What caused my Mac OS X Lion Screen Savers and Desktop Pictures to go missing?

Question

The same issue has been reported here http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1195057

The files exist in the regular system folder, but they are missing from the list in System Preferences.

Similarly, only 1 folder of Desktop Pictures is still there. The other standard folders (e.g. Black and White, Abstract, Nature, etc...) are missing.

I've tried repairing disk permissions, but that didn't help.

Answer 1

If permissions repair didn't fix it, try this:

ls -la /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/

Make sure there are some sort of whacked out permissions. If so:

sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/ && sudo chmod -R 644 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/

The above chmod to 644 will do the directory recirsively so, you will then want to go behind and do:

sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Art
sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Black\ &\ White
sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Nature
sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Patterns
sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Plants
sudo chmod 774 /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Solid\ Colors

Sometimes Mac permissions require a little bit of forceful massaging. :P

Also I just notice you said Lion. If there are any other directories in /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/ that I didn't mention in the chmod 774 block above do them in the same fashion.

Answer 2

I had Lion installed for 6 weeks before I had the problem of my screensaver options disappearing which appears to have occurred after I had to start MacBook Air in 32 bit mode. I am not saying that this was necessarily the cause but it was very coincidental.

I tried the answer provided above with no apparent effect - I must admit I did not think to restart the computer afterwards. Anyway, I eventually remembered that I had used the computer in 32 bit mode and, although it had been restarted since (but not after applying the answer above), I wondered if it actually had reverted automatically to 64 bit mode.

When I restarted the computer in 64 bit mode, I had my screensaver options back. So I don't know if restarting after applying the answer above would have fixed it or restarting in forced 64 bit mode fixed it, or a combination of both.

Answer 3

All needed to do was reinstall OS X Lion. Once I did, the permissions were repaired.

Either open the installation file you downloaded, or restart your computer and hold option. Once you see "Recovery HD", pick that as your drive and click "Reinstall OS X Lion". That should do it.

Answer 4

I have this problem when switching between my Apple Cinema display and my MacBook Pro's built in display. The Screensavers appear correctly when it is connected to the Cinema display, but then disappear when changing to the MacBook's LCD.

Solving the problem did not require any permissions changes, reinstalls or reboots. Instead, I open up System Preferences and go to Displays. Next, I change the resolution to something else, then change it back to the normal resolution. When I change back to the Screen Savers preference pane, all of the Screensavers are visible again.