Sequoia 15 wallpaper with my photo library not working

Submitted a bug report. I have little/no faith in it getting fixed. All I can do is select a single photo from my library to be the wallpaper and no automatic changing wallpaper for me! Since Sonoma and now in Sequoia. Unfixed. :(

Why do Apple engineers avoid to resolve this I don't understand. It is many years now. If you try to show the feature to the clients, most of them very faithful and supportive, it does not work. What is the point in that? You also get instructions on the guides and help pages and you follow them and it does not work. What's the deal?

some people waste a lot of time to find a workaround but to no avail

Sorry. I should have clarified, I don’t use iCloud. All photos were transferred /uploaded from my iPhone to Photos library on my iMac then put in the new folder and placed in the Downloads file on the iMac.

Just updated to 15.3.1. I have a MacBook M1 Max. Everything was fine for a day or so and then the photos I have been using as a wallpaper stopped being shown and my screens now have a black/dark grey background. When I open systems settings and try to adjust the wallpaper I get nothing but a spinning wheel.

I can't remember when this stopped working - many years ago (all the os upgrades just merge into a grey mess now In my memory) - I posted a bug report immediately - many years later and still no fix.

I can imagine the workarounds, but we should not have to do this. I just want to have my wallpaper scroll through my favourites in Photos automatically (so it updates which photos to use when I select more). This should not be too much to ask for. But at the moment all I can see is those **** trees.

Mister Jazz, in my case it doesn't work either in your case a).

I simply use a Photo native library on my boot disk. It doesn't shuffle any album nor whole library.

Please help me if you can

You say it's an obvious function. It stopped working with Ventura upgrade.

This may be the source of most confusion, however - regardless of technicalities- to the average user, including me. If 'Download Originals to this Mac' is selected, that equals case a).

It is a mystery to me how there is ANY DIFFERENCE between having that iCloud box checked and not.

Photos take up 58 GB of storage space on my M3 MacBook Air; what planet are their engineers on for this to be an issue?

I follow the info that AndrewJazz posted, but I have a question/comment to make in regards to what he says.

#4 says that in the latest software, pics out on the cloud no longer rotate. Well, some of mine do and some don't, they are all on the cloud. So why is it that the software will rotate pics from one cloud folder, but not another?

His stating of the problem is clear and concise, but at least in my case, #4 is not always true.

Not trying to throw sand at anyone, lol, just wondering why it is.

I used to think that Microsoft was bad about customer support, but I am beginning to see that Apple is following in their dubious footsteps. Sad really.

Hello again AndrewJazz,

I do not know if the size of the file is the barrier, I suppose it could be. The file I can get it to work with has a bit over 200 pics, the one that was working up until a couple of weeks ago has a bit over 600. So it is roughly 3 times the size, but it was working fantastic. Operative word being was, lol.

Also, at this time, if I am not using the smaller folder, I found that NONE of the provided files for wallpaper, that Apple provides will work. If I try to change to one of those, it just fills in a color of its own choosing. I mean WOW, lol, eventually it will default back to the sequoia trees, but it cannot use any of the provided pics, so it truly has a really stubborn bug.

It is amazing to me that apparently no one is overseeing the proof checking on software for such a basic part of the operating software, and further more, that those same people still have jobs.

This is so wrong. I own Macs (2 currently, 1 past) just for photography and nothing else.

And I can not display it as I want.

Wallpaper works only if you are NOT using iCloud photos

Screen Saver works only if you ARE using iCloud photos

Someone please make this make sense.

macOS 15.3.2

Not working on Sequoia 15.4.1. My photos are all local and on the main built-in SSD drive, no iCloud or NAS or anything. It's working after reboot, but then stops after a day or two. Maybe after deep sleep. Found no pattern for it yet.

Again stopped to work, 1 day passed I think. Experimented there for a bit. No screensaver from "Other" section is working, no "Flurry", "Hello" or others. "Preview" button is not working, but small preview on top could work (with some delays). Colored "Sonoma" on top is working, but not those which I need, especially "Photos" one :( Tried to change folder in "Photos" screensaver settings – didn't help. My photos are all local.

My current theory that those "Other" screensavers have different rendering engine or host application which stops to work after some time or stuck.