Enabling NASA's Astronomy picture of the day supresses my Favorites folder

[colin-adams]

I enable my Favorites folder for random selection of photos from it every 30 seconds. If I also enable NASA's Astronomy Picture of the day, it only displays pictures from that source.

I assumed it would randomly choose one source or the other (or for preference, strictly alternate).

Version installed: variety-0.8.9-1.fc36.noarch

Here is the contents of my config file:

# change_on_start = <True or False>
change_on_start = False

# change_enabled = <True or False>
change_enabled = True

# change_interval = <interval in seconds - not less than 5>
change_interval = 30

# internet_enabled = <True or False>
internet_enabled = True

# safe_mode = <True or False>
safe_mode = False

# What scripts to use to set the wallpaper, or to obtain the path to the current wallpaper
# Variety automatically manages and upgrades these two files:
# ~/.config/variety/scripts/set_wallpaper
# ~/.config/variety/scripts/get_wallpaper
# If you want some custom logic to happen when Variety tries to set/get the wallpaper, e.g. because
# you use some Desktop Environment that is not supported by default, please create copies of one
# or both of these files, make the new files executable, and provide the new paths here.
# Having a functional set_wallpaper script is essential, get_wallpaper is not so important.
set_wallpaper_script = ~/.config/variety/scripts/set_wallpaper
get_wallpaper_script = ~/.config/variety/scripts/get_wallpaper

# download_folder = <some folder> - when not specified, the default is ~/.config/variety/Downloaded
download_folder = ~/.config/variety/Downloaded

# download_preference_ratio - if we have "unconsumed" download sources, we'll prefer to show a newly
# downloaded image instead of an existing one in this percentage of the cases
download_preference_ratio = 0.9

# Determine if the download folder should not exceed a certain size (in megabytes)
# quota_enabled = <True or False>
# quota_size = <size in MB, minimum 50>
quota_enabled = True
quota_size = 1000

# Wallhaven API key, by default it's an empty string
wallhaven_api_key = ""

# favorites_folder = <some folder> - when not specified, the default is ~/.config/variety/Favorites
favorites_folder = ~/.config/variety/Favorites

# Prefer Copy to Favorites or Move to Favorites operation (or both), depending on the folder of the current image
# favorites_operations = <A list of directories and the preferred operation (Copy, Move or Both) for each of them>
# The default is: Downloaded:Copy;Fetched:Move;Others:Copy
# Order is important - the first matching entry will determine what operation(s) to show in the menu for a specific file
# Special folder names you can use: Downloaded, Fetched and Others (same as "/" - use it as last entry to determine the default operation)
# Example1: Downloaded:Copy;Fetched:Move;/pics/RandomImages:Move;/pics/OrganizedAlbums:Copy;Others:Copy
# Example2: Others:Both - always show both Copy and Move to Favorites, no matter which image is shown
# Move to Favorites is only shown when the user has write permissions over the file, otherwise we fallback to Copy
favorites_operations = Downloaded:Copy;Fetched:Move;Others:Copy

# wallpaper_auto_rotate = <True or False>
wallpaper_auto_rotate = True

# wallpaper_display_mode = <"os" |
# "smart" | "zoom" | "fill-with-black" | "fill-with-blur" |
# "gnome-zoom" | "gnome-centered" | "gnome-scaled" | "gnome-stretched" | "gnome-spanned", "gnome-wallpaper">
wallpaper_display_mode = smart

# fetch_folder = <some folder> - when not specified, the default is ~/.config/variety/Fetched
fetched_folder = ~/.config/variety/Fetched

# Clipboard monitoring settings
# clipboard_enabled = <True or False>
# clipboard_use_whitelist = <will we use a hosts whitelist, or we'll fetch from everywhere - True or False>
# clipboard_hosts = <comma-separated whitelist of hosts for which clipboard fetching is enabled>
clipboard_enabled = False
clipboard_use_whitelist = True
clipboard_hosts = "wallhaven.cc,wallpapers.net,flickr.com,imgur.com,deviantart.com,interfacelift.com,vladstudio.com,imageshack.us,deviantart.net,imageshack.com"

# Icon settings
# icon = <Light, Dark, Current, 1, 2, 3, 4, None, or a full path to an image file>
icon = Light

# Prefer only images with this color:
# desired_color_enabled = <True or False>
# desired_color = <None or rgb like this: 100 150 200>
# DISCLAIMER: This feature is still experimental
desired_color_enabled = False
desired_color = 160 160 160

