Gray background after wakeup after lion upgrade?

Nope. Sorry. It worked that way for at least a dozen trials, but then I just got a gray screen with a mouse click.

But I don't feel bad, because I couldn't possibly explain why such a difference should occur.

This is a bug Apple attempted to address in the 10.7.2 update but didn't succeed. You can either kill the Dock process in Activity Manager or you can go to terminal and type:

killall Dock

Yes, I am running 10.7.2 and am still having the problem. It does not occur everytime I awaken my computer from sleep -- probably about half the time. I will say, however, that it continues to happen virtually every time I awaken the computer using a keyboard stroke, but maybe only 1 time in 10 when I use a mouse click. This has me fascinated.

I suspect, but obviously do not know for sure, that it has something to do with the way the "set up" is written off to disk during sleep and the way it's written back and acted upon. Let's hope they get it fixed in 10.7.3.

I have the same issue.

Dual monitiors. External monitor is fine - has the defined background, Macbook Pros background is grey. Cant set it to anything else, just stays grey.

Macbook Pro (late 2008), Lion 10.7.2.

Have the same issue, brand new i7 MBP, using only external monitor via HDMI. Always grey wallpaper after sleep.

I've been getting this problem too. Thought 10.7.2 fixed it as I didn't experience the problem for a while and was really happy but the problem has come back. Having to use the killall Dock command everytime I wake my 2011 iMac is terribly annoying.

Never happened in Snow Leopard and doesn't happen in Windows 7 (boot camp) either.

In my case the grey background does not happen any more. Instead of it i have some strange behaviour of the windows appearence: after i disconnect the external display, i get the most windows having wrong (very dark) colors. First i thought the color scheme of my monitor was wrong, but a little time later i've realized, that i can correct the colors, but restarting the application.

I think that the both bugs are connected in some way.

Has anyone else found that this issue is related to the (apparently still problematic) combo of Lion + Fullscreen Applications + External displays?

I encountered similar issues just now for the first time, found this thread, and then subsequently found other articles pointing to full screen compatibility being at fault - ie. it's arguably the 3rd party software that's breaking Lion when it goes full screen, not vice versa.

Haven't seen enough bugs on my end (yet) to report with any accuracy, but the dual-screen gray background and other screen/GUI glitches I experienced were only resolved when I exited full-screen for all running programs.

(I was running Chrome, Evernote, and iTunes at the time)

I agree with Michael-Owen. Once I quit Chrome and Safari (only 2 full screen supportive apps I had open), and then launched my screensaver (via a hot corner) my background was restored on its own. So yes this does seem like it may be a full screen bug. I am going to guess the culprit may be Chrome since this was always running when I got the gray screen on my second desktop.

I'll try uninstalling chrome and see if the grey screen of crap comes back or not.

I strongly suspect both the preceding posts are barking up a wrong tree (or two). I have the problem and don't even have Chrome on my computer. Furthermore, the problem arises after sleep even when there are no third-party applications open -- indeed, no applications other than Apple's standard "always runs."

@dinglebat No one here is barking up any tree. We are just trying to pinpoint the reasoning behind the greyscreen to find a solution. Thank you for your input nonetheless.

After testing the issue the culprit is indeed not Chrome or any third party app (since I uninstalled Chrome and left only Safari running). The issue arises with "any app" that supports full screen. After quitting Safari (the only app I had running) and manually putting my computer to sleep, when I woke the system the grey screen was gone and my background was restored automatically.

I tried testing this with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Spotify and the grey screen did not return. Only after putting the system to sleep with Safari / Aperture / iTunes / Chrome open is when I lose my secondary background. All of which are apps that support full screen.

So far I can pinpoint that this bug lies within any apps that support full screen like Micael-Owen suggested.

Apple needs to find a solution to this bug in their next update. For now the only solution is to quit any apps that support full screen before the computer sleeps to avoid the issue (or to live with it and us killall Dock in terminal).

I miss my Snow Leopard :-(

Same problem here...

Here's your fix:

Open up "Terminal" and type this:

killall Dock

then press enter, and it will jump back to life.

I have the same exact problem on my MBP 13". I have just had it 1 week, and it was a refurb. upgraded to Lion.

Nothing was attached, no monitors. On battery power, sitting for about 20 min. I came back to it with the gray screen and the little boxes you were talking about, that moved around with the cursor. I ran the cursor over the sign in screen and when it appeared I hit the return, as I have no password set, and I got everything back.I did not have a full screen just my background. The open four screens were smaller, as they are when they first open.

My question, should I return this MBP refurb and get a new replacement, and just pay the bucks, before I have had it long. Or is this something that could be fixed with a 'fix" from apple, when they get to it. hummm.

Anyones suggestions helpful...

Message was edited by: ibhyacinth

Same problem here with my new MacBook Pro 15" and external monitor. 😟