How do I delete desktoppicture.db?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How do I delete desktoppicture.db?

I have been experiencing the issue where the desktop wallpaper reverts on reboot. I tried every fix I could find online (Mission Control, etc.), but, I believe I have narrowed down the issue to a corrupt file.

A look at the desktoppicture.db file in ~/Library/Application Support/Dock shows the file is empty. Cross referencing with another Mac, I believe this file is the issue, however I am unable to delete or modify the file.

I have tried deleting, overwriting with a working file, renaming, disabling SIP, using terminal (rm, sudo rm, sudo rm -R, etc.) to no avail. I'm still thwarted by the "Permission denied" error, even after entering my password.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how else I might try deleting/replacing this file?

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4), null

Posted on May 22, 2018 12:31 PM

Reply

Answer 1

gooden001 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2018 1:46 PM in response to gooden001

For whatever reason, this file just would not be deleted.

I was finally able to delete it via Terminal after booting into Recovery.

Reply

Answer 2

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

May 22, 2018 12:57 PM in response to gooden001

Choose your Home folder "Get Info" (command-i) and be sure you have "read & write" in the Sharing & Permissions section. Check under "General" section to be sure it isn't locked. If that is correct, launch Applications/Utilities/Terminal and at the prompt copy & paste this command…

mkdir ~/.Trash

Press return.

If you get a message that the folder already exists, copy & paste these commands...

sudo chown $UID ~/ .Trash

Press return.

Enter your admin password (it will be invisible)

Press return.Then enter

chmod u+rwx ~/.Trash

Press return. Log out and back in, or restart.

Reply

Answer 3

gooden001 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2018 1:03 PM in response to macjack

Thanks for the response. I tried this and read and write permissions are in pace in the Home folder, ~/.Trash does exist, and I was able to do the chmod on ~/.Trash

However, this still did not allow me to delete the file.

Reply

Answer 4

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

May 22, 2018 1:46 PM in response to gooden001

I'm glad I asked. Then neither of the commands I gave you will work, I was under the impression that you couldn't delete it from the Trash. I really don't know what's up with that file.

Do you have another system you can start up from and try to delete it from there?

Reply