# Minimum size of images to use, as a percentage of the screen resolution
# min_size_enabled = <True or False>
# min_size = <Percentage>
min_size_enabled = False
min_size = 80

# Should we use only landscape-oriented images?
# use_landscape_enabled = <True or False>
use_landscape_enabled = False

# Prefer light or dark images
# lightness_enabled = <True or False>
# lightness_mode = <0 for Dark, 1 for Light>
lightness_enabled = False
lightness_mode = 0

# Use a filter by rating?
# min_rating_enabled = <True or False>
# min_rating = <1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5>
min_rating_enabled = False
min_rating = 4

# What parts of the initial wizard have we covered
smart_notice_shown = False
smart_register_shown = False
stats_notice_shown = False

# Are smart features enabled (i.e. data collection on Fav/Trash operations), also sync, and anonymous usage stats collection?
# smart_enabled = <True or False>
smart_enabled = False
sync_enabled = True
stats_enabled = True

# Folder to copy the wallpaper image to and make it world-readable. Provides LightDM support.
# copyto_enabled = <True or False>, default is False
# copyto_folder = <Default or Path to a custom folder>, the default is Default
# Default means to use the XDG Pictures folder when home folder is unencrypted and /usr/share/backgrounds when it is encrypted.
copyto_enabled = False
copyto_folder = Default

# Clock settings
# clock_enabled = <True or False>
# clock_font = <FontName Size>, default is "Serif 70"
# clock_date_font = <FontName Size>, default is "Serif 30"
clock_enabled = False
clock_font = Serif 70
clock_date_font = Serif 30

# clock_filter = <an ImageMagick filter, read below>
#
# The filter defines the ImageMagick command that Variety uses to render the clock on the wallpaper.
# First some scaling is applied to get the image down to the screen size - this ensures
# the final drawn clock won't be rescaled by the desktop wallpaper system.
# Easiest way to see what's happening is to run variety with -v, enable clock and see what ImageMagick
# commands Variety dumps in the log.
#
# The user may want to customize the following aspects:
# fill - color of "filling"
# stroke - color of outline
# strokewidth - width of outline
# gravity - in which corner to display the clock - SouthEast, NorthEast, SouthWest, NorthWest
# annotate - these must be in the form 0x0+[%HOFFSET+X]+[%VOFFSET+Y], where you can edit X and Y -
# distance from the screen corner defined by gravity. Write them in even if they are 0.
#
# The %HOFFSET and %VOFFSET parameters are there for Variety to replace in order to compensate for the
# diferent dimensions of every image and screen.
# The several %FONT parameters are there for Variety to replace with the font settings from the GUI.
#
# The texts can contain these symbols:
#
# %H - hours (24), %I - zero-padded hours (12), %l - hours (12), %p - am or pm, %M - minutes,
# %A - day of week (full), %a - day of week abbreviation, %B - month name, %b - month abbreviation, %d - day of month, %Y - year.
# The full list for these can be seen here: http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior
# Have in mind that Variety will not update the clock more often than once every minute, so using seconds (%S) for example is pointless
#
# A tutorial on "annotating" with ImageMagick that you may use as a reference: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/annotating/
# You can get a very uniquely looking clock with some of the more advanced techniques (e.g. circle-shaped text, interesting colors and shading, etc....).

clock_filter = "-density 100 -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' '%CLOCK_FONT_NAME'` -pointsize %CLOCK_FONT_SIZE -gravity SouthEast -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+[%HOFFSET+58]+[%VOFFSET+108] '%H:%M' -fill white -annotate 0x0+[%HOFFSET+60]+[%VOFFSET+110] '%H:%M' -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' '%DATE_FONT_NAME'` -pointsize %DATE_FONT_SIZE -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+[%HOFFSET+58]+[%VOFFSET+58] '%A, %B %d' -fill white -annotate 0x0+[%HOFFSET+60]+[%VOFFSET+60] '%A, %B %d'"

# Quotes settings
# quotes_enabled = <True or False>
# quotes_font = <FontName Size>, default is "Serif 30"
# quotes_text_color = <r g b>, default is 255 255 255
# quotes_bg_color = <r g b>, default is 80 80 80
# quotes_bg_opacity = <0-100>, default is 55
# quotes_width = <0-100>, default is 70
# quotes_hpos = <0-100>, default is 100
# quotes_vpos = <0-100>, default is 40
# quotes_max_length = a positive integer, quotes above this length will not be displayed
# (as they often won't fit well on screen)
# quotes_text_shadow = <True or False>, default is False
# quotes_disabled_sources = <|-separated list of disabled quote plugin names>, default is "Urban Dictionary"
# quotes_tags = <comma-separated list of tags>, default is empty
# quotes_authors = <comma-separated list of authors>, default is empty
# quotes_change_enabled = <True or False>
# quotes_change_interval = <interval in seconds - not less than 10>, default is 300
quotes_enabled = False
quotes_font = Serif 30
quotes_text_color = 255 255 255
quotes_bg_color = 80 80 80
quotes_bg_opacity = 55
quotes_text_shadow = False
quotes_width = 70
quotes_hpos = 100
quotes_vpos = 40
quotes_max_length = 250
quotes_disabled_sources = Urban Dictionary
quotes_tags = ""
quotes_authors = ""
quotes_change_enabled = False
quotes_change_interval = 300
quotes_favorites_file = ~/.config/variety/favorite_quotes.txt
quotes_favorites_format = fortune

# Slideshow settings
slideshow_favorites_enabled = True
slideshow_sources_enabled = True
slideshow_downloads_enabled = False
slideshow_custom_enabled = False
slideshow_custom_folder = ~/Pictures
slideshow_sort_order = Random
slideshow_monitor = All
slideshow_mode = Fullscreen
slideshow_seconds = 6.0
slideshow_fade = 0.4
slideshow_zoom = 0.2
slideshow_pan = 0.05

# List of sources
# Each source is srcX = <enabled or not|source type - one of image, folder, flickr, wallhaven, etc.|location>
# location depends on type - path or url or search options, or just a name for unconfigurable sources
# Folders are included recursively
# BE CAREFUL: all keys below (src1, src2, etc.) MUST be different
[sources]
src1 = True|favorites|The Favorites folder
src2 = False|fetched|The Fetched folder
src3 = False|folder|/usr/share/backgrounds
src4 = False|flickr|user:www.flickr.com/photos/peter-levi/;user_id:93647178@N00;
src5 = True|apod|NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
src6 = False|bing|Bing Photo of the Day
src7 = False|earthview|Google Earth View Wallpapers
src8 = False|natgeo|National Geographic's photo of the day
src9 = False|unsplash|High-resolution photos from Unsplash.com

# Image filters to apply randomly to every wallpaper (ImageMagick is used for this)
# Each filter is filterX = <enabled or not|filter name|arguments to pass to ImageMagick when calling convert>
# BE CAREFUL: all keys below (filter1, filter2, etc.) MUST be different
[filters]
filter1 = True|Keep original|
filter2 = False|Grayscale|-type Grayscale
filter3 = False|Heavy blur|-scale 20% -blur 0x10 -resize 500%
filter4 = False|Soft blur|-scale 20% -blur 0x2 -resize 500%
filter5 = False|Oil painting|-paint 8
filter6 = False|Pointilism|-spread 10 -noise 3
filter7 = False|Pixellate|-scale 3% -scale 3333%

[guss77]

I had a similar issue - basically APOD overwhelms any other source. The problem is two pronged:

1. APOD has many accessible images - much more than many other people image source (now that Unsplash isn't working anymore, at least).
2. As can be seen in your configuration example, the configuration of download_preference_ratio is set to 0.9 (i.e. 90%) and there is no UI to change it.

What it means is that the APOD plugin keeps download many images that are always considered new (because they have been just downloaded) and Variety will prefer new downloads over local files 90% of the time! This is made worse by my tendency to hit "Delete" if I get APOD images that are unsuitable for use as wallpapers (which are many), so the APOD plugin downloads new copies of them and again - prefer to display them, even over pretty APOD pictures that I choose not to delete...

My workaround was to change the download_preference_ratio configuration to a low value (I chose 0.2), and to not delete the APOD files that I don't like - this has the side effect that when I now get APOD pictures, more likely then not they aren't the kind of wallpapers I'm happy with, which begs the question why I leave that source on...

[guss77]

See also issue #360 and #487 .

[peterlevi]

Thanks for chiming in and providing a solution, @guss77! I'm marking this a duplicate of #360 and closing.