Creators update has stopped background slideshow working

Has anyone else experienced this? Just been updated to Creators (after several failed attempts using loads of valuable bandwidth!) and this has broken my background slideshow settings, leaving my two screens stuck on the same image.

My previous personalisation settings were to shuffle images from the default Pictures folder. This displayed two different images on each of my two monitors from various random sub- and sub-sub-folders (I found previously that selecting my preference for a sub-folder didn't work - only selecting Pictures worked at all).

I have tried to reset things manually via personalisation, but nothing works. I deleted all old unused themes, and changed back to the one I use and this changed the background to become stuck on the lock screen image. I then changed the slideshow location back to another sub-folder and two different images from that folder appeared, but did not change at all. I then tried to change the folder back to Pictures, but it is now stuck with the two same images.

Any ideas please??

Many thanks!

Odd. I manually updated to Creators as soon as it was released. My background slideshow continued to work normally after the update.

Do you use anything to tweak your system, such as Winaero? I don't.

No tweaks - I decided tweaking Windows 10 was a dangerous thing at the outset!

Interestingly, I just tried yet again to change the location via personalise, and tried a sub-folder again, and it immediately changed to that folder with different images on each monitor. So this is now 'working' - but exactly the opposite to how it worked before the update and how I had it before; i.e. it will not work with the default Pictures folder - just with individual sub or sub-sub folders, wherever the actual images lie. I have hundreds of photos is dozens of folders, so this means I have to change folders manually to see different subject matter, when I much prefer the old 'random from any folder' set-up.

Yes, mine was already set to a sub-folder containing my favourite wallpapers before the update to Creators, so probably explains why I didn't see your issues. On experimenting, it certainly seems the functionality is to only show picture from the selected folder, ignoring any sub-folders it may contain.

That's a relief that it's not just me, at least.

Perhaps someone else might see this and have a workaround or suggestion for getting back to the good old ways...?

rjhfandclf said:

Perhaps someone else might see this and have a workaround or suggestion for getting back to the good old ways...?

I'm not convinced your 'good old ways' was working correctly either. You did say...

rjhfandclf said:

...I found previously that selecting my preference for a sub-folder didn't work - only selecting Pictures worked at all...

I have just restored the 1607 image for my test machine (System Two in my specs below). I can confirm that in 1607 selecting the Pictures folder for the slideshow does use images from any sub-folders. But unlike you, selecting a sub-folder works too.

rjhfandclf said:

...a workaround or suggestion for getting back to the good old ways...?

There's a rather convoluted way involving custom libraries and the control panel settings for wallpaper here on Superuser...
https://superuser.com/questions/1061...ple-subfolders
...though on further reading that too seems to have stopped working with recent updates.

Some further information, direct from a Microsoft software engineer:

the desktop slideshow has not supported multiple folders (nor subfolders). If you directly selected your (root) Pictures library, then and only then we would do a small trick to have "subfolders" used there, but that should be it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/c...ground_parent/

So it seems this 'small trick' specifically for the Pictures folder is what has stopped working in Creators Update.

Maybe if enough people complain through the feedback hub it will get fixed in a future update (don't hold your breath).

I'm not convinced your 'good old ways' was working correctly either. You did say...

You're quite right of course. I had two main sub-directories under Pictures - one containing 'technical' images that I probably never want to see again - but want to keep 'just in case'; the other with family pics etc. So I had to tolerate the odd strange image appearing in the middle of the more enjoyable ones!

...though on further reading that too seems to have stopped working with recent updates.

Yes - too good to be true it seems, unfortunately - but confirms the status quo.

Thanks for all your efforts anyway...

Maybe if enough people complain through the feedback hub it will get fixed in a future update (don't hold your breath).

I'm 72 - so probably not enough breath left ... !