How to change wallpaper on Mac

How to change the wallpaper in System Settings

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings and click Wallpaper in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.

2. Click a picture in one of the groups: Dynamic Wallpapers, Your Photos, the aerials (Landscape, Cityscape, Underwater, Earth), Shuffle Aerials, Pictures or Colors.
3. Check the options next to the wallpaper’s name at the top of the window. They depend on the wallpaper: light or dark look, how often pictures change, a slow-motion aerial for the screen saver.

The new wallpaper appears at once. There is nothing to save.

How to set your own photo as wallpaper

1. In System Settings › Wallpaper, scroll down to Your Photos and click Add Photo.
2. Choose Choose File for one picture, Choose Folder for a folder of pictures, or Choose from Photos for a photo from your Photos library. Then click Open.
3. Click the added picture or folder to make it the wallpaper.

You can also drag an image file onto the thumbnail at the top of Wallpaper settings. Three quicker ways skip System Settings:

• Finder: Control-click an image file (or right-click it) and choose Set Desktop Picture.
• Photos: select a photo, click the Share button in the toolbar and choose Set Wallpaper.
• Safari: Control-click a picture on a web page and choose Use Image as Desktop Wallpaper.

For your own picture, the options at the top of Wallpaper settings set how it fills the screen. For a folder or an album, they let you shuffle its pictures.

Dynamic wallpapers, aerials and the screen saver

Dynamic Wallpapers get lighter and darker with the time of day where you are. Next to the name you can choose Automatic, Dynamic, or a still Light or Dark version.

The aerials are moving landscapes, cities, underwater and Earth views. They play when you lock or unlock the Mac, and by default the aerial you choose is also your screen saver. To pick a different screen saver or change when it starts, click Screen Saver in the same Wallpaper settings.

Wallpaper on several displays and desktops

If you connect more than one display or use several desktop spaces, look at the Show on all Spaces switch near the thumbnail at the top. Turned on, the same wallpaper appears on every display and every desktop. Turned off, they can each have their own.

How to remove a picture you added

In System Settings › Wallpaper, hold the pointer over the photo, folder or album in Your Photos and click the remove button that appears. The file itself stays where it was. A picture can’t be removed while it is the current wallpaper, so choose another one first.