Windows Spotlight is stuck on one image or Windows 10 Spotlight is not working after the recent update? You have selected Windows 10 Spotlight feature for the lock screen but it doesn’t change images regularly, rather it only shows one picture? let’s see how to fix the windows spotlight not working on windows 10.
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What is Windows Spotlight?
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. But sometimes Especially after recent windows 10 upgrade users experience Windows Spotlight is stopped 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. But it’s possible to fix the Windows 10 Spotlight with a simple workaround.
Fix windows spotlight stuck on one picture
Note: The spotlight feature is available only when your PC is connected to the internet. The pictures on the lock screen change automatically every day to day if you are connected to the internet.
Turn off metered connection
When your PC is connected to a metered network, it might not download spotlight images to reduce the data usage. Its recommended to check and turn off if metered connection is enabled. To do this
- open settings using windows key + I,
- Go to the network and Internet then Status
- Click on change connection properties, scroll down and toggle off button under set as metered connection.
Disable and re-enable windows spotlight
Also Before trying out any solutions, we recommend turn off Windows Spotlight and then turn it on again.
- Open Settings using Windows key + I,
- Click Personalization then Lock screen,
- Select the Picture option as background (this will turn off the feature) and then select Windows Spotlight.
Tweak from File Explorer
Open the File Explorer using Windows key + E, switch to the View tab, checkmark on Hiden items and Now navigate to
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\ Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
In the above path, replace “C” with the drive letter of the drive where Windows 10 is installed and replace “UserName” with your actual username.
Here press Ctrl+ A to Select all files and then hit the Delete key. Next, navigate to the following folder:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages\ Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings
Here again, Under the Settings folder, you should find two files: roaming.lock and settings.dat. Select both files and delete them. Reboot your PC now, Windows Spotlight feature should start working again now.
Re-register Spotlight App
Right-click on the Windows 10 start menu and select PowerShell (Admin). At the PowerShell window, copy and paste the following command and then hit Enter key:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager -allusers | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register “$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode}
After completely execute the command restart your PC. Windows Spotlight must start working now by showing a new picture on the lock screen.
Run System file checker
If the issue still persists try to check the system files using SFC utility that scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.
- Open Command Prompt as administrator
- In the command prompt, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter.
- Exit command prompt.
Wait until 100% complete the scanning process, after that restart windows and check this helps.
Did these solutions help to fix the Windows spotlight not working after the windows 10 update? Let us know on the comments below,
Also Read
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- Fix windows installer service could not be accessed Error On Windows 10
- How to Reset Windows 10 password without any Software
- Cannot install apps from Microsoft store – Windows 10 Version 21H2
- Simple Tweaks to Speed up Windows 10 computer for free
For each account on your PC..
All of the posts on the Internet for reset/reregistering Windows Spotlight do seem to occasionally work, but typically not forever. I’ve tried nearly all of them and Windows Spotlight nearly always gets stuck again. HERES A BETTER BAND-AID this might help you out until Microsoft figures out how to finally fix (or even start looking at)
this common problem..
1) Install app “Dynamic Theme” from MS Store (I suppose other image-rotators would work, but I used this one)
2) In “Dynamic Theme”, make sure Lockscreen is set for “System Settings”, meaning that D.T. is letting system take care of lockscreen (temporarily)
3) Switch to system lockscreen settings (under Personalization), and set to “Windows Spotlight”.. as well as “Show Picture on Signon Screen”. May or may not display old or repetitive picture at this point; does not matter
4) Reboot.. signon screen likely still old, but no worries, keep going
5) Switch to system lockscreen settings again, set to “Picture” and just accept what-ever comes up. DO NOT EVER CHANGE THIS AGAIN. TREAT IT LIKE A FRAGILE SNOWFLAKE!
6) Back in “Dynamic Theme->Lockscreen” app, set to “Windows Spotlight”
7) Also in “Dynamic Theme->Daily Spotlight Image”, choose other settings if desired, like Autosave, Dynamic Tile, etc.
8) Reboot again
The use of the store app “Dynamic Theme” (or any other image-rotator I guess) is really just for management of settings and pictures. The KICKER that Microsoft has not figured out yet is the step at POINT #3/#4/#5. Apparently, setting the Lockscreen to Windows Spotlight doesn’t really do what 99% of users think it should do.. but rebooting and
setting back to picture FINALLY makes Windows 10 respect the previous setting. This is why I say in point #5 DO NOT CHANGE, because once this band-aid is implemented, it would be easy to break if you start playing around with lockscreen picture settings again. I suppose it would not be catastrophic, just that you have to re-implement the band-id from scratch again, for all accounts. UGH.