Custom wallpaper color shows as white and unable to change after macOS 15.4 update on Mac mini

This problem is on all my Macs. Since I'm visually-impaired, I use some pretty specific background colors to let me know which of my workspaces I'm on. This really broke things for me, I was able to come up with some colors from the "stock" color pallet, but they are nowhere near as useful to me as the custom ones I created. I guess I could go the "small RGB image" route, but it'd be better if Apple just fixed this.

Because it's a bug that many users, but not all, are seeing in 15.4.

If you want to use a particular color, create a tiny RGB image, like 5 x 5 pixels, in the color you want and put it in the Pictures folder of your user account.

Then select that image in System Settings. It will automatically tile to fill the screen.

Faster than my first method.

1. Open any app that can fill a color of anything on the screen. Such as Word, Pages, etc.
2. In Pages, I chose a box shape and filled it with a color I wanted. Size is irrelevant, other than too small.
3. Press Command+Shift+4 and draw a tiny square over the color you filled.
4. A .png image will be saved to your desktop.
5. Put that .png image in the Pictures folder of your user account.
6. Open the Wallpaper settings and choose your image.

Lacking any other image editor, you can make one in Preview.

1) Pick any small image on your Mac. Doesn't matter what it is. Picture of a dog, whatever.

2) Copy the image to a new name that makes sense to you. Such as WallpaperTint.

3) Open that in Preview and press Command+0 (zero) to display the image 1:1

4) Draw a tiny rectangle anywhere on the image and press Command+K to crop the image. Hold the Shift key down to constrain the shape to a perfect rectangle.

5) Press Command and the + key a few times to make the image much bigger on screen than it actually is.

6) In the menu bar, go to: Tools > Annotate > Rectangle . Drag the corners out (and beyond the edges a bit) so the rectangle covers the entire image.

7) Set the frame color to null:

8) Set the fill color to whatever color you want. Click Show Colors if you don't want to use any of the presets. If you set the color panel next to your image, you can watch the color change as you move the sliders. You'll see something like this:

9) Do a Save As to save your image as a PNG (if it isn't already a PNG). As small as it is, JPEG may create unwanted artifacts in the file, resulting in an image that isn't a perfectly flat tint.

Kurt Lang wrote:

Because it's a bug that many users, but not all, are seeing in 15.4.

I wonder how many users aren't seeing it. I see it on three different Macs running 15.4.

frankly speaking, it's quite annoying problem.

let's hope it will be solved soon

This was a very avoidable error. That it managed to get out the door unnoticed is almost hard to believe. But I'd be very surprised if it isn't in whatever update is next. As minor as it is (in the grand scheme of things), it may be one of those times where Apple pulls the update, fixes things like this, then puts it out again as the same version number.

The only person I know of so far is BDAqua, who noted in the Lounge custom colors work for him. But it seems the bug is appearing for more users than not.

Edit: I just noticed the extended responses in the Lounge topic. I did see that BDAqua wrote iPad Air, but I assumed that was just a written mistake and he meant a MacBook Air.

Even faster (if you're seeing what I saw in settings) - In Settings -> Wallpaper, the custom color I had selected was still showing up as selected, next to the white block showing what my nice custom color would look like on the real desktop 😂 Just command-shift-4 on that little custom color chip, holding down command to keep it square

Thanks for the workaround.

He also wrote "Gulp" lol I think he was using an iPad. I mean, afterall, it's the same on all my Macs running Sequoia 15.4, also yours, and at least three other users so far.

How do I create that RGB image?

I agree. I have been using a custom wall paper for 10 years, now it isn’t available. I don t want a work a round just fix the broken issue.

It isn't logical to refuse to use a very simple workaround while you're waiting for a fix. It's pretty much a guarantee that won't happen until next update comes out in, oh, two months.

If then. 😎