Multi Monitor Wallpaper Troubleshooting

Multi Monitor Wallpaper Troubleshooting

the most common problems are the following:

1. Wallpaper won't set for a screen
2. Wallpaper is lost on reboot

The bad news is that both of these relate to bugs in Mac OS itself. The good news is that there is generally a workaround

Background

Setting the wallpaper is actually a very simple command in Mac OS. Essentially - I say 'set this image for screen N'

Once that is done - Multi Monitor Wallpaper has no part in 'keeping the wallpaper active', so when the wallpaper is 'lost' - that means that the operating system failed to properly save and restore the configuration.

Similarly - there really isn't any way that Multi Monitor Wallpaper can set the image wrongly. This means that if some screen doesn't get set - It is simply that Multi Monitor Wallpaper is asking the operating system to set a wallpaper, and the operating system is failing to do so.

I have seen both of these issues from time to time on my own Mac, and I have submitted formal bug reports to Apple. Unfortunately these are intermittent bugs, and those are really hard for Apple to pin down and fix.

Workaround 1

There is a workaround which seems to work in almost all cases.

You can do this on all screens, or just the screens that are 'playing up'

1. right click on the desktop and select 'change desktop background'
2. pick one of the standard Apple photos provided
3. (this step may not be needed) Log out, reboot
4. Log back in and set your wallpaper with Multi Monitor Wallpaper

My guess here is that somehow, the system configuration for wallpapers gets messed up - and using the Apple system to set the wallpaper resets it. This is just guesswork though.

Notes

From version 2.0, Multi Monitor Wallpaper always moves the wallpaper it applies to the main drive where the application data is stored. This should fix a possible potential problem if the wallpaper was stored in a secondary drive which might not be available at the time the system restores the wallpaper

From version 2.0, by default Multi Monitor Wallpaper sets the wallpaper whenever you change spaces. This is the best workaround to make your wallpaper apply to all your spaces.