restart? How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support
Did this ever work in any version of macOS 10.15 Catalina?

Take Care.

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Answer 3

Andy E Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 6, 2020 9:11 AM in response to CarlAVII

Hello and thank you for your reply. I setup a test user with Admin rights as you suggested with just one space. The account was setup to use a random image from the ones supplied with macOS and it worked perfectly. The setting was preserved through logouts and reboots.

With regards to your second question "Did this ever work in any version of macOS 10.15 Catalina?" I will be honest and say I'm not sure. I don't tend to reboot my Mac very often except where required for upgrades. It was following the recent upgrade that I noticed the wallpaper setting was not being preserved.

I have had the Mac for about 6 years now so it has had a quite a few OS upgrades. Perhaps something was mangled along the way?

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Answer 4

Andy E Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 8, 2020 2:40 PM in response to i_rina

Hello and thanks again. The issue was indeed caused by a rouge application invoked at startup. Disabling the application solved the issue.

Best regards,

Andy

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Wallpaper not saved between reboots

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