Cant change desktop background mac big sur

A Mac bug appears to be resetting wallpapers

Apple

Have you changed the desktop background on your Mac recently, only for the computer to put it back to how it was before? Youre not alone.

The bug, which seems to have kicked in since the macOS 11.3 update, appears to be affecting many users.

Ive seen it happen on my own MacBook Pro and others are reporting the issue on devices such as the Mac mini and MacBook Air, suggesting its not confined to one particular type of device.

The video embedded below, taken by a Mac mini owner on Reddit, shows the problem, where the Mac is shut down with one wallpaper and restarts with a different one altogether.

Systems dont all appear to be defaulting to the same wallpaper. My hunch is that the Macs are resetting to the desktop background that was in place when macOS 11.3 was installed - at least, thats whats happening on my computer.

Possible workarounds for the problem include saving your chosen image over the default wallpaper image file that the Mac is choosing for your computer, but thats by no means a simple fix due to the way those files are saved. Its probably safer to wait for Apple to fix the problem in a future update and put up with whatever wallpaper the Mac has decided to daub on your desktop for a while.

The other alternative is not to reboot your Mac and simply put it to sleep every time youre finished with it.

Apple has been approached for comment on the bug.

New iMac wallpapers

By the way, if the bug gets fixed and you fancy using one of the wallpapers that Apple released for the new range of iMacs released last month, you can. There just hidden deep in macOS 11.3.

To find them, open the Change Desktop Background menu by right clicking on your desktop. Then double click on Desktop Pictures, open the Desktop Pictures folder that should appear in a window, and scroll down to the images called Hello. Drag your chosen image to the desktop, right click on it and choose Set Desktop Picture.