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Initial Login Screen Wallpaper on M1 Macs?

I have seen a number of threads about this, but they devolve into a bunch of "solutions" for tangential bugs and/or issues.


What I am trying to figure out is whether or not the Initial Login Screen (I am talking about the INITIAL login screen after a cold boot, NOT the Lock Screen) wallpaper on M1 Macs (the MBP specifically) is changeable or is essentially fixed. I'm trying to figure out if this is a bug or working as expected.


I have two configurations:


  1. A 2016 Intel MBP (Silver) ruinning 12.2
  2. A 2021 Apple MPB (Silver) running 12.2


Both have multiple users enabled. Both are set to "List of users" for login. Both have FileVault enabled.


  • On the 2016 Intel MBP the Initial Login Screen has the desktop wallpaper as the purple/blue/pink "Monterey Graphic".
  • On the 2021 Apple MBP the Initial Login Screen has the desktop wallpaper as Chroma Blue.
  • After you select a user and login the desktop wallpaper then changes to whatever the desktop wallpaper is for that user. This will be reflected on the Lock Screen. However, if the user fully signs out, the system then defaults back to the Initial Login Screen as noted above.


For the Apple MPB the Chroma Blue desktop on the Initial Login Screen appears to be unchangeable. I also noticed that the UIs between the two are actually different when placed side by side. On the Intel MBP the selected user has a transparent rounded rectangle around the user profile picture and name. On the Apple MBP the selected user has a translucent white ring around the user profile picture. Very odd, but leads me to believe that the software that runs pre-login is actually different between Intel and Apple builds. I have heard some people suggest that it is actually fixed in firmware or in an inaccessible hidden volume, and that the Silver MBPs default to Chroma Blue and the Space Gray MBPs default to Chroma Red. Weird if true, but that's essentially what I am trying to confirm.


Does anyone have a new Intel MacBook Pro that displays anything OTHER than Chroma Blue/Chroma Red as the Initial Login Screen desktop wallpaper? If so, do you FileVault enabled and/or multiple users setup?


And yes, I realize this is totally asinine, but anyway here we are. But I hate not knowing why something is the way it is.

Posted on Jan 27, 2022 2:18 PM

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Posted on Jan 30, 2022 12:09 PM

I've been looking into this quite a bit. Turns out, this is not a bug. I'm not sure if it's all M1 Macs or just the new M1 MBPs, but I can at least now confirm that all M1 MBPs show Chroma Red/Chrome Blue by design.


A LOT has changed in macOS since the Intel Catalina/Pre-Catalina days and M1/Monterey. I did not realize that the macOS I knew is long gone. I learned quite a bit by reading through the articles here: https://eclecticlight.co/m1-macs/ The author, Howard Oakley, has done an absolutely incredible job documenting the changes that have been made to macOS in the last 4-5 years.


These wallpapers are either part of the SSV (Sealed Snapshot Volume) or part of the new iBoot on M1 Macs—I'm not sure which. In any event they are (practically speaking) unchangeable. They are part of the OS that is signed and distributed by Apple and can be (and likely are) model number specific. I say that because that's how it's been on iOS for a while, it's just less noticeable—iOS default wallpapers are different based on model.


The reason behind locking down this wallpaper is security. All parts of the system that load before login are designed to be signed and bit-for-bit unmodified by Apple. How/why Apple allows the user profile icons to load I'm not sure. If you notice, they are extremely low resolution before you login. If I had to guess what Apple is doing here is saying that user profile photos are okay to load because they are heavily compressed, so they may feel there isn't a practical way to include a malicious payload into a user profile picture that is only a few kilobytes, so it is not deemed a security risk. A high resolution desktop wallpaper, on the other hand, could be a security risk so it is not allowed; and the alliterative—compressing a desktop wallpaper to a few kilobytes would be quite ugly. How and why they decided to make it Chroma Red/Chrome Blue I have no idea, but it is what it is.


One final note: it might be technically possible to change this, but to do so you would have to turn off almost all of the security features and really dig around to find out where this screen is. You'd also have to enable Permissive Security mode and turn off SIP. The wallpaper would also be reset with any future macOS update. It may cause all sorts of other unintended problems, since system integrity will no longer be bit-for-bit verified.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 30, 2022 12:09 PM in response to Ralph The Magician

I've been looking into this quite a bit. Turns out, this is not a bug. I'm not sure if it's all M1 Macs or just the new M1 MBPs, but I can at least now confirm that all M1 MBPs show Chroma Red/Chrome Blue by design.


