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cant change mac wallpaper
on my mac it doesnt let me change my backround (wallpaper)!
and error comes up every time.
what do i do?
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It could be a few things.
I need more information. The OS version (10.3x [Panther], 10.4 [Tiger], 10.5 [Leopard]) you are running, and what the error says.
In Mac OS the "wallpaper" is called the desktop.
Generally though, you open system preferences (in the dropdown munu from the blue apple in the upper left corner of the screen), then select "desktop & screen saver".
Next Select "desktop" and you should see a list of Apple preinstalled ones: "Apple images", "nature", "plants" and others etc,.
When you select any of the stock options "Apple Images" for instance, a set of mini "thumbnail" pics of the selections that came with the Operating System (the OS) should appear to the right as a set of mini pics.
First try clicking one of the preinstalled selections. Click on any of the "mini pics" of other backgrounds or wallpapers (sounds like you may have come from the PC world. wallpaper is generally a Windows term.)
When you click on the different pictures (digital artwork & pictures) you should immediately see the desktop change. If you've done that already and THAT'S when you get the error, then there may be a corrupted preference file for the desktop images, or other OS problem. Let's assume the simpler one first....
The preference file for the desktop pictures is here:
username/library/preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
there are TWO libraries: one for the the entire hard disk and one for each user, so if there are two users each can have their own desktop picture.
First try as described above to simply CHANGE the desktop. If you get the error & can't do this at all, first try deleting the preference file above.
Preferences can get corrupted easily. DON'T empty the trash. The preference file will regenerate itself either immediately, or if you log out and log back in again.
If that doesn't solve the problem, you may have more general disk corruption. If you have any utilities such as Tech tool, or disk warrior, use them. You eventually NEED to have one or the other, preferably both.. they are the saviors of the Mac OS, as Norton etc is to Windows.
If what you were trying to do was use a picture you already have, the problem may be in the size or location of the picture.
When in the system preferences app you should see in the list "pictures folder", and "Choose Folder" as options.
Try selecting one of these.
If you have any pictures in your picture folder, located at username/pictures, try choosing any of them to see if you can change the picture at all.
BTW, that's what we're try to do here, find out if it's the actual picture you're trying to use that's causing the error, or if there's an error in the system....
Drag or copy the picture you want to use into the
pictures folder (easiest), then quit, and then reopen the desktop selector app we're working with.
You should see a thumbnail of the picture when you select pictures. If you put the pic in a folder you need to select "choose folder". You navigate to the folder you want and select the picture.
This is all assuming you originally can see what you should as described above when you open the system preferences app.
If you CAN'T change the pic to even the stock apple selections then most probably there is disk corruption and you'll need to repair your disk.
Lastly, if you have ANY pictures in iphoto, you should see "library" as a choice below a gray line under the list of standard desktop picture options.
Try selecting ANYTHING from iphoto.
If you can, it may be a problem with the picture you're trying to use: wrong format or too small are the most common problems, though the Mac is the most image friendly computer in the world.
But if you're trying to use a picture that's teeny or a strange size (your monitor size also effects what the desktop pic will look like, though the dropdown menu right in the desktop picture selection screen allows you to:
� fill creen
� stretch to fill screen
� center
� tile
But if you can't do ANY selecting, even of the stock apple choices then something's corrupted in either the preferences or the system preferences (how to fix above), the application itself, or the entire disk.
Open the "Disk utility" app.
If you have no other disk to boot from and repair Select "verify disk". It will at least tell you if that app finds general corruption.
Lastly select "repair disk permissions".. especially in OS 3.9 these we constantly getting corrupted and needed repair.
Let me know....
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