Desktop and Screensaver image file Location

The desktop pictures are located in /Library/Desktop Pictures. Screen savers are located in /Library/Screen Savers.

Note this is Library at the root of your boot drive (i.e. Macintosh HD), not the (hidden) Library folder in your home directory.

All slideSavers are folders masquerading as something else. CONTROL-click on it. Show package contents, and open up the Contents folder. Here's what the Paper Shadow one looks like. Put all the jpg files into a folder and joust name it Paper Shadow. That's what the screen saver engine will use. Ignore the other items.

William Lloyd wrote:

Screen savers are located in /Library/Screen Savers.

Wrong. ML moved the screenSavers to

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/, mucking the previous useful ones, like Cosmos and Nature Patterns, I prefer the others and have restored the Lion slideSaver ones, such as

Abstract

Beach

Cosmos

Nature

Nature Patterns

Paper Shadow

Since you already moved it, open the Collections folder, launch the Terminal app, copy & paste in this command, add a space, and drag the moved screensaver into the Terminal window.

sudo chown -R root:wheel

That should result in something like this example using the Abstrac screensaver folder as an example, then hit the return key

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Default\ Collections/Abstract

hit the return key, at the Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password since nothing shows up on the screen, hit the return key, CMD+I on the Nature folder, and ensure that the privileges show system as the owner.

Ok that worked to change the owner but they still don't show in system prefs. Does it make any difference for the file extension .slideSaver versus .saver?

I tried double clicking on Beach and it says it's already installed. I also tried changing the ext to .saver and it installed but then says it can't be used with this version of Mac OS.

Select the Burns effect in the left-hand panel. That should activate a dropdown under the display window on the right-hand side. I'm in SL at the moment, but when I checked yesterday, all moved folders showed up. Give me a day or two to see what's up.😎

Bradford,

If you have slidesaver files (i.e. files that have the extension slidesaver on them) simply do a right click to get a contextual menu and select "Show Package Contents."

Now copy the images to a folder > name the folder whatever you want > place it in the "Default Collections" folder that baltwo mentioned earlier in this thread.

Now highlight "Ken Burns" if you want the images to scan/move slightly and then in the right panel choose your newly created folder of images.

If you don't see your folder in the drop down menu then select "Choose Folder" and navigate to it.

If you want your images to display a different effect just highlight one of the other effects in the left sidebar under Slideshow and then the drop down menu in the right panel to select your folder of image.

Voila!

This is just a compilation of the above...

If you have slidesaver files (i.e. files that have the extension slidesaver on them) simply do a right click to get a contextual menu and select "Show Package Contents"... and copy the images to a folder. And of course if you simply have images just put them in a folder and name the folder whatever you want.

You may want to place this folder in the "Default Collections" folder located here to keep things orderly:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Default Collections/.

Now open Desktop & Screen Saver in your System Preferences > Screen Saver and highlight "Ken Burns" if you want the images to scan/move slightly and then in the right panel click on the "Source" drop down menu and choose your newly created folder of images by navigating to it. This is done by using the drop down menu and selecting "Choose Folder" and browsing for it.

If you want your images to display a different effect just highlight one of the other effects in the left sidebar under Slideshow and then the drop down menu in the right panel to select your folder of images.

I was able to add my screen saver by:

1. Finder / Go / Computer / double click (DC) on Macintosh HD

2 DC Frameworks

3. DC ScreenSaver.framework

4. DC Resources

5. DC Default Collections

6. Create a New Folder (Finder / File / New Folder) and name it

7. Drag & Drop your desired images to the new folder

8. System Preferences / Desktop & Screen Saver / Screen Saver

9. In the Source dropdown (on the right under the preview window), choose your folder

You're missing some steps between 1 and 2, since there's no Frameworks folder at the root-level of your boot volume. Use Disk Utility to repair permissions and I think you'll see them repaired for the added folder and contents.😉

There has been some good information here, but it doesn't seem to work for any of the .qtz screen savers for me on my new upgrade (grrr - it broke my Aperture Libraries too - but that is a deferent thread altogether).

I have three other .qtz screen savers in the path: /System/Library/Screen\ Savers/ and I moved Spectrum.qtz in to that folder and ran the terminal command: sudo chown -R root:wheel - and they each work.

I used that path because nowhere along the path,
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Default Collections/,
could I find any other .qtz files. I also looked in the BridgeSupport and English.lproj directories. So it seems like the first path would be the correct choice. The Get Info indicates the correct perms and I also ran the Repair Disk Permissions command in the Disk Utilities application. It did indicate some permission repairs in some of the Frameworks/CoreGraphics/ sub-folders, but not in either of the two Screen Saver directories.

My daughter and I prefer the Spectrum screen saver and don't want to just open it in QuickTime, full screen and not have it work improperly each time. So, what is the secret dance for getting the quartz composer (?) screen savers to work?

So, what is the secret dance for getting the quartz composer (?) screen savers to work?

ML Screen Saver works for me now. It's simpler than I thought. Thanks for this thread for inspiration.
I created a folder ScreenSaverBest inside my Pictures folder, opened iPhoto and copied over the photos I wanted. I assume you could name it whatever you want and put it wherever you want, but this works for me. In System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver, I chose this new folder from the Source field. Specifying Ken Burns is not necessary. It's a pretty easy fix, but needlessly more work than simply choosing the iPhoto Library as I used to be able to do.

Mountian Lion is a strange cat. It's been breaking something new every other day. Not sure I should have let this one in to the house yet ... All these things happen about 2 weeks after installing Mountain Lion.

-First iPhoto 9.4 (OK that was not ML & it seems to be fixed now).

-Then iTunes suddenly lost some libraries (I had 6 & I have to recreate 4 of them from the .xml files).

-Now my favorite screen saver, Arabesque is gone. The file is there but it doesn't show up in the screen saver window.

I see a lot of posts about photos not working in screen saver, but also that the quartz screen savers (Arabesque, Shell, Word of the Day) use way too much CPU usage. I will confirm that when I enabled Arabesque my internal fan started blowing full force, so I guess that happened in my system too.

So does Mountain Lion have a AI? Is it trying to fix things by disabling trouble making files? Why don't these things happen right away? What will break tomorrow?

And can my favorite screen saver be saved & not burn out my CPU?

Same boat as you and SOLVED.

I went and found the Spectrum.qtz file from an old install.

I copied it to the current install in the same folder /system/library/screen savers

I changed all permissions to read and write

I took a screensaver I didn't ever use and renamed it with .bak at the end of its name.

I renamed Spectrum to the name of the one I changed.

Pick that screensaver and it will use the Spectrum screensaver even though it now has a different name.