Windows Spotlight lock screen picture won't change

Anonymous
2018-02-09T16:26:33+00:00

Hello,

I have an HP laptop running Windows 10, and usually when my laptop is locked, the picture changes every now and then on my lock screen and I really enjoyed that. But recently for the past month or two, it's been stuck on the same picture and it stopped changing to new pictures. I checked my settings and I still have "Windows Spotlight" set as my lock screen but still nothing happens. It just stopped working and changing pictures for some reason.

If anyone can help, please do!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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Anonymous
2018-05-22T00:04:55+00:00

Just follow these steps of Windows Central:

How to fix Windows Spotlight Lock screen errors Is Windows Spotlight broken or stuck on the same image? If so, this guide details the steps to fix the issue.

Windows Spotlight is a feature included with Windows 10 that uses Bing to automatically download and set new background images on the Lock screen, to keep your experience fresh every time you sign in.

The only caveat with Windows Spotlight is that sometimes it will stop working, or you'll notice that it gets stuck on the same image. Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn't include an option to reset this feature. However, it's possible to fix the Windows Spotlight settings with this simple workaround.

In this Windows 10 guide, we show you the steps to fix Windows Spotlight on your computer and keep getting fresh images from Bing on your Lock screen.

How to reset Windows Spotlight

If the Windows Spotlight feature is stuck on the same image, or it's not working at all, you can use the following steps to fix the issue:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure Windows Spotlight is NOT selected and change the option to Picture or Slideshow.
  5. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
  6. Type the following path and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
  7. Select all the files (Ctrl + A) and hit the Delete key to clear all old images (if applicable).
  8. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command again.
  9. Type the following path to where the Windows Spotlight settings are stored and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings
  10. Right-click settings.dat and roaming.lock individually, then click Rename and name them settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak.
  11. Restart your computer.
  12. Open Settings.
  13. Click on Personalization.
  14. Click on Lock screen.
  15. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight.

Once you complete these steps, you can lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

If everything worked as expected, remember to go back to the Settings folders where Windows Spotlight stores the settings and delete the settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak files.

Alternative method to fix Windows Spotlight

If the steps mentioned above didn't fix Windows Spotlight, you can try to reset the settings using the following steps:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight. (If you don't enable the feature, you're likely to get an error while running the PowerShell command.)
  5. Open Start.
  6. Search for Windows PowerShell, right-click the result, and select Run as administrator.
  7. Enter the following command and press Enter to reset the Windows Spotlight: Get-AppxPackage -allusers *ContentDeliveryManager* | foreach {Add-AppxPackage "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -register }
  8. Restart your computer.

After completing these steps, you should be able to lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-windows-spotlight-stuck-same-image-windows-10?passport=1526946645

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-18T13:23:26+00:00

    My new Dell laptop that had Spotlight working fine now has a stuck image after a Windows Update. Argh!

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-18T12:50:30+00:00

    Have a bit of patience

    This worked for me, eventually.  I applied the first suggested fix, to no improvement.  I then tried the PowerShell (including the required restart), twice. Again without improvement.

    Only when I left my computer for about five-ten minutes (I told the computer to restart the then left it) did I return to find the Spotlight images were working again.  The moral of the story being to give Windows a bit of chance to catch up and do what it's been told to do.

    The quantity of people who say they've had the same problem*, and the quantity of people who say this has helped them, there is a significant proportion of users who have experienced this issue, yet there's still no sign of a 'Fix Spotlight' button in the Settings page.  Perhaps a better solution would be to simply have the OS run the fix automatically when someone changes to Spotlight images, and then to tell the user they should restart the computer for the changes to take effect.  This would make the fix virtually transparent to the user and would remove the need to put in a "hit this to fix problems" button which would be tantamount to MS having to admit something is broken.  (Or, and I realise this may be revolutionary thinking, just fix whatever the underlying root cause of the problem is!)

    Most people either a) won't have clicked "I have the same problem", or b) will have found the fix in one of the many other places on the Web (or from a friend who did either).  It's reasonable under these circumstances to predict that only 1% of people found the solution as a result of this thread. That means there could easily be over a ¼ million people who have experienced the problem.  Surely that warrants someone putting in the time and effort to fix the root cause?

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-18T04:38:06+00:00

    You are DEFINITLY doing something wrong

    Try again

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-18T04:37:12+00:00

    Correct..

    Did it work for you?

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