Can't change background image in the finder

I noticed this same issue, which is frustrating if you like to customize your folders with colors and/or backgrounds. I depended on this feature somewhat as a way to navigate my filing system by the ability it afforded me to quickly recognize what folder I am in based on the background color or image. I've also noticed that if some folders still happen to have background colors or images (such as is/was the case in the folders on my external drive), if you select "View Options" and make some changes (icon size/grid spacing, for example) to the "View Options," the background color or image will disappear, reverting back to the default white. I find it strange that the options to select a background color or image still appear in "View Options," when they cannot (to my knowledge) be changed/selected. Perhaps this is a sign of some changes that are coming to Finder in an update to Lion later on? One other interesting thing I've noticed that might also point to this is the removal of the button that once appeared on the upper right-hand side of the tab of the Finder pane, which allowed you to browse in Finder without the menu column and tab appearing at the top and left side of the window. This could be a hint that there is a full-screen update coming?

Same here. I don't use icon view much but when I do that plain white background gets on my nerves. I've always changed it to a different color. What's weird is that I can use the color picker but can't choose to color the background. I have to think this is a bug. (Or else part of Apple's evil scheme to drain all color out of the UI).

I agree, it is dissapointing.

I noticed that some 3rd party apps can be installed to make changes to background, however I am not going to install them.

I hope Apple introduce some updates soon that will allow users to make simple changes such as these.

Regards

Keith

Update: I haven't figured out what the difference is, but I noticed that I can change the background color on my laptop, whereas I cannot on my iMac. I mostly have the same extensions, etc. installed on both but I'll report here if I can isolate the source of the trouble.

Okay, I stumbled on a solution to this bug. In folders that I have set to "Arrange by" anything, I am unable to change the background color. If I choose "Arrange by None" then I can change the background color/image. But as soon as I change it back to "Arrange by" anything, it goes back to the white background.

You can, however, choose to "Sort by" (still not 100% clear on the difference there) any criterion and it will retain the color/image.

Thanks for the tip, Darren. That helped me make sense of it, and now, I think that I'm catching on to how "Arrange By" and "Sort By" behave differently. You might have noticed the somewhat segmented view in "All My Files" (found under the FAVORITES list on the sidebar), for example. Changing the "Arrange By" options in the view options menu will break up the page (by rows) into segments, subcategories or subsets, if you will, depending on which "Arrange By" option is selected, similar to the default view in "All My Files". In some cases you can select "Arrange By" and then "Sort By" to choose a secondary sort option that will be applied to each subset group. An added feature to this view is that you can then scroll left and right (horizontally) through each subset, similar to how you can navigate files with Cover Flow. Because the "Arrange By" options produce this rather segmented view, it makes sense that the option to apply a background image or color would be prohibited here, because while it might techically be a view of all of the files within a certain folder, it is not a simple grid that your files are set upon. As you noticed, if you select "Arrange By: None" and use only the "Sort By" options, your files are sorted by relevance similar to how they were in Snow Leopard. Thanks again for noticing this and taking the time to post! -Ryne

Hello Kieran,

I think that Apple's silent rule on this is that we won't be able to set a background color or image under "All My Files". With the addition of "All My Files" in Finder, Apple is obviously trying to provide an alternative way for users to have a quick and comprehensive overview of all the files on your Mac. That part of it may be obvious to most, but what isn’t readily apparent –and what has been downright confusing to some of us- is how these added options affect the other folders on your Mac. So, just a quick explanation of what this means as I understand it (and my apologies if I seem to be making some obvious points for the sake of explaining):

With the number of files that would be found under "All My Files" for most users, it makes sense that Apple has opted to change up the view a bit in “All My Files”. They’ve done this by breaking up the page into categories (e.g."Name," "Kind," "Application," et cetera) that are set apart by horizontal lines (effectively, Cover Flow-like navigatable icons set in rows). Many of us might not see the purpose in this, but it does make sense for navigating larger folders. Think of it as a combined look of the list view and Cover Flow. When considering those other views (list and column view, for example), you will realize that you cannot apply background images or colors to those views. Therefore, it seems that Apple has decided to treat this view option similar to the List or Columns view, excluding any additional visual or graphical content (i.e. colors or images) that would perhaps compete with an already busy look on the page. What seems to confuse many of us who wonder what has happened to our background images and colors when browsing in the icon view in Finder is that we don’t realize that we’ve selected (or Lion has selected for us) any “Arrange By” criteria, or we expect the “Arrange By” options in icon view to not affect the background image or color because we are in icon view where our background image or color for any particular folder is usually seen.

I hope that adds some clarity to this issue,even if we can’t accept the fact that we seem to lose some of our more customizable and personalized options in Finder while gaining some more functionality in how we are able browse our files.

Ryne

Glad to help in whatever small way, Ryne.

Just as an aside, I thought that the "All My Files" would be more useful to me than it's turned out to be. I've turned it off in the sidebar. I have way, way too many files (doesn't everyone?) to scroll through them all at once to find the one I want. I either use Spotlight or find it in the folder it's in. Curious what use anybody else finds for this feature.

You make a very good point. Maybe if you've lost complete track of a file, your filing system is a mess (that'll rarely, if ever, happen to us OCD types) and you want to go "window shopping" for files, then I can see where going to "All My Files" might come in handy. Other than that, I would just use Spotlight, as you say.

Thanks Darren. I was getting frustrated with this and the switching to sort by none allowed me to get rid of the back ground image. I'm am still getting used to the switch from PC to Mac. There is a slight learning curve, but am very happy with making the switch.

Darren Raymond wrote:

Okay, I stumbled on a solution to this bug. In folders that I have set to "Arrange by" anything, I am unable to change the background color. If I choose "Arrange by None" then I can change the background color/image. But as soon as I change it back to "Arrange by" anything, it goes back to the white background.

You can, however, choose to "Sort by" (still not 100% clear on the difference there) any criterion and it will retain the color/image.

I've never used this feature but I've just tested it in Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and both the problem and the solution are the same, so its not a peculiarly Lion thing it seems.

Thanks Darren.Thats fixed it. (Who'd have thought to do that)

Here is another solution if you would like more freedom to change your background

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3208332?answerId=20905793022#20905793022