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Unable to change wallpaper on my Mac post Sonoma update

Downloaded full release of Sonoma this morning. Changing the wall paper in Settings does not work. Stuck with the Sonoma Vineyard scene it booted with after installing. Any ideas?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 14.0

Posted on Sep 26, 2023 6:27 PM

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Posted on May 26, 2024 3:20 PM

Wow. I created this thread almost a year ago and gave up trying to make it work - since the Apple wall papers and screen savers are nice anyway. But today I thought ... it must have been fixed by now. But NO. Apple still has the option to shuffle a Photos Album as wallpaper, and STILL it does not work. I generate bug reports on this and I assume others did too. Failure to address a bug like this for so long shows a pathetic lack of attention to customer issues and to detail.

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May 26, 2024 3:20 PM in response to KitzW

Wow. I created this thread almost a year ago and gave up trying to make it work - since the Apple wall papers and screen savers are nice anyway. But today I thought ... it must have been fixed by now. But NO. Apple still has the option to shuffle a Photos Album as wallpaper, and STILL it does not work. I generate bug reports on this and I assume others did too. Failure to address a bug like this for so long shows a pathetic lack of attention to customer issues and to detail.

Oct 13, 2023 3:05 PM in response to Kinyen

I don't think you fully understand the topic. My first post was about Sonoma not changing wallpaper at all. But as you have found, Sonoma does display the Apple wallpapers correctly once they have been downloaded and that seems to be what you are responding to. However, Sonoma will NOT shuffle an album of your own images from Photos as wallpaper. Have a look at my post from 26 September with an image attached. To make it clearer I have attached a screen shot from Settings. You'll see that Wallpaper is set to shuffle an album from my Photos library called Funghi. And on the desktop behind it you can see the Sonoma Vineyard wall paper. Try it.

If you want your posts to be treated with respect, treat others with respect. Describing others' legitimate posts as "griping" will not earn you a positive reaction in these discussions.

Oct 11, 2023 2:52 AM in response to rjp123

That was my exact thought. Is Apple so in love with their new photos that they disallow me to use my own on my screensaver?

The worst part for me is that I had *just* set it up how I liked with loved ones photos who recently passed. Every time I saw them appear on my screensaver it gave warmth to my heart.


The reason I've loved Apple is because it's been intuitive, but this is the pits. I hope they fix it soon.

Oct 27, 2023 3:35 PM in response to Sherry0

I've just updated to Sonoma 14.1. After a delay whilst it seems to re-index photos, I still have the same problem of not cycling one of my albums. The workaround I used before still seems to be the only solution.

  1. select chosen album.
  2. click on 'show all'
  3. click on individual photos which will now be your wallpaper.
  4. repeat step 3 as many times as you want with different photos within the album.
  5. now click the double arrow to select the album.
  6. Any photo from step 3 will now cycle.

I have over 4000 photos so I only click about 100. They cycle as it should.

Strangely, screen saver works properly.

Dec 12, 2023 4:06 PM in response to rjp123

A workaround. Go to settings/wallpaper/your chosen Photos Album. Eventually (can take a while) your photo albums will list and there will be a thumbnail of each photo in the album. The first thumbnail is the non working 'cycle the album' activator. Any photo you click on becomes the wallpaper. Now keep clicking successively on as many as you want. Now go back to that first activator thumbnail and click on it. All photos you clicked will now cycle. I have 4100 photos in my 'wallpaper' album, but only have about 200 cycling. Good luck.

PS How many Sonoma updates do we have to wait for before Apple addresses this BIG FAIL. I think with 14.2 we have had 4.

Oct 11, 2023 12:59 PM in response to RJApple_

Again: this is NOT about the new "Wallpapers".

It's about the old ones not working because Apple just had their new ones in mind and forgot about the old ones - like folders in Photos or albums - to keep them working.


Really amazing how few people actually read what is written here and just write about their problems even if it's not the topic here.

Oct 27, 2023 1:14 AM in response to Peter Hillman

Since Sonoma update on my MacBook Air M1, i cannot get my entire photo library(more than 15000 photos) for wallpaper. I can put one photo but when i change to all photos i get sonoma horizon. Nothing changed after 14.1 update. I have made a separate thread but i can see that issues here are similar. I made a report today and i hope for a future solution.

Oct 7, 2023 2:45 PM in response to rjp123

SIMPLE FIX:

  1. Logout (NOT reboot)
  2. Login again


No need to reboot. No need to gripe about what doesn't work. Just logout and back in again. It's either a bug or Sonoma hasn't finished doing it's under-the-hood housekeeping. Either way, it will smooth out and go away.


Apple monitors these forums. That's what the "Me Too" button is for. Replying with your own version of the same problem does nothing but pollute the message boards, especially if you're not providing an actual solution/workaround that might help others.


Sep 26, 2023 9:33 PM in response to Vancouver22

Perhaps you were replying to Foxfifth, but as per my update - I can switch between Apple wallpapers (and they are beautiful and they take a while to load) and to individual photos from my Photos library but not to "Play photos from an Album". I can select it in settings and it loads the thumbnails in settings, but the desktop wallpaper remains on its previous setting. See image.

Oct 6, 2023 12:30 AM in response to Rosiv

My Sonoma wallpaper and screen saver do change. Each time I switch on my Mac Mini I get a different wallpaper on each display. This change seems to work if you use dynamic wallpapers for both the wallpaper and the screen saver.


However, the options for changing are limited to Continuously, Every 12 Hours, Every Day, Every 2 Days, Every Week, and Every Month. Not a great choice and it would be better if there were more options, for example, Every 10 Minutes, Every 30 Minutes, Every Hour, and so on up to Every 12 Hours.


In my opinion, Apple got the options wrong for wallpapers and screen savers.


Regards

Schof

Dec 19, 2023 4:55 PM in response to KitzW

KitzW wrote:

I solved it by putting the photos I want to use (about 150) in a folder on my Mac, not in the cloud files. Logged out and back in and voila!

That is not a solution, that is a work-around. A folder on your Mac with photos does work with the random feature in the Wallpaper settings panel. It still does not work if you want to randomize photos from an album in your Photos application. Doesn't matter if they are in the cloud or local on your Mac. It won't randomize or even display a photo if you choose the random option for an album in your Photos app. All you get is the Apple Vineyard wallpaper. Apple still needs to fix this.

Unable to change wallpaper on my Mac post Sonoma update

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