How to Change the Lock Screen and Login Screen Wallpaper on Your Mac

This guide shows you how to customize your Mac’s lock screen and login screen wallpaper in macOS Ventura, including steps to set different images as your desktop background and lock screen.

Your Mac has 6 screens

Buckle up because this can get a little confusing, however we will do our best to sort it out and make it as clear as possible.

1. Loading screen

You see this screen after turning on your Mac. The wallpaper here cannot be changed. The official macOS wallpaper is displayed as the background, and since my Mac is running macOS Ventura, an orange and blue wallpaper is displayed. If you have multiple users on your Mac, you select a user here and proceed to Screen 2 below.

2. Load the login screen

This is what you see after restarting your Mac and selecting a user (or if your Mac only has one user, you see it directly). This shows the official macOS wallpaper and cannot be changed until one user is logged in (point 6 below).

3. Desktop