Yosemite Background Keeps Changing/Resetting

[mattverg89]

Hey guys so I was able to install Yosemite fine on my setup, however every time now I log in, the background keeps resetting to the Yosemite default background. I have a folder in my Pictures directory with a bunch of 4K backgrounds, however when I set them through the settings as the current background on my dual monitor setup and reboot, one of them will be set to the background I selected, but usually my primary monitor will be reset to the Yosemite default background.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[configurator]

I have a multi-monitor setup and also have multiple desktops on each monitor. After some types of changes, including upgrading to Yosemite, I find that I have to remove all the extra desktops and reapply my desktop background changes for them to stick. I think when there are multiple desktops osx has a bit of a bug about changes to the background. I'd recommend removing all extra desktops if you have any then setting the desktop background again before re-adding them. If you don't have extra desktops, just a dual monitor I'd try removing the additional monitor and setting up before reattaching.

 

[iseededppl]

Uncheck (Displays have separate Spaces) in mission control had the same problem

 

[josbeir]

After experiencing the same issue myself i did some research and found that this is happening on specific SMBIOS'es, I'm using iMac 13,2 on my Ivy Bridge build and when changing it to MacPro 3,1 it seems that the problem is not happening.

When trying 13,1 and 14,1 i saw that the problem was there too.

It's not actually resetting your backgrounds but creating a new desktop space on every boot. Check your spaces by pressing the mission control button (F3 on my mac keyboard), it should show a bunch of desktops.

I'm guessing this is an issue with OSX, i saw some posts of users experiencing the same issue on the official apple support forums using an official mac. Lets hope this get fixed somewhere in the near future

 

[mattverg89]

Thanks for the help. Yeah it seems disabling the "Different Spaces" option did the trick. I don't really use that feature so i'm ok with leaving it disabled .

One other thing, I have my primary monitor plugged into the secondary port on my video card, and my secondary monitor plugged into the primary port to my video card. I can't switch them on the video card ports because one monitor is a digital and the other is an analog so that is the only way I can plug them in.

Anyway when I boot up, it starts up as if my secondary monitor is the primary monitor. But once I login with my password it switches properly and then shows everything on my primary monitor instead of my secondary monitor. It seems as if at the login screen it's detecting my secondary monitor as the primary and doesn't detect the display settings until after. Anyway to switch which monitor the login panel is showing up on?

 

[lunaoso]

Is there any other way to fix this other than disabling that option in mission control? I'd rather keep that enabled as I like being able to do two full screen apps at once (one on each monitor).

 

[dootdoot]

Try this:

>uncheck 'displays have different spaces'
>log out and then log back in.
>set the desktop of both displays to what you want.
>return to system preferences>mission control and turn 'displays have different spaces' back on.
>log out and log back in again.

When I did this, I shut down my computer completely and then turned it back on and the desktops were what I set them as upon reboot. I shut it down again and restarted just to be sure and my desktops are still the same. Hopefully this works for you too!

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

Is there any other way to fix this other than disabling that option in mission control? I'd rather keep that enabled as I like being able to do two full screen apps at once (one on each monitor).

Try setting the background twice. Once from each monitor space.
Just guessing as I use the default background...

 

[LouFace]

Try setting the background twice. Once from each monitor space.
Just guessing as I use the default background...

This is required when first setting up multiple desktops, as I discovered when my secondary monitor refused to have the same picture as the primary, but this:

It's not actually resetting your backgrounds, but creating a new desktop space on every boot. Check your spaces by pressing the mission control button (F3 on my mac keyboard), it should show a bunch of desktops.

is what makes it appear to be resetting I believe. I had thirteen unwanted desktops at one point. Thirteen! The only option I've found is to open up mission control on startup and close down the unwanted desktops.

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

I had thirteen unwanted desktops at one point. Thirteen! The only option I've found is to open up mission control on startup and close down the unwanted desktops.

... I was going to type thirteen of these but decided not to