Windows 10: Why is Windows Spotlight working fine on the lock screen but not allowing me to switch to...

I upgraded to Windows 11 23H2 on December 8th.Before the upgrade,Windows Spotlight was working fine.However,after the upgrade,I cannot switch to the Spotlight theme in the Personalization settings.When I click it,nothing happens,but it still works fine on the lock screen.This is really frustrating because most of the solutions I found online are focused on the lock screen issue,and I've tried those steps without success.I also don't want to solve the problem through the Microsoft Store or other methods.I'm not the only one facing this issue,and I hope it can be resolved.

:)

 

Windows Spotlight on the lock screen

Hi,

There are multiple causes on why you're encountering this issue. To further troubleshoot the issue, we suggest that you disable and re-enable Spotlight. Simply follow the steps below:

• Right-click on the desktop and open Personalize.
• Open Lock Screen tab.
• Under Background, switch from Windows Spotlight to a Picture or the Slideshow.
• Click OK and close the Window.
• Now Log off and log in.
• Navigate to Lock screen and enable Windows Spotlight again.

Let us know how it works.

 

Windows Spotlight/Lock screen

Hi, after many attempts, I got Spotlight back up and running. 'Like what you see' had disappeared, and the image wasn't changing when Spotlight was selected.

I'm not sure which of this sequence proved effective. Maybe some combination.

Note:
1. Spotlight worked in another account if I switched to it.
2. Deleting all images (they are jpg's with no extension) in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assetsdid not solve the problem but the folder was repopulated when I enabled Spotlight. (Some report this not happening).

3. Simply switching to Picture from Spotlight, and back again and trying the Lock screen did not help
4. Re-registering all apps for the current account as suggested in one post did not help. (Note- there's no specific registration instruction related to Spotlight in the tutorial list).

5. What worked? Finally, I made a random decision to 'Choose an app to show detailed status' (on the lock screen). I chose Weather.
This worked.

What stopped it working? I think possibly disabling the lock screen using Winaero's tweaker, then enabling it again.

 

Windows Spotlight Not Working

If that didn't work then what I originally did to get mine working was to:

1. Switch the Lock Screen from Spotlight to picture

2. Delete the image files in the Assets folder AND

3. Rename (add ".bak" to the file name) each of the files in settings Folder.

4. Close out of settings and restart the computer

5. After restarting switch the Lock Screen back to Spotlight, restart again, and give it several hours to see if new images are downloaded to the Assets folder and the Lock Screen starts updating with new Spotlight images.

I tried the suggestions of just deleting the image files or renaming the files in the Settings folder and neither seemed to accomplish anything by themselves. Doing both at the same time, however, got it working again. Again, that was before I found the
original steps listed in the previous message also got it working again for me.

It does seem, however, that the Spotlight Lock Screen feature is pretty fragile. My desktop went back to the default image after the last Windows update while laptop continued working fine after the same update.

Good Luck