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 | View the name of the current desktop picture and choose an appearance type from the pop-up menu when your wallpaper is a Dynamic Desktop picture or a Light & Dark Desktop 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 | Click a thumbnail to set your desktop picture. Thumbnails are shown in categories, including Dynamic Desktop (images that change over the course of a day), Light & Dark Desktop, 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 | Click a color to use as your desktop picture. Click the Add button |
Auto-Rotate | Select to cycle through the pictures in a folder or photo album, or through the colors. |
Add Folder | To use an image from a folder on your computer, click Add Folder, then select a folder. Once the folder is added, you can choose a picture from it. To remove a folder, move the pointer above the folder name until the Delete button |
Add Photo Album | To use an image from a photo album, click Add Photo Album, then choose Albums (all albums) or an individual album. Once the album is added, you can choose a picture from it. To remove an album, move the pointer above the album name until the Delete button |
while connected to the internet. If you decide not to use a downloaded picture and want to delete it from your Mac, Control-click the picture, then choose Remove Download.
to choose a color not shown.
appears, then click the button.