Mojave dynamic desktop

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Level 1

4 points

Mojave dynamic desktop

Why do my desktop mac & MacBook show "different dynamic" scenes?

Here's what happens. I have a Mac mini and a MacBook both running 10.14.6.

Both use the Mojave Desktop background "sand dune" with "Dynamic" selected.

When both devices are running I would expect both backgrounds to be the same and change at the same time but this is not the case. 99% of the time both show different slides and both change the slide at different times.

Here's what I've tried. On both machines- Ensured desktop/saver preferences match. Ensured Location services is Enabled. Ensured Time formats match. Ensured Dark Mode is enabled.

I know this is probably not a major concern I just don't like it when something is not right on my Mac.

Thanks for reading.

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 2, 2020 2:03 PM

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Answer 1

kwnewz Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2020 1:34 PM in response to Allan Jones

I found the culprit. Discovered an old wifi dongle (TP-LINK_TL-WN725N(EUUSES)_V3_180807_Mac⁩ ▸ ⁨Mac OS X Driver⁩ ▸ ⁨Mac OS X10.13⁩) still plugged in at the back of my desktop Mac. All good now. Thanks for all your input.

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

77,966 points

Jul 2, 2020 5:07 PM in response to kwnewz

Is wifi turned on in the Mini? Are the computers on the same network? There could be a difference in how location services works between wifi and wired ethernet.

Is the time difference an exact interval, like one hour?

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Answer 3

Jul 3, 2020 2:29 AM in response to kwnewz

Are both Macs cold-booted at the same time? Are the exact same system and application settings in use? Are they running the exact same tasks? Same amount of RAM etc? Oh, so many variables. Maybe the desktop switch is just set to start at some randomish time interval when the CPU happens to be idling enough? Wouldn't be boring if they switched desktops at the exact same time?!

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Answer 4

kwnewz Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2020 5:17 PM in response to Allan Jones

Hi Allan, I did check that both are on the same network. To be honest I checked so many things I guess I forgot a few. However they are also both connected via WiFi and Ethernet so I will test with both only WiFi and then both Ethernet. Will post result. As for the one hour interval - I have no idea. This may take some time to check as it requires my alert attention to see when one changes and time it from there.

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Answer 5

kwnewz Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2020 10:14 PM in response to kwnewz

OK checked when both on only wifi and then ethernet. No change.

Plus interval time does seem to be about an hour but not entirely sure and not sure what this would tell me if I was.

I would like to know just when and how often it checks my location though.

Any other ideas much appreciated. Thanks

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Answer 6

kwnewz Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 3, 2020 4:31 AM in response to Matti Haveri

"Maybe the desktop switch is just set to start at some randomish time interval when the CPU happens to be idling enough?"

That, is the question I asked in my previous post.

As to the rest I don't see why any would be related, if they changed desktop scenes at the same time they would be doing what they are suppose to do and I would happily change scenes manually to prevent chronic boredom. The fact that they do not suggests an underlying problem which may get worse. I'm fairly convinced it has something to do with Location Services and I probably won't be able to fix. But if someone can tell me when the location gets checked I'll be satisfied.

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Mojave dynamic desktop

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