My desktop reverts to the default image after restarting.

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Level 1

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My desktop reverts to the default image after restarting.

I have a MacBook Pro Retina Display running Mac OSX 10.7.4 and every time my computer restarts, the desktop reverts back to the default space image. It will stay that way for days until I go to system preferences to change the image to my custom desktop. However, just clicking on "solid colors" or "desktop pictures" on the left of the desktops page makes the desktop image change back to my custom setting. I don't have to click on any other images or search for my image. It just changes back.

So, this doesn't hinder my productivity, but I thought it was interesting. I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue and if it is a bug within Lion. Or maybe it is specific to the retina display. No clue.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 23, 2012 11:40 PM

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Answer 1

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Jul 23, 2012 11:58 PM in response to MizzouMatt

Sounds like a corrupt plist file. The desktop image should be remembered after restart by this file

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

You can force Mac OS to make a new default copy of the file by pasting this command into a Terminal window (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

press 'return' on your keyboard and restart the computer.

Your desktop image will now indeed be back to the default. Set the image you want and it should remember it the next time you restart.

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Answer 2

jz_may

Level 1

4 points

May 2, 2016 8:44 AM in response to softwater

I tried this and it didn't create the file. Any idea what else I could do/try?

Mac Pro, OSX 10.11.3

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Answer 3

Beta2

Level 1

13 points

May 2, 2016 10:10 AM in response to jz_may

If it were me, I would go to that plist file: <~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist> drag it to my desktop and open it in Text Edit (or another plain test editor). Then I would create a new plain text file using Text Edit (or another plain test editor), then copy and paste the contents of <~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist> into the new plain text window and save it to <~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist> with the same name and extension.

I've used this method with a number of corrupt plist files over the years. Works every time.

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