Spotlight picture is not changing regularly

Question

My spotlight picture is not changing. It used to change every time I started Windows 11. What is going on??

Answer 1

Hi, good day!

• When was the last time it worked properly?
• Have you made any changes to your computer recently?
• Have you tried the solutions suggested by AI?

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Please try the following method below.

Press Windows key+R to open Run then copy and paste the path below then press Enter

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local \Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings

Delete all contents inside the resulting folder

Restart your computer

I look forward to receiving your update and I'm willing to collaborate with you till we resolve the issue. Do keep me informed by clicking "Add comment" below.

Answer 2

Hello,

Do you use a local account in Windows and do you use OneDrive? Then it's a known bug that affects a lot of users. I'm also affected since months. Several clean installs of Windows didn't help. Known workarounds do not work. User Danilo Bonamoneta discovered the problem is related to the use of a local account in Windows in combination with OneDrive and Windows Spotlight. I think he's right. He wrote in a post:

'I discovered that the problem is related to logging into OneDrive. If you delete your Microsoft account credentials from the Credential Manager, and also delete all the cache files in this path "%localappdata%\Microsoft\TokenBroker\Cache", Spotlight starts working again, but OneDrive, if it is still connected, will work for a few hours after which it will ask you to re-enter your credentials, creating the block again. The alternative is to enter the credentials into the Windows account, since the problem only occurs if the Windows user is a local account. Has Microsoft decided to block the functionality for those who do not use a Microsoft account in Windows? They have been pushing for a long time to prevent the use of local accounts.'

Answer 3

Windows spotlight sometimes stops rotating images because its content cache or the Spotlight component gets stuck.

Try these steps to restore normal behavior:

1. Confirm Spotlight is still selected
   1. Open Settings > Personalization > Background.
   2. Under Personalize your background, make sure Windows spotlight is selected.
   3. Open Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
   4. Under Personalize your lock screen, make sure Windows spotlight is selected.
2. Turn Spotlight off and back on
   1. In Background, temporarily change Windows spotlight to Picture.
   2. In Lock screen, temporarily change Windows spotlight to Picture.
   3. Restart the PC.
   4. Set both Background and Lock screen back to Windows spotlight.
3. Clear Spotlight cache (resets stuck image)
   1. Press Win + R, type the following path and press Enter: %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
   2. Delete all files in the Assets folder (these are cached Spotlight images; safe to remove).
   3. Restart the PC and keep Spotlight enabled; new images should download and start rotating again.
4. Re-register the Spotlight component (if still stuck)
   1. Open PowerShell as administrator.
   2. Run:

            Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *ContentDeliveryManager* | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
      

   3. Restart the PC and verify Windows spotlight is still selected for Background and Lock screen.

After these steps, Spotlight should resume changing images regularly on Windows 11.

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References:

• Configure Windows spotlight (windows-11)
• Customize the Lock Screen in Windows
• Change the desktop background in Windows
• Configure the desktop and lock screen backgrounds (windows-10)
• I select the Windows Spotlight but I only see this image in both my laptops! - Microsoft Q&A
• I am fed up with Windows arbitrarily changing my settings - Microsoft Q&A