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Can't reproduce but since last few weeks, Windows Spotlight has been stuck on the same image. It used to work, but it's gone for a while now, not sure what I've done to break it.

Here's what I've tried:

  • Resetting and re-registering Windows Spotlight:
  • Tried deleting contents in %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets and %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings.
  • Ran the following PowerShell script: PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ContentDeliveryManager*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"
  • Updated Windows to latest build (version 1909, build 18363.476)
  • Tried locking Windows from a new personal account

Here's the issue on Feedback Hub, please vote.

Shimmy Weitzhandler
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    That's a shame; I quite like the daily slideshow of landscape pictures. Hope you can get this working sometime! – ifconfig Nov 24 '19 at 06:20
  • No one found a fix for this?!? I am facing the exact same in issue, also in Win10 build 1909. – SamAndrew81 Mar 01 '20 at 17:32
  • I'm having the same issue. It manifested itself right after I locked down a bunch of privacy settings so I suspect that there's some privacy setting that prevents Spotlight from functioning properly but I have no idea what setting it could be. – Simon Morgan Jun 21 '20 at 08:40

2 Answers2

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The standard fix for stuck Spotlight image is:

  • Disable Spotlight in Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, by setting "Background" to Picture or Slideshow

  • To delete the stuck image use Explorer to navigate to the folder

    %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

  • Select all the files (Ctrl+A)

  • Press Del to clear the old images

  • Navigate now to the folder

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

  • Rename the files settings.dat and roaming.lock by appending .bak to the names (just in case)

  • Reboot

  • Enable Spotlight in Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, setting "Background" to Windows Spotlight

  • If everything is working correctly, delete the .bak files.

harrymc
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    Have you read my question? I clearly stated this solution in my question. This did not work. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 24 '19 at 10:12
  • Try running `chkdsk` and [/sfc scannow](https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2895-run-sfc-command-windows-10-a.html), then repeating the above. – harrymc Nov 24 '19 at 10:16
  • `sfc /scannow` resulted in this message: _Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag._ [Here](https://gist.github.com/weitzhandler/071a55822765ca0fe048e341f71e586e#file-cbs-log)'s the contents of that file. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 24 '19 at 10:29
  • Seems like the reason that the Spotlight fix isn't working is some corruption that the update to Windows version 1909 didn't fix. Try re-doing it by an [In-place Upgrade](https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html), which is the same as doing a Windows upgrade, so taking the same precautions. – harrymc Nov 24 '19 at 10:34
  • Last installation was from an _.iso_. One thing to note, is that I performed [these](https://superuser.com/a/633136/9825) actions after the installation. Thanks for your effort! – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 24 '19 at 10:36
  • I suggest after the In-place Upgrade to test if Spotlight is now working, before doing these. Another `/sfc scannow` would also be a good idea. – harrymc Nov 24 '19 at 10:40
  • Eventho I'm still getting the same error from `/sfc scannow` problem is gone now! – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 25 '19 at 08:42
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    If everything is working fine now : "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". – harrymc Nov 25 '19 at 08:47
  • It worked for a couple of days, but the nasty picture is back again and stuck like before! – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 27 '19 at 06:26
  • There is no other solution than fixing the errors. Post CBS.log again, although it's pretty hard to understand. – harrymc Nov 27 '19 at 07:05
  • Made a fresh one, deleted the old logs before: [CBS.log](http://bit.ly/2DlACPj). – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 27 '19 at 08:01
  • Try [SFCFix](https://www.sysnative.com/forums/downloads/sfcfix/). As backup, create at least a System Restore point before starting. I remark that the errors are caused by serious manipulations of Windows, such as taking ownership of crucial Windows folders and replacing `Utilman.exe` (which is a known hack for lost admin password). – harrymc Nov 27 '19 at 09:10
  • Lol. The tool crashed. "_Something has gone horribly wrong and SFCFix has crashed._". Tried restarting but it still crashed. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 27 '19 at 09:45
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    The tool might not be up to date with the latest Windows version, or that this is also caused by the ownership changes. You could try another In-place Upgrade, but if it doesn't help then your options are either to live with the problem or reinstall Windows from scratch. I'm sorry, but I don't know of another way to undo such manipulations. – harrymc Nov 27 '19 at 10:06
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    That's what does in a way the In-place Upgrade, but it doesn't fix everything. – harrymc Nov 27 '19 at 12:17
  • In the future, for safely taking ownership of Windows folders, see [this answer](https://superuser.com/a/1365110/8672) of mine. – harrymc Nov 27 '19 at 13:12
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I've been enjoying the Spotlight lock screen on Windows 10 and I had thought that a Windows update in November 2020 had caused Spotlight to stop updating its pictures as well as the Like what you see? feature to disappear from the lock screen.

I also tried all suggested solutions of the OP but unlike the OP what did work was trying Spotlight on the lock screen of a pre-existing but rarely used local account where it happened to be working perfectly from when I first logged in. Based on Reset Windows Spotlight I originally thought that this was due to registry settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lock Screen and suggested a solution based on replacing this registry path.

However, after further testing I have discovered that it was in fact changing the Windows Region from United Kingdom to another European country which stopped Spotlight from working. After some brief research there appear to be certain regions where Spotlight is not supported such as Ukraine as documented here.

So if you've recently changed the Windows Region and Spotlight stopped working then the following may fix the problem:

  1. Disable Spotlight in Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, by setting Background to Picture or Slideshow.
  2. Performing steps 4 through 6 of How to Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 10 to reset the Lock Screen settings and delete downloaded assets (the OP also documents the manual method of doing this).
  3. Change Settings > Region > Country or region, to the value which was originally working with Spotlight, which for me was United Kingdom.
  4. Re-enable Spotlight in Settings > Personalization > Lock screen by setting Background to Windows spotlight.
  5. Wait a while (for me about 10 minutes) after which Spotlight will update the lock screen, which I actually saw happen in the Settings > Personalization > Lock screen window, but you can obviously also check the lock screen itself by locking the screen using the Win + L keyboard shortcut.
  6. If you're impatient, restarting Windows might avoid this wait wait I expect.

I did also experiment with using Control Panel > Region > Administrative > Copy settings to set the Welcome screen and system accounts Location to match my Current user location (after setting that using Settings > Region > Country or region to my preferred non-United Kingdom region) but after a while Spotlight again stopped working with this preferred region.

Merging One
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  • Unfortunately that didn't work. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 15 '20 at 06:43
  • Apologies @ShimmyWeitzhandler but I realised I had also reverted my Windows Region when I tested the registry replacement fix I suggested earlier. After restoring my original registry and using the non-UK region I realised that the registry replacement was not the real solution, and reverting Region to the UK was in fact the real fix, for me at least! – Merging One Nov 19 '20 at 23:53
  • This bug is so inherent in Windows. I've been facing it for a nice few years. None of the solutions ever worked. – Shimmy Weitzhandler Nov 21 '20 at 16:09