Unable to customise Wallpaper images on my Mac mini.

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Level 1

43 points

Unable to customise Wallpaper images on my Mac mini.

I have a Mac Mini 14.6.1 with 2 1920 x 1200 monitors. Previously I used Photoshop Elements to crop photos so that half was on one monitor and half on the other. That was working great. Now I discover that there are strange images in System Settings > Wallpaper > Pictures that I did not place there and I cannot remove them. Also, today I added some new images and they have disappeared.

I went to "Customize the wallpaper on your Mac" and followed these instructions to "Remove custom wallpaper".

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Wallpaper in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
Hold the mouse pointer over the photo, folder, or album that you want to remove, then click .
Note: You can’t remove a photo from the Your Photos section if the photo is currently selected as your wallpaper.

However, I am unable to find an

Why did my new images disappear and the strange ones appear?

[Re-Titled By Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 14.6

Posted on Oct 14, 2024 4:13 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 15, 2024 2:51 AM in response to Bob1177

You can pretty much choose any images you like as your wallpaper.

You can add individual images, folders, or albums from Photos to your choices.

Are you saying that under "Your Photos" in System Settings->Wallpaper you are seeing pictures that you did not add?

Concerning the X to remove photos, it will not appear over a photo that is currently active as a wallpaper, but will in others.

Here is an example. The sunset at the beach is the current wallpaper. I can easily remove the image with the olympic arcs. The option on the left means to circle around existing images (in this case, just those two). Maybe that is the strange thing you are finding?

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Answer 2

Bob1177 Author

Level 1

43 points

Oct 15, 2024 9:27 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for the reply with the image of what I should see. Yes, there are images that I did not purposefully add. Some of them are vertical images that I never would have chosen. One of them is a document scan I did for my genealogy research. I did a screen grab as an example of what I see. The cursor was hovered over the image of a sheet of white paper, and I did a ⌘ Shift 3 screen grab. I then cropped it to just the System Settings window. If I click on the mage it becomes the wallpaper for the left screen. In addition, I prepared two new pairs of images yesterday that no longer appear in the collection. Is there a limit on the number of images you can have?

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Answer 3

Bob1177 Author

Level 1

43 points

Oct 16, 2024 8:03 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

You may be right. However, when I hover my cursor over images in "Your Photos" I still do not see an "x". Also, of the 30 images that I uploaded in the past, only 2 of them are displayed in "Your Photos" along with an image with 2 arrow arcs that form a circle. That image is apparently the two images smashed together. Apparently this is an option to scroll through the various images. That won't work for me because the images have definite left and right orientations. It doesn't know which image goes on which screen. Oh wait, I just discovered that there is only one image that will display an "x". See the new screen shot. It is the image for the left screen. When I clicked on it, it disappeared as well as the one with the circle of arrows. Now I only have the right image and cannot delete it. Incidentally, the image that got deleted is still in "Photos" at the bottom. I have no idea why that pair of images appeared in the list of 'Your Photos" and also in the bottom list of "Photos". I also have no idea why the others showed up in "Photos" and not in "Your Photos". Each time I added a photo I simply clicked on "Add Photo".

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Answer 4

Oct 16, 2024 12:44 AM in response to Bob1177

Thank your for the screenshot, it does help clarify things.

To begin with, you can see "DELL U2415 (1)", which indicates to which display you are applying changes. So "if I click on the image it becomes the wallpaper for the left screen" seems to be what is expected (unless this DELL is not the left screen, of course...)

You have selected "Your Photos", and, if I understand correctly, the problem is seeing photos in there that you have not added (at least not deliberately). I don't know how they appeared there.

Could you have added them accidentally? If you hover the cursor over that vertical white one, can you remove it from the list?

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Answer 5

Bob1177 Author

Level 1

43 points

Oct 16, 2024 8:34 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes, the "DELL U2415 (1)" is the left screen. If I did it accidentally it was during some sleepwalking event, and it happened 9 times. In order to add an image I would have had to have System Settings open to Wallpaper in order to add an image wouldn't I?

No, hovering the cursor over any of the images does not reveal an x.as in your screen shot. I have tried various combinations of the various control keys to no avail.

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Answer 6

Oct 16, 2024 9:56 AM in response to Bob1177

Now I think I may know what is going on, but I'd need to see some contex related to your screenshot.

It seems to me that you may have selected a folder of pictures, and in that case, you can't pick and choose.

If you look at my screenshot above, you will clearly see that it says "Your Photos".

These are individual image files that I have selected, I can add or remove them at will.

Can you scroll until you see "Your Photos" in your System Settings (it is not visible in your screenshot)? Are the words "Your Photos" right above the images you've shown? I think not.

I think that you have "Your Photos", then "Dynamic Wallpapers", "Landscape", "Cityscape", "Underwater", etc. and finally the ones you've shown us. Am I getting warm?

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