A LOT has changed in macOS since the Intel Catalina/Pre-Catalina days and M1/Monterey. I did not realize that the macOS I knew is long gone. I learned quite a bit by reading through the articles here: https://eclecticlight.co/m1-macs/ The author, Howard Oakley, has done an absolutely incredible job documenting the changes that have been made to macOS in the last 4-5 years.


These wallpapers are either part of the SSV (Sealed Snapshot Volume) or part of the new iBoot on M1 Macs—I'm not sure which. In any event they are (practically speaking) unchangeable. They are part of the OS that is signed and distributed by Apple and can be (and likely are) model number specific. I say that because that's how it's been on iOS for a while, it's just less noticeable—iOS default wallpapers are different based on model.


The reason behind locking down this wallpaper is security. All parts of the system that load before login are designed to be signed and bit-for-bit unmodified by Apple. How/why Apple allows the user profile icons to load I'm not sure. If you notice, they are extremely low resolution before you login. If I had to guess what Apple is doing here is saying that user profile photos are okay to load because they are heavily compressed, so they may feel there isn't a practical way to include a malicious payload into a user profile picture that is only a few kilobytes, so it is not deemed a security risk. A high resolution desktop wallpaper, on the other hand, could be a security risk so it is not allowed; and the alliterative—compressing a desktop wallpaper to a few kilobytes would be quite ugly. How and why they decided to make it Chroma Red/Chrome Blue I have no idea, but it is what it is.


One final note: it might be technically possible to change this, but to do so you would have to turn off almost all of the security features and really dig around to find out where this screen is. You'd also have to enable Permissive Security mode and turn off SIP. The wallpaper would also be reset with any future macOS update. It may cause all sorts of other unintended problems, since system integrity will no longer be bit-for-bit verified.

Jan 27, 2022 4:19 PM in response to Old Toad

The initial login screen can't be changed.

Yes, I am aware of that. But what is the Initial Login Screen for an M1 MBP supposed to be, by default? Is it Monterey Graphic or Chrome Blue/Red? That's essentially my question. I'm trying to figure out if the display of Chroma Blue/Red is a bug or simply the default for the M1 MBP. If that's the default, then that's the end of the story. If that's NOT the default then something is causing it to change, possibly during the initial setup of the first user.


I am trying to figure out if anyone with an M1 MBP has Monterey Graphic as the wallpaper for the Initial Login Screen.

Jan 27, 2022 4:22 PM in response to jeffreythefrog

jeffreythefrog wrote:


Ralph The Magician wrote:
Both have multiple users enabled. Both are set to "List of users" for login. Both have FileVault enabled.

sorry, but the only methods for making the login screen background and the desktop background match each other requires BOTH a single user setup (not even a guest) AND file vault must be turned off.

On the Intel MBP they both match—they are both Monterey Graphic by default.

On the M1 MBP they don't match—the Initial Login Screen is Chroma Blue (in my case) and the default desktop background is Monterey Graphic.

Mar 17, 2022 11:53 PM in response to jeffreythefrog

yours is the correct and definitive answer.... i have had multiple conversations with apple support and they seemed unaware of this, but when cornered by me, checked with upper level supervisors who confirmed it is intentional, and only workaround is what you said: turn off file vault encryption, single user no guest.... WHY IN THE WORLD they picked such an offensive, depressing, harsh, glaring+highly stylized, specific design, rather than something less abrasive, warmer, more inviting with wider appeal, is beyond me. I will now intentionally not restart or reboot nearly as frequently as I otherwise might so I can see MY DESKTOP selection doubling as lock screen during a session, including sleep, before have to restart, or shutdown which forces the master "secure" login/lock screen to greet me jarringly with all its dreary chroma red/black/gray industrial ugliness. Makes we want to jump off the ledge with the cold, shoot-me-now vibe it evokes. I am HOPING they will release update with alternative lockscreen. I ALMOST THOUGHT of returning my pricey and otherwise perfect MBP 16" JUST BECAUSE OF THIS, then reconsidered and thought I'd use it as a learning opportunity to challenge myself to rise above my reflexive, visceral reaction to things.... Ugggh

Initial Login Screen Wallpaper on M1 Macs?

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