Quick Answer
Click the Apple logo at the top left of the screen, choose System Settings, scroll the sidebar to Wallpaper, and pick a design from the gallery. Dynamic Desktops change lighting throughout the day. Aerials are slow-motion flyovers that double as screensavers. To use your own photo, scroll to Add Photo near the bottom of the wallpaper panel and pick an image from your library.
On older macOS releases the panel is called Desktop and Screen Saver. The path is otherwise identical.
The configuration flow
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Apple logo at top-left, then System Settings |
| 2 | Sidebar, scroll to Wallpaper |
| 3 | Pick a style: Dynamic, Aerial, Light/Dark Still, Color, or Photo |
| 4 | Set the fit (Fill Screen is usually the right pick) |
Step 1: open System Settings
Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and choose System Settings. On macOS Sonoma and later this is the renamed System Preferences app, with a vertical sidebar of categories instead of the old icon grid.
Step 2: find the Wallpaper panel
In the sidebar, scroll down past Apple ID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and so on until you reach Wallpaper. It has a small landscape icon. Click it. The main area refreshes with a preview of your current desktop at the top and a gallery of categorized options below.
Step 3: pick the right style
macOS groups its built-in wallpapers into a few categories. Pick by what you want them to do:
- Dynamic Desktops. These shift in lighting through the day based on your system clock. A landscape might show sunrise at 6 am, full sun at noon, golden hour at 6 pm, and night after dark. Quietly satisfying for long workdays.
- Aerials. Slow-motion HD flyovers of cities and landscapes. They double as screensavers, so when your Mac sleeps the aerial keeps playing without restart.
- Landscape / Cityscape / Underwater / Earth. Static high-resolution photographs, available in a single Light and Dark pair so they match your system appearance setting.
- Colors. Solid backgrounds and gradients. The best choice if you find photographic wallpapers distracting during focused work.
Step 4: use your own photo
Scroll to the bottom of the Wallpaper panel to find Add Photo or Add Folder. Click Add Photo, navigate to a JPEG or PNG on your Mac, and choose it. The image becomes your background immediately.
Use the Fit dropdown to control how the image sizes to the screen:
- Fill Screen. The image scales to cover the whole display, cropping the edges if needed. Best for most photos.
- Fit to Screen. Letterbox bars appear if the image is the wrong aspect ratio. Best when you do not want any crop.
- Stretch to Fill Screen. Distorts the image to cover. Almost never the right pick.
- Center. Original size, centered on the desktop. Best for small graphics like a logo.
- Tile. Repeats the image. Useful for repeating patterns only.
Rotate a folder of photos automatically
Instead of one image, pick Add Folder and select a folder of photos. macOS will rotate through them on a schedule you set: every 15 minutes, every hour, every day, or only when waking from sleep. This is a quick way to surface family photos or travel shots without manually swapping them. Tick the Random order box if you want the order shuffled.
Multiple displays
If your Mac is connected to an external monitor, the Wallpaper panel shows a small preview for each display. Click the one you want to change and pick a wallpaper independently. The same Apple-supplied Aerials and Dynamic Desktops work across all connected displays, which makes a multi-monitor setup feel coherent.
Lock screen and screen saver, briefly
The wallpaper panel sets the active desktop. The Lock Screen panel (separate sidebar entry) controls what shows when the Mac is locked. The Screen Saver panel handles what plays after idle time. All three can be set independently, but if you pick an Aerial as your wallpaper, macOS will offer to use the same motion as your screen saver, which is the cleanest setup.
The takeaway
Apple menu, System Settings, Wallpaper. Pick a Dynamic Desktop if you want subtle motion through the day, an Aerial if you want cinematic flyovers that double as a screen saver, or your own photo set to Fill Screen if you want something personal. Add a folder for automatic rotation and the desktop stops feeling stale.
