Change MacOS Monterey Login Screen Wallpaper

i think you need to read my reply again. it was apple recommended because it DIRECTLY addresses changing the LOGIN WINDOW background. you can ONLY make it MATCH your DESKTOP BACKGROUND ( not a different image than desktop background ) and ONLY if you are the SOLE USER and file vault MUST be turned off. if your setup is not exactly that, you need to send apple some feedback, and i am NOT apple.

apteryxvolans wrote:

My feedback to AppleSoft is that I refuse to move above Catalina OS, and that brands other than AppleSoft are looking more and more attractive the more AppleSoft behaves like those brands.

AppleSoft hasn't existed since about 1978, so I doubt anyone will get that memo.

hi Ronni DC,

that is an excellent addition to this thread! yes, when changing system preferences, sometimes it takes a toggling off and on of the setting, and even sometimes a restart for the changes to take effect.

Fidipaldi99 wrote:

Here is a video on Youtube that explains how to easely change your lock screen picture with the one you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fFNVlpM-Tw

yes, that method does work as well. but for that to work, you need to turn off FileVault and also the mac needs to be a single user setup. (you can see in the video, they are single user setup) and if your machine is set up that way then you can just set "Display login window as:" to "List of users." to get the login window to match your desktop.

sorry to rain on your parade, but, that is expected behaviour, and does not address the topic of this thread. as you've seen, the "lock screen" will match whatever the desktop background is of the account you are logged into when you "lock" the screen. but the topic of this thread is the "login screen". that is the screen you get when you either restart the mac, or "log out" of an account. to change that requires a single user setup. not even a guest account.

I am talking about the login screen When you first turn on your computer and log on. There is a picture above the login space. I would like to add my picture there, and change the default background as well. I see a post above that tells how to change the default background picture. Now I would like to put a picture of my avatar pic in place of the default pic.

eanniep wrote:

I've added my request. Let's get this noticed! This is not acceptable and if enough of us add feedback, they will be forced into listening.

I'd be surprised if they'll get much feedback. These days there's no need for most people to reboot their Macs at all, except when the occasional macOS update requires it.

"AppleSoft."

*THAT* is spot on! Sadly.

ALL Mac products used to be so intuitive. Now it's coasting on past reputation.

THIS one it maddening. I got desktop pic (easy), and log in screen (a bit more challenging) to change. But if you turn your Mac OFF and on.... that "chosen-by-Apple" image comes up. Mine's not the pink/purple (thank God) but equally annoying.

After getting this to work by following Jeffrey and Ronnie's advice, toggling off and on, I went back and enabled both Guest User and File Vault, restarted and saw the original Apple login screen. I disabled both, restarted and now my login screen matches my lock screen/desktop again. I'm not going to fool around with it any more for now. This is on a new MBP 14", latest Monterey update.

It was working before the update to 12.2.1, but it no longer works after the update. No amount of toggling settings off/on, restarting, and toggling settings on/off make this work. Pretty disgusted with Apple.

Fortunately, my main computer runs Windows, which allows you to pick whatever background you want for your login screen.

Yes, putting the picture into /Library/Caches/com.apple.desktop.admin.png worked for me.

I wonder if it would also work if it were a symlink to the user picture in "/Library/Caches/Desktop Pictures/".../lockscreen.png

This worked on my MacBook Pro 16" 2021 with Monterey 12.2.1!!!! I hated the red and black depressing startup screen. I chose one of my photos for the desktop and this solution also made it my lock screen. I'd love to have a different photo on each screen, but I'm thrilled to get this. Thanks!!

This procedure does appear to work. Are you the only user account on your MBP? Which "Library" are you referring to, the System level or the User level? Your data about your screen resolution seems odd since my early 2015 13" MBP has a resolution of 2560X1600.

does not work...

cant believe how ugly that pic from mac is at startup - i never choosed it (it's not monterey - it's crap) and it seems not possible to change it comfortably in any way. shame on apple.

I'm on a 2015 MacBook Pro, running on macOS Monterey version 12.3 and this worked!

I copied the JPG (in my case) into the /Library/Caches folder and into the Desktop Pictures folder, there was another folder in there with a long name and when I clicked it I saw the "lockscreen.png", I saved my new JPG as the name you said and PRESTO! It worked. Thank you! That was driving me insane.

As a side note, I feel that Apple is headed in the wrong direction. What used to feel so user friendly is now complicated. I had to jump through all sorts of looks just to find the /Library/Caches folder because it didn't appear when I clicked Finder. I had to add the Location to the finder since updating to Monterey. Needless to say, I'm not impressed :(