Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

dukee101

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 17, 2009
294
147
On both macOS Catalina 10.15.3 and now 10.15.4, I've experienced an issue where it "forgets" my chosen desktop wallpapers. My setup consists of my 16"-MBP directly connected to two Dell U2518D external displays (via DisplayPort-->USB-C cables). Not always, but sometimes, upon re-connecting my external displays (if I've undocked and gone portable for some period of time), macOS "forgets" my desktop wallpapers and reverts to some older selection from the past.

I did some research on this and here's what I found:

It turns out that macOS stores desktop wallpaper settings in: ~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db

I used DB Browser for SQLite to take a look inside. It has these main tables:
- data (contains file paths of currently selected desktop wallpapers)
- displays (contains any display that macOS remembers having connected to)
- pictures (table that joins ‘data’ fields with ‘displays’ fields)
- spaces (contains user-defined Spaces)

So having a script that manipulates this database is the answer, I think. Hoping someone from the MacRumors community can help.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.