MacOS – the location of background image set from Safari

desktopmacossafari

Safari allows you to set any image as desktop background right from the browser.

Use Image as Desktop Picture in Safari

Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane will then display it as Safari Desktop Picture.

Safari Desktop Picture

No filename, no location, and if I change it, seems like the picture is lost.
I find it frustrating because, although I frequently change wallpapers, I'd like to keep each of them.
I could as well download the file manually but isn't this what Use As Desktop Picture exists for?

So, the question is:

Where is this image actually stored on my hard drive?
How do I retrieve it?

Best Answer

Open ~/Library/Safari/.
It is there, called Safari Desktop Picture.jpg (or whatever the extension is).

Safari Desktop Picture location

If you're on Lion, to get to Library folder you may open Finder, select Go from the top menu and hold ⌥ Option. The normally hidden Library menu will reveal itself in the folder list. Open it, and proceed to Safari subfolder.

If you're not on Lion or just prefer the quick way, open Finder, press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Cmd + G to open directory prompt and paste ~/Library/Safari/:

Safari Desktop Picture location

Related Solutions

Change background based on location/wifi

Anything involving location-aware contexts can be done with Marco Polo.

MacOS – Changing the background image in all spaces

desktop 1 seems to be the currently selected space, so you might use a hack like this:

set f to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg"
tell application "System Events"
    repeat 4 times
        key code 123 using control down -- 123 is left arrow
    end repeat
    repeat 4 times
        set picture of desktop 1 to f
        key code 124 using control down -- 124 is right arrow
    end repeat
end tell

The entries in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist look like this:

default =                 {
    BackgroundColor =                     (
        0,
        0,
        0
    );
    Change = Never;
    ChangePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures";
    ChangeTime = 1800;
    DrawBackgroundColor = 1;
    ImageFileAlias = <00000000 00980003 00000000 cca6c692 0000482b 00000000 0049cf53 0049cf7a 0000cc06 bed80000 00000920 fffe0000 00000000 0000ffff ffff0001 00080049 cf530044 e295000e 00140009 00420065 00610063 0068002e 006a0070 0067000f 00060002 00480044 00120022 4c696272 6172792f 4465736b 746f7020 50696374 75726573 2f426561 63682e6a 70670013 00012f00 ffff0000>;
    ImageFilePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg";
    NewChangePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures";
    NewImageFilePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg";
    NoImage = 0;
    Placement = Crop;
    Random = 0;
};

I don't know how to get an alias as data for the ImageFileAlias key.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Change background based on location/wifi

MacOS – Changing the background image in all spaces

Related Question