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Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

170 points

Screen Saver reverts to National Geographic

Several times lately (Yosemite only???), I have discovered my screen saver has reset itself to show National Geographic photos. And they are usually set to show both my iMac and my second monitor the same photos.

It's easy enough to set back to my desired iPhoto library. But I wonder what causes it to be reset?

What I haven't figured out is what to do when both monitors are displaying the same photos. Eventually that problem fixes itself. Nor what to do when it starts with the same photos in the same order. (I have a hot corner, and have been testing after I reset it to use my iPhoto library, and each time I turn it on, I get the same photo sequence as before - on both monitors).

I just tried it again - the third time since I started this message - and it's back to National Geographic.

I set it back, this time telling it to shuffle, and both monitors showed different photos as desired. I should have checked that earlier. But why doesn't my setting stay?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 3, 2014 5:12 PM

Top-ranking reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,649 points

Posted on Nov 3, 2014 6:57 PM

Back up all data. Quit System Preferences if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it, then copy the text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost

In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return. A folder should open. If it does, look for a file with a long name that begins "com.apple.screensaver". There may be several such files. Move them all to the Trash.

Log out or restart the computer. Test. If the problem is resolved, empty the Trash and recreate your settings in the Screen Saver tab.

View in context

160 replies

Feb 21, 2015 7:15 PM in response to Linc Davis

Doesn't stick!

Sent from my iPhone 5

"Life doesn't give us chances... life is our chance to give" ( Ziggy Cartoon)

The Zach

Level 2

426 points

Feb 21, 2015 8:48 PM in response to Howard Brazee

Apple's replacing iPhoto with Photos soon. Suspect there's no chance of this problem being corrected until then.

Feb 21, 2015 8:51 PM in response to The Zach

I don't even use iPhoto and still have the issue of the screensaver reverting to national geographic no matter which solution in this forum I've tried

Sent from my iPhone 5

"Life doesn't give us chances... life is our chance to give" ( Ziggy Cartoon)

cdubaldo

Level 1

8 points

Feb 22, 2015 2:00 PM in response to mellooney

I thought that the problem was gone after I performed a clean install of Yosemite on my late 2013 iMac. Alas, it's still there. Apple, your call! PS: the clean install did help me with the other issue I had i.e. the windowserver process inevitably taking more and more of my CPU power...