Unable to change wallpaper on my Mac post Sonoma update

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I'm happy for you but do NOT regard this as a solution. They need to fix the bug. They can't expect millions of people to uninstall an update (however one does that!) and reinstall. Nor do I want to spend 2 hours on the phone with them for any reason. This is absurd. Hopefully the bug will be fixed soon.

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.

Okay, this is really annoying, and the antithesis of Steve's old motto 'it just works', but, if you load the folder of images that you want to use as your changing wallpaper into the selections window, expand it so that you can see all of the images, then click EACH image ONE by ONE, so that it fills the screen momentarily, it seems to resolve the issue and the images autoload there after at the rate at which you set them without defaulting back to the vineyard default. Good Luck!

Apple must not pay too much attention to the forums otherwise this wouldn't still be an issue after a year. AS I have asked them many times, make the existing features work, then thoroughly test any new features rather than treating your users as beta testers, like Microsoft (unless they volunteer to do so).

Same exact problem here. It seemed to be better after a Safe Boot (and then back to a normal boot), It was working shuffling through an album every 1 minute. I changed to 5 minutes and it reverted to default again. More testing needed, but it's clearly broken.