cropped images as desktop background

Wow,

So I used your screenshot option:

• Screenshot of my iMac (a screenshot of this page on the Desktop named "ThePodMacSS.png")
• Crop in Photo
• Set as desktop

And it worked fine.

I then used Find Any File (FAF) to find the preference related to storing the Desktop picture.

Note the file is in ~/Library/Application Support/Dock/

With "ThePodMacSS" as the Desktop image, I deleted the desktoppicture.db file and in Terminal, did a killall Dock

The Dock restarted, the "desktoppicture.db" file was recreated and the Desktop image reverted to the default colored background.

If we think that file is corrupted somehow you may want to rebuild it by deleting it and letting it recreate as above.

ivan

Thanks for the update. So when you tile or stretch the cropped image it reverts to the original. Something I hadn't even tried.

Not sure why that would have changed between 11.3 and 11.3.1 but thinking about it, there may be an easy workaround.

When we crop an image with Preview or Photos, the previous versions are kept so we can Revert to Original.

Preview, File > Revert To > Previous Save or Browse All Versions

Photos, Image > Revert to Original

To stop that from happening, we can Export or Save As a new copy that has no History.

Preview, Option-File > Save As

Preview, File > Export

Photos, File > Export > Export 1 Photo…

Then use that new copy with no History so there is no previous version possible for the Desktop.

Let me know how that works for you.

ivan

Howdy,

On my iMac Retina 27" with macOS Big Sur 11.3.1

I tested with a large image cropped in Photos: Edit > Crop (in the center of the top toolbar).

Then the Action menu > Set Desktop Picture

And it worked fine. The Desktop is the cropped version.

I then cropped another image with Preview and set it as the Desktop Picture using System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop > Folders, Pictures and it worked there as well.

Did you crop the pictures in Photos? If not, how are you cropping and setting the background?

As a test, duplicate the image and try Cropping and Setting as Desktop again in Photos.

ivan

So in your user/Library folder is there an Application Support folder?

And in there, a Dock folder?

If you don't see your user Library folder, you may need to hold the Option key while accessing the Go menu in the Finder.

I moved the Library folder to the Finder sidebar to make it easy to get there anytime.

I checked on my MacBook Pro and it's there as well. No need to use the Root user.

What do you see there?

I was not able to duplicate the issue. I cropped a picture on my iPhone 11 and used it from iCloud Photos (within Photos) on the iMac with 11.3.1 and it showed correctly cropped as the Desktop image.

That same image I could Revert to Original so it was the cropped version.

Does it work if you crop within Photos? Does it do the same with a new photo?

Great, thanks for letting us know.

And thanks for hanging in there with me. :-)

Fun to explore and solve.

ivan