Cannot change options

[marceliwac]

Changing options does not actually update the screen saver.

The preview tile (in Screen Saver settings) updates accordingly, but actually previewing the screen saver still renders the default configuration (black background, blue + red + yellow colours, size M, etc.). The screen saver itself also doesn't use the specified options when auto-started after set period of inactivity.

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Specifications:

Mac Studio 2025
Apple M3 Ultra
96GB RAM
macOS Sequoia 15.6.1

Display configuration:
3 x 4K (3840x2160p)

[amiantos]

Hmm, I'm not having this issue on my machine. You're on v1.2 I assume?

I am on Tahoe now and I cannot figure out for the life of me where macOS stores screensaver settings now. They used to be in a 'legacyScreenSaver' branded defaults store but now they are not. I'm not quite sure how to help you diagnose this at this point, sadly. You haven't done anything on your machine to change how UserDefaults works have you? Either way my first step would be trying to identify where the settings are supposed to be stored and see if there is some reason they are not stored there. But I do not know where they are stored anymore, Apple is really pushing for the past few years to get rid of custom screensavers as far as I can tell, since they are still broken in Tahoe.

[grischard]

I have the same issue on Sequoia 15.7.4. The settings seem to get saved, because once I re-open the Options panel, my choices are shown. But it's the default options that get picked in the preview and screensaver.

[grischard]

I've found the settings plist at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine.legacyScreenSaver.x86-64/Data/Library/Preferences/ByHost/net.amiantos.Life-Saver.5B2F8F6A-62BF-533F-B328-A2FC3D64F753.plist. It contains all the settings I've selected in the options panel.

[amiantos]

I'll take an AI-assisted poke at this, and see if there is anything I can find. I added some new features to the Apple TV version that I could bring over to the screensaver to put together an update if I find a fix for this issue.