Custom wallpaper color shows as white and unable to change after macOS 15.4 update on Mac mini

Because it's a bug that many users, but not all, are seeing in 15.4.

If you want to use a particular color, create a tiny RGB image, like 5 x 5 pixels, in the color you want and put it in the Pictures folder of your user account.

Then select that image in System Settings. It will automatically tile to fill the screen.

Lacking any other image editor, you can make one in Preview.

1) Pick any small image on your Mac. Doesn't matter what it is. Picture of a dog, whatever.

2) Copy the image to a new name that makes sense to you. Such as WallpaperTint.

3) Open that in Preview and press Command+0 (zero) to display the image 1:1

4) Draw a tiny rectangle anywhere on the image and press Command+K to crop the image. Hold the Shift key down to constrain the shape to a perfect rectangle.

5) Press Command and the + key a few times to make the image much bigger on screen than it actually is.

6) In the menu bar, go to: Tools > Annotate > Rectangle . Drag the corners out (and beyond the edges a bit) so the rectangle covers the entire image.

7) Set the frame color to null:

8) Set the fill color to whatever color you want. Click Show Colors if you don't want to use any of the presets. If you set the color panel next to your image, you can watch the color change as you move the sliders. You'll see something like this:

9) Do a Save As to save your image as a PNG (if it isn't already a PNG). As small as it is, JPEG may create unwanted artifacts in the file, resulting in an image that isn't a perfectly flat tint.

Faster than my first method.

1. Open any app that can fill a color of anything on the screen. Such as Word, Pages, etc.
2. In Pages, I chose a box shape and filled it with a color I wanted. Size is irrelevant, other than too small.
3. Press Command+Shift+4 and draw a tiny square over the color you filled.
4. A .png image will be saved to your desktop.
5. Put that .png image in the Pictures folder of your user account.
6. Open the Wallpaper settings and choose your image.

Dan Cornett wrote:

Same for me ... custom colors all show as white.

It's the same for everyone. It's a known bug in Sequoia 15.4. You can send a bug report from the feedback page.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Fixed in the 15.4.1 update released today.

I confirm, 15.4.1 update fix, thank you.

FWIW, it's an unfortunate bug for some. However, if I set a color jpg/png/webp image ot a preferred color it never changes for me across restarts/reboots, on three different Macs running Sequoia 15.4.

Yes, indeed, this bug was quietly fixed in 15.4.1. Cool. This bug really annoyed me.

@outthere1000

The quickest way to get something working is to to control-click (or two-finger click with a trackpad) on your desktop and select "Change Wallpaper..." from the pop-up context menu. That'll take you to the "Wallpaper" section in Settings. From there, You can scroll down to "Colors" and select one of the "working" ones that Apple has there, for example grey or black.

This really has nothing to do with color profiles, BTW. That just alters color settings for a given display device to assist in getting consistent output matching for other devices. The whole goal there is to have, say, the red on your screen be as close as possible to the red on a print device.

I'm not sure what you mean by uploaded. After using GraphicConverter to create 16x16 images with the color swatches I wanted saved out in PNG format, I stuck them into my ~/Pictures folder and named them in a way that put them at the head of the list. That worked fine; when I changed background and scrolled down to the "Pictures" section near the bottom, there they were. All worked fine, and now as a bonus I've used it on all my other mMacs to make the colors consistent.

(Pretty much the only part of my vision that works is the peripheral, so it allows me to see what desktop I'm on out of the "corner of my eye" while switching. I've used the same colors pretty much since Apple introduced multiple desktops; it works well for me.)

Kurt Lang wrote:

Because it's a bug that many users, but not all, are seeing in 15.4.

I wonder how many users aren't seeing it. I see it on three different Macs running 15.4.

This problem is on all my Macs. Since I'm visually-impaired, I use some pretty specific background colors to let me know which of my workspaces I'm on. This really broke things for me, I was able to come up with some colors from the "stock" color pallet, but they are nowhere near as useful to me as the custom ones I created. I guess I could go the "small RGB image" route, but it'd be better if Apple just fixed this.

He also wrote "Gulp" lol I think he was using an iPad. I mean, afterall, it's the same on all my Macs running Sequoia 15.4, also yours, and at least three other users so far.

Yup, there are various ways to clip out a tiny image so you can create the color you want to use as a wallpaper tint.

"Uploaded"?

You put the screen shot of your flat tint in the Pictures folder of your user account. It can be selected like any other picture.