Sequoia 15.4 : Setting a custom desktop color does not work

I had same bug. Got it working by clicking the + icon in the color swatches area to add a custom color, then pick a color from the picker. It won't update the background yet. Next you have to click the "show all" above the colored circles to see the color you just added to the swatches. Pick the color from the swatches now and it will apply.

I've discovered this bug too. As a workaround I took a screen grab of the blue coloured desktop on an earlier MB Pro running Monterey. I copied the screen grab pic to the desktop on my MB Pro running Sequoia 15.4 which I then added to the available photos in the wallpaper setting option.

Known issue. There are several ways to do so, but the solution is to create a tiny image in the color you want to use, then put that image in the Pictures folder of your user account so you can choose it in Settings.

Custom wallpaper color shows as white and… - Apple Community

I hate it when posts disappear while you're writing a response. Here it is anyway:

Yes, it is a rather "dumb" bug. I don't think most people would disagree.

But, humans write the code. Humans make mistakes. And having dealt with beta software for a number of years on various operating systems, sometimes when they add a feature, changes to a framework to support that new feature unintentionally breaks something else. Then it's a matter of, will anyone notice, or run across that unintended change?

More than a few people have reported the bug to Apple. I'd be more than surprised if it isn't fixed in the next update. But it's nothing important enough that they're going to fix before then.

Apple … is it that hard to test before delivery?

Apple will not see your complaint here. We are all other end users, We cannot fix.

If you truly desire to place this where an Apple employee will see it, this is the only way:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Known bug. Have to wait until next update.

Creating your own tint as an image isn't a kludge. It's no different than using a picture of your family, a lake scene or whatever other image of your own you want to use as your wallpaper.

That doesn't work on mine.

If I set the background to black from the 19 defaults then click the + and move the slider to make the color dark grey, it turns the background white and doesn't add the color to the list.

And it should also be mentioned that workarounds and kludges often cause other issues when a bug is officially fixed, sometimes the workaround interferes with the fix itself. Since it’s a known issue it would likely be better to just deal with it until it is fixed in the next update. Just my opinion.

I'm looking for an Easter Egg hidden in the screensaver trees - but yes: Apple seem to spend a lot of effort on the fancy stuff like "a perfect walk though sunlit woodland" but not the simple stuff like "what color would you like to stare at for the next 8 hours?"

Kurt Lang wrote:

I hate it when posts disappear while you're writing a response. Here it is anyway:

My fault I'm afraid. I tend to report "dumb" posts.

Yes, it is a rather "dumb" bug. I don't think most people would disagree.

I disagree. There are no "dumb" or "smart" bugs. 🤔 When you are working with millions of lines of code, they are bound to creep in.

Yes, which is why I followed that with, But, humans write the code. Humans make mistakes.

Still, it would have been much more inline with the rest of my post to start out with something like:

Yes, it appears to be a "dumb" bug.

Then continue on with the rest.

Yes well, I'm not even sure it was a human mistake. After all, Sequoia 15.4 was the first version where it occurs. My guess it was some inadvertent conflict with new code. Me not know.

In any case, at least computers are no longer programmed using punch cards.

There was an elegance to that because people had to be VERY careful with memory allocation and such since resources were very constrained by the hardware.

Hearing my father talk about writing his Chemistry PhD dissertation (chemical analysis of Lanthanide/rare earth metals) and having to write the code himself on paper tape on an IBM 7094 mainframe in about 1961 was fascinating. He had to learn to program to do this.

Learning to program led him to take a job managing a mainframe data center at Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and that's where I grew up. He taught CS for 35 years because he had to learn this all himself.

That said, I met someone in the late 90s who had had him for an intro to CS course in about 1982. She remembered him (he's a tiny man but a rather memorable personality) but hated punch cards!

Mike Friedman wrote:

There was an elegance to that because people had to be VERY careful with memory allocation and such since resources were very constrained by the hardware.

True enough. Of course there is a huge difference in coding for computers that could only hold 16K characters and dealing with modern operating systems. I read somewhere some version of macOS had 40 million lines of code. Not something I would want to deal with. It still amazes me macOS is as bug free as it is.