How to change Login Window image?

This one has me stumped. After upgrade to OS 10.11 the login window displayed El Capitan desktop picture. I thought this was a cool, unannounced easter egg type thing. After using it though, the image changed to my homescreen desktop image.

I dont know how it happened or how to change it to some default image.

Any ideas?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), B/W G3: Retired

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 4:16 AM

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14 replies

Oct 9, 2015 10:37 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thanks Eau Rouge. After playing around a bit I found that the second user with one desktop controls the login screen. Prior to El Capitan it was tied to my account.

Its an odd behavior that I'll have to get used to I suppose. Somehow the second user account has taken dominance.

My wife will say as it should be. 😕

Oct 10, 2015 3:17 AM in response to mreed

The login image is surprisingly easy to change.

It is in


/Library/Caches/com.apple.desktop.<user501>.png


(replace <user501> with the actual short name of that user)


So just take the image you want, put it in the /Library/Caches folder, and rename acoording to the rule as above.

There is no need to restart your mac. Just log out and you will be presented with the new login window background.

Feb 23, 2016 5:59 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly in hindsight (but it confused me), if you had an image set as your desktop background and then changed the folder the image is from and set the images to change, your login window image will stay as the last image you set as your desktop image, and will not update to one from the new folder of images. You'll have to chose a single image from your new folder of images, set that as your desktop background, then have the images change.

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How to change Login Window image?

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