Bug 511432

Summary: Switching wallpapers 'Based on day-night cycle' doesn't work properly
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: Joerg Fischer <jf505>
Component: Day/night scheduleAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG    
Severity: normal CC: nate, vlad.zahorodnii
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.5.1   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

Description Joerg Fischer 2025-10-31 15:05:50 UTC 
SUMMARY

Depending on your global day/night theme settings the wallpaper's counterpart doesn't work.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Select Breeze Twilight as your light theme and Breeze Dark as your dark theme, configure Day/Night cycle, and let the themes switch accordingly.
2. Set your wallpaper to the Next wallpaper (or any wallpaper with a proper light and dark variant)
3. Set "Switch dynamic wallpapers" to 'Based on the day-night cycle' (which is the same cycle as for the theme)

OBSERVED RESULT

You get the wallpaper's dark variant 24/7, that is it doesn't switch between light and dark variant according to the day-night cycle.

EXPECTED RESULT

Well i would expect from my understanding that the wallpaper switches between light and dark variant based on the day-night cycle. However, the wallpaper just follows the plasma style, which for the Breeze Twilight happens to be Breez Dark (whereas the color scheme is set to Breeze Light).  Now the wallpaper should follow its setting, and 'Based on whether the Plasma style is light or dark' happens to be a different setting.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19.0
Qt Version: 6.10.0
Kernel Version: 6.12.56-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This might be related to https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511377 - somehow the "Switch dynamic wallpapers" settings don't seem to work well. Before 6.5 there wasn't such a setting and the wallpaper's variant was presumably chosen to follow the color scheme. Now although there are fine granular settings the wallpaper seemingly only follows the Plasma style in most cases.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-10-31 18:14:24 UTC 
The UI text is actually wrong; it claims it follows the color scheme, but in point of fact it follows the Plasma style. This will be corrected in Plasma 6.5.2.

Thus, this is intentional, as with that configuration, the wallpaper follows the color of the Plasma theme, which in your setup is always dark.
Comment 2 Joerg Fischer 2025-10-31 18:51:50 UTC 
> it claims it follows the color scheme,

No this was in 6.5.0 and changed to plasma style in 6.5.1. The setting here reads 'Based on the day-night cycle'. 

As a side note maybe a good choice would be neither color scheme nor plasma style but following the themes the user chooses for light and dark?
Comment 3 Vlad Zahorodnii 2025-10-31 19:20:09 UTC 
Can you attach your ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc to the bug report?
Comment 4 Joerg Fischer 2025-10-31 20:04:36 UTC 
Created attachment 186370 [details]
plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

I removed the ScreenMapping - it's of no interest.
Comment 5 Joerg Fischer 2025-11-01 07:26:55 UTC 
Sorry, I made a mistake - probably there was a confused state by using CLI and/or Plasma scripts like noted in https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511377

Anyway it works the wallpaper switches by day-night cycle (maybe just getting into an invalid state via CLI or scripts but this will probably investigated in https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511377)