Mac Studio – Wake from sleep – Desktop picture not stretching to fill Desktop

[GarryB]

On wake from sleep the Mac Studio's Desktop Picture is shown in actual resolution instead of stretched to fit screen. For example, a picture which is 2059 × 1371 is shown at that resolution on a Studio Display screen and so only fills about 60% of the screen area. It starts with the picture positioned in the top left corner but sometimes moves down the screen. This behaviour does not change if the screen resolution is scaled up or down – the picture size is also scaled. Icons on the Desktop are displayed in the correct position. But, the Dock is shown at the bottom of the picture instead of at the bottom of the screen.

Usually, after a while, the Desktop redisplays correctly. But increasingly, the only solution is to log out and in again.

See attached example which is a full screen capture i.e. command-shift-3 (with my personal details obscured).

 

[lcubed]

what monitor?
are you using BetterDummy or SwitchRes?

 

[GarryB]

As mentioned, this is with a Studio Display. I don't have another monitor with which to test. I did have a late 2015 iMac on loan which ran macOS 12.3.1 and did not have this behaviour.

 

[lcubed]

where in your original description did you specify an apple studio display?

oh, i see it now in the dense text!

what scaling option did you select on the desktop pref panel?
and to confirm, BetterDummy and/or SwitchResX aren't installed?

 

[GarryB]

oh, i see it now in the dense text! <= Sorry, it wasn't clear.

The display is at "Default for Display" which is "Looks like 2560 x 1440". I have turned off "True Tone" and "Automatically adjust brightness". Preset is "Apple Display (P3-600 nits)". The Desktop Picture is set to "Fill Screen". the current Desktop picture is 2059 × 1371, PNG with colour profile "sRGB IEC61966-2.1". I've not installed any extensions, add-ons or any apps which play with the display or Finder.

It's odd that when I first saw the behaviour, it would correct itself after a while – i.e. the Desktop picture would stretch to fill the screen and the Dock would show in the correctly at the bottom of the screen. But, now, that does not happen – the behaviour stays that way until I logoff or reboot. I should test what happens if I relaunch Finder .... next time.

 

[enricoclaudio]

Does this happens with any desktop background? Like the Apple Desktops that comes with macOS Monterrey?

 

[GarryB]

Tried to test with a Big Sur picture but, coincidentally, now I can’t get the Studio to go into sleep mode at all. I’ve tried manually invoking sleep as well as setting all the sleep settings in the energy saver pref pane. Will do more research later today.

 

[lcubed]

Tried to test with a Big Sur picture but, coincidentally, now I can’t get the Studio to go into sleep mode at all. I’ve tried manually invoking sleep as well as setting all the sleep settings in the energy saver pref pane. Will do more research later today.

set a hot corner in one of the corners using the screensaver system pref to force sleep

 

[GarryB]

Thanks. I don't know what to think about this: there is no option to put the Mac into sleep mode – only to put the Display to Sleep. Anyway, I tried it and, yes the display blanked out but the Studio was unaffected with the fans still running at normal speed.

BTW, I accidentally left the Mac Studio on all night. As far as I can tell, it did not go into sleep mode. This morning I found the screen blank but the Studio fans still running. According to Activity Monitor, there are 4 processes "Preventing Sleep": cupsd, WindowServer, blutoothd and powerd.

 

[StudioMacs]

Did you use Migration Assitant, or is it a new user account?

I used Migration Assistant to import just some items (like music) when I set up my Mac Studio, but it wound up importing a bunch of old junk (like user library items from 2014) that caused issues.

I used the menu option in system preference to “erase all contents and settings” and started with a new user, manually importing what I needed, and haven’t had any gremlins since then.

 

[GarryB]

Yes, I did use Migration Assistant for one account (wanted to keep all the settings etc.) and have setup another from scratch. Weirdness is that Sleep worked since 10 April up until yesterday. Can't think of any changes which would stop Sleep working. I'll do some testing in the vanilla account.

Anyway, it boots in 15 seconds which is about as fast as my old iMac would wake from sleep. So, the sleep function isn't a great advantage.

 

[StudioMacs]

Yes, I did use Migration Assistant for one account (wanted to keep all the settings etc.) and have setup another from scratch. Weirdness is that Sleep worked since 10 April up until yesterday. Can't think of any changes which would stop Sleep working. I'll do some testing in the vanilla account.

Anyway, it boots in 15 seconds which is about as fast as my old iMac would wake from sleep. So, the sleep function isn't a great advantage.

I’m guessing that if you’re logged into the old account, but switch to the new account, the old account could still have background processes running that could interrupt sleep. That’s just speculation, but to test I’d restart the machine and only log into the new account.

Your desktop image stretching (or not) was the kind of issue I was experiencing before I started over.

 

[GarryB]

I turned off Automatic login and rebooted then logged into a vanilla admin account. I manually turned on sleep using the Apple Menu. The Studio Display screen went blank. After over an hour I came back and found the Studio Max was not in sleep mode – the fans were still running and pressing any key just woke up the Display.

So, I think there are Sleep and Wake from Sleep issues with the Mac Studios. Also, Apple's latest advice on the Status Indicator Light is wrong or every Mac Studio is faulty as no-one has found the SIL blinks when in sleep mode.

UPDATE: OK, Apple's KB I mentioned above is wrong. It is contradicted by another KB: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-studio/apd0fd69f4be/mac.

 

[lcubed]

is 'ask siri' enabled?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-studio-power-indicator-doesnt-sleep.2339467/post-30978915

 

[GarryB]

is 'ask siri' enabled?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-studio-power-indicator-doesnt-sleep.2339467/post-30978915

No. I have never turned on Siri on the Studio.

 

[GarryB]

Well, to my surprise, my Studio now goes into sleep mode when I choose ! Don't know why it now works after not working for 3 days.

Anyway, that meant I could test the suggestion from enricoclaudio. I chose an Apple supplied desktop picture called "Big Sur Mountains", put the Studio into sleep mode, waited a while, then pressed a key to wake it up. As before, the desktop picture was about 60% of the screen area. But this time, I could not get the Dock or the Launcher (using F4) to show. The menus were all accessible, however.

After about 30 seconds the desktop picture moved to the bottom of the screen – but still only filling about 60% of the screen area and I still couldn't access the Dock or Launcher. Another 15-20 seconds later and the desktop picture expanded to fill the screen and the Dock and Launcher were working properly.

 

[GarryB]

Three months later after updating to macOS 12.4 then 12.5 and the Mac Studio still can't stretch an image to fill the Desktop after wake from sleep. And it still shows the Dock one third of the way up the screen instead of at the bottom, and scaled to fit within the width of the Desktop picture that doesn't stretch.

That is, my screen looks the same as the capture I attached to my first post.

 

[StudioMacs]

Three months later after updating to macOS 12.4 then 12.5 and the Mac Studio still can't stretch an image to fill the Desktop after wake from sleep. And it still shows the Dock one third of the way up the screen instead of at the bottom, and scaled to fit within the width of the Desktop picture that doesn't stretch.

That is, my screen looks the same as the capture I attached to my first post.

A software update isn’t likely to address an issue that migrated with your account from your previous machine.

Even if your preferences and user folder were working fine on the old machine, it looks like an incompatibility or corruption has been exposed in the new hardware.