Screen Saver in Ventura Not Working

Hello Tim's Tree,

Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

To further isolate this issue, let's boot into safe mode and attempt to replicate the issue:

"Start up your Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.
2. Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
3. Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
4. Select a volume.
5. Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
6. The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Start up your Intel-based Mac in safe mode

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.
2. Log in to your Mac.
3. You might be asked to log in again.
4. On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar."

More details can be found here: Start up your Mac in safe mode

If the issue persists, can you provide a few more details? Does this happen on other user accounts? What is your exact macOS version? Also, are you able to use Photos as a screen saver?

Cheers!

And to perform these functions on the disc:

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Why should we have to put iMac in safe mode - screen saver worked just fine prior to updating to Ventura!

The problem is with the update and that should be fixed

iMac 27" 3.3Ghz 6-core Ventura Version 13.0.1 (22A400)

rc348 wrote:

Why should we have to put iMac in safe mode - screen saver worked just fine prior to updating to Ventura!

The reason to test in Safe Mode is to eliminate third-party apps that might be causing the problem.

The problem is with the update and that should be fixed

The problem is not with the update. Most users are not having the problem.

FWIW, booting into Safe Mode, then restarting normally often will clear temporary glitches.

New MacBook Air, OSX 13.1, 16 gb RAM

Screensaver will not work.

Chose photos as screensaver and froze system settings. Have to force shutdown to get out, force quit doesn't work. Says I haven't enough memory and shows the photo library attempting to load into RAM with 57 gb.

Tried safe mode three times and won't fix the problem.

By any chance, do you have SeaStorm 3D.saver installed?

I had the same problem of the Ventura Screen Saver Settings going blank (in my case, running macOS 13.1; I never ran 13.0 or 13.0.1). They went blank even when starting in Safe Mode, and even when logged into the Guest User account. This told me that the problem was probably triggered by one or more of the 396 screen savers installed in my system-wide Library : Screen Savers folder.

I narrowed the problem down to Sea Storm 3D v1.3. Even when it's the only screen saver installed, the Ventura Screen Saver Settings pane goes blank. When I remove that one screen saver module, the Screen Saver Settings pane works correctly.

(If you don't have Sea Storm 3D installed, or if removing it doesn't solve your problem, you'll have to hunt down the problematic screen saver yourself. Quit System Settings, drag half of your installed screen savers out your Screen Savers folders - Library : Screen Savers and ~ : Library : Screen Savers - and then open System Settings and see if the problem persists. If so, repeat; if not, add back half of the removed screen savers and see if the problem persists; and so on.)

To be sure, this is a bug in Ventura's System Settings, not just in Sea Storm 3D. No matter how badly written a screen saver is, it should not be allowed to disable the System Settings Screen Saver pane.

I have recently upgraded to Ventura (and also apply the last update) and faced no problems with Screen Saver. I usually set mine for the album covers, as I like to see my music album covers all the time, but as you were mentioning issues related to photos, I set mine to Vintage mode and chose a specific album. No problems what's so ever... not until this moment. Will keep monitoring mine.

Not using Seastorm or any other similar app.

Agree, problem is with Ventura.

Apple is working on a fix.