Change Wallpaper settings on Mac
On your Mac, use Wallpaper settings to change the picture or color shown on your desktop (the background area of the screen). Learn how to customize the desktop picture on your Mac.
To change these settings, choose Apple menu 
in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
Open Wallpaper settings for me
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Current wallpaper thumbnail | The desktop picture currently used on your Mac. |
Wallpaper name and pop-up menu | From the pop-up menu, view the name of the current desktop picture and choose an appearance type from the pop-up menu when your wallpaper is a Dynamic Wallpapers picture or a Light & Dark Wallpapers picture:
|
Picture (or image name) | Choose an arrangement type from the pop-up menu when your wallpaper is a picture that you manually added (see “Add Folder” and “Add Photo Album” below). Options include Fill Screen, Fit to Screen, Stretch to Fill Screen, Center, and Tile. For some arrangement options, you can choose the color that appears around the picture. Some options may distort the picture. |
Change picture | Choose a time interval from the pop-up menu to specify how frequently wallpaper pictures and colors change when you set them to automatically cycle (see “Auto-Rotate,” below). Cycle through the pictures or colors in order, or select Randomly. This option may affect the performance of some apps, such as games, that use many graphics. |
Wallpaper selection thumbnails | Thumbnails are shown in categories, including Dynamic Wallpapers (images that change over the course of a day), Light & Dark Wallpapers, Colors, and folders and photo albums that you manually add (see “Add Folder” and “Add Photo Album,” below). For some pictures, you must click the download icon If your photos aren’t shown, they might not be in the expected file format—JPEG, PICT, TIFF, PNG, or HEIC. Use Preview to open your photos and save them in one of the supported formats. See Save PDFs and images in Preview. If your photos are shown but look fuzzy, try using larger ones, such as 1024 x 768-pixel photos. |
Colors | Choose a color as your desktop picture. |
Auto-Rotate | Select to cycle through the pictures in a folder or photo album, or through the colors. |
Add Folder | Choose an image from your computer as your desktop picture. Images from the selected folder are shown. |
Add Photo Album | Choose one of your photos as a desktop picture. Photos from the selected location are shown. |
while connected to the internet.