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vcutag · May 23, 2004, 11:34 PM

For some crazy reason, the pull-down menu in the System Prefs panel for desktop images has dissapeared. All of my desktop images are now being stretched out to 1280x854 by default, and I can't tell it to tile the smaller ones (or fill the screen, etc.) anymore. I've tried repairing permissions, re-installing OS X, logging in as another user and using someone else's System Preferences.app file on my machine, nothing has helped.

Anyone ever see this before?

d.fine · May 24, 2004, 03:20 PM

I have read about things dissapearing in MacOS X ...
What version are you running on ? Try the latest upgrade yet ?

vcutag · May 24, 2004, 03:30 PM

Originally posted by d.fine:
I have read about things dissapearing in MacOS X ...
What version are you running on ? Try the latest upgrade yet ?

Yeah, both times I re-installed OS X, I upgraded to 10.3.3.

chris v · May 24, 2004, 03:39 PM

Have a look in /System/Library/PreferencePanes. Is there a DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane there?

If so, try:

1. Trash your user/library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
2. DiskWarrior.

CV

Taipan · May 24, 2004, 04:24 PM

Hi!

Uhm, I don't have that pulldown menu. Where is it supposed to be?

vcutag · May 24, 2004, 04:31 PM

Originally posted by Taipan:
Hi!

Uhm, I don't have that pulldown menu. Where is it supposed to be?

Right under where it tells you the title of the image you've selected.

xi_hyperon · May 24, 2004, 04:51 PM

Hmm... weird, it's missing on my prefs pane too.

Gator Lager · May 24, 2004, 05:21 PM

Happen to me a couple of time. I did a restart each time and it resolved the problem.

hope that helps. ain't the cure, just a quick solution.

xi_hyperon · May 24, 2004, 05:29 PM

Eh, I did the prefs delete and Diskwarrior route, to no avail.

vcutag · May 24, 2004, 05:51 PM

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
Eh, I did the prefs delete and Diskwarrior route, to no avail.

Yeah, same here. It's really starting to annoy me, does anyone know if Apple knows about this?

xi_hyperon · May 24, 2004, 06:10 PM

They do now (although I'm sure I'm not the first to send them feedback on it).

chris v · May 25, 2004, 07:17 AM

Okay, I mis-read that. I thought he was missing the whole Desktop pref pane, not just the menu. The pull-down menu went missing on my PB a while back, but now it's there. I can't tell you where it went, or why it came back. Still, deleting the prefs is about all I can think of. Does this persist through re-starts?

CV

xi_hyperon · May 25, 2004, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
Okay, I mis-read that. I thought he was missing the whole Desktop pref pane, not just the menu. The pull-down menu went missing on my PB a while back, but now it's there. I can't tell you where it went, or why it came back. Still, deleting the prefs is about all I can think of. Does this persist through re-starts?

CV

Well today, I switched desktops images a couple of times, and suddenly the pull-down menu appeared. Then later, it was gone again. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with restarting, or anything else that I can discern. Ornery little fella, I tell you!

Mr. Blur · May 25, 2004, 09:21 PM

i just played around with my desktop pics and niticed that the dropbox appeared and disappeared as well.....but i think i found the "pattern" - it seems that anything in the /library/desktop pictures automatically goes to full screen and the dropbox then disappears, however if you pick a folder or pic that is outside of /library you will see the dropbox giving you the tile, fulscreen etc options.

chris v · May 25, 2004, 10:04 PM

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
i just played around with my desktop pics and niticed that the dropbox appeared and disappeared as well.....but i think i found the "pattern" - it seems that anything in the /library/desktop pictures automatically goes to full screen and the dropbox then disappears, however if you pick a folder or pic that is outside of /library you will see the dropbox giving you the tile, fulscreen etc options.

Okay, you win... This time.

CV

xi_hyperon · May 25, 2004, 11:10 PM

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
i just played around with my desktop pics and niticed that the dropbox appeared and disappeared as well.....but i think i found the "pattern" - it seems that anything in the /library/desktop pictures automatically goes to full screen and the dropbox then disappears, however if you pick a folder or pic that is outside of /library you will see the dropbox giving you the tile, fulscreen etc options.

Ah, thank you.

Fonzie · May 26, 2004, 05:10 PM

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
i just played around with my desktop pics and niticed that the dropbox appeared and disappeared as well.....but i think i found the "pattern" - it seems that anything in the /library/desktop pictures automatically goes to full screen and the dropbox then disappears, however if you pick a folder or pic that is outside of /library you will see the dropbox giving you the tile, fulscreen etc options.

bs..... I have it all the time. Even when selecting "Apple Backgrounds" or "nature" or such.

Even if I browse and select the "official" desktop folder.

vcutag · May 26, 2004, 05:14 PM

Originally posted by Fonzie:
bs..... I have it all the time. Even when selecting "Apple Backgrounds" or "nature" or such.

Even if I browse and select the "official" desktop folder.

Yeah, mine's constant as well, it's always gone.

I just updated to 10.3.4, that didn't fix it, either. Growl.

MartiNZ · May 26, 2004, 05:25 PM

Hmm, I don't get the menu at all when I have a desktop picture on from one of the Apple sets, but if I have another picture on and then just click on one of those sets, the menu stays until I select an Apple pic. This makes sense to me in a way, but I don't understand why there's don't have the options at all....

On a similar note, does anyone know how to change the name of the, presumably, "Apple Background Pictures" set - I can't understand why they made the name too long to fit in the column it is in! "Apple Backgrounds" would have been enough anyway.

vcutag · May 26, 2004, 05:31 PM

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
Ah, thank you.

Yeah, strangely enough, that worked for me too, once I changed my selection. Weirdest damn thing, why would Apple set it up that way?

Fonzie · May 26, 2004, 05:32 PM

Originally posted by vcutag:
Yeah, mine's constant as well, it's always gone.

I just updated to 10.3.4, that didn't fix it, either. Growl.

I meant that I always have the dropdown menu

Even in 10.3.4.

Nonsuch · May 27, 2004, 01:33 AM

I've been dealing with this issue on both my home and work machines for ages, and it's got me buffaloed. The only thing I've noticed is that when I drag a picture from the Finder into the image well of the Desktop Prefs panel, the options are restored for that picture only. As soon as I click another picture, the menu disappears. However, when I had the menu available, I selected "Tile" and now all my seamless backgrounds tile correctly, even though the menu isn't available; they didn't before. Hope that's of use to someone.