Skip to main content

Having an issue with a config profile that applies the background/wallpaper. Our school district changes wallpaper once a year. I push this out via a config profile. Normally I have a separate policy that runs before hand that adds the new image to the Desktop Pictures folder of the Mac, then after that policy has ran on the Macs I change the path to the new image in the config profile. I then select apply to all devices in scope. It seems the profile does update, but the desktop image does not change from the previous one on any of computers.

It seems I to me I have two things I can try

  1. A completely new config profile that points to the new picture, but would the old profile still have to be removed from all machines?

  2. use the the remove mdm command in terminal and send out to all the macs. Then change the the file path to the new picture in the existing config profile then use the reapply command (sudo jamf mdm) and hope the new picture shows up when the profile reapplies.

This second option seems like overkill as all the config profiles will be wiped and reapplied not just the one I'm trying to fix.

Am I missing something easier?

Thanks!

@dnayes A method I've used & works flawlessly is as follows, (using Mojave for example.)

Get rid of your old config profile & create a new config profile, deploy it at the very end of the following steps. I don't know if you're doing this but each option available in a configuration profiles payload should be built out as individual profiles, ie restrictions, finder, passcode etc. Should be separate & very granular.

Step 1. rename the /Library/Desktop Pictures/Mojave.heic to something like MojaveOriginal.heic & move it to another directory (Outstide of /Library/Desktop Pictures/ ) then take your custom wallpaper and rename it Mojave.heic, then use composer and create a package with the before (Neither wallpapers in /Library/Desktop Pictures) & after snapshot feature placing those 2 wallpapers in the /Library/Desktop Pictures/ directory.

Step 2. Guarantee it with an applescript.

#!/usr/bin/osascript

tell application "System Events"
    tell every desktop
        set picture to "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Mojave.heic"
    end tell
end tell

Deploy Step 1 & 2 in a single policy in sequential order.

Step 3. Lock it down with your restrictions configuration profile.

This way, no matter what kinda voodoo happens, that wallpaper is naturally the default wallpaper & the system will always fall back on it.

I will give that a try. Thanks!

@dnayes Is it possible you have another Configuration Profile that doesn't have the Lock desktop picture checkbox enabled, but does still have a picture path specified in the text field visible when that item is checked? I haven't tested it in a while, but Jamf Pro would incorrectly generate a profile with the restriction enabled if you had a path specified in that field. That would cause you to have 2 profiles setting the desktop and good luck figuring out which will win.

@dnayes Forgot to mention this

** Do Note if you run an in place upgrade it is possible for the Apple OS Installer to overwrite the Default Wallpaper, so as a precaution, whenever running an in place OS upgrade, include the package & the script in the OS Upgrade Policy to run afterwards.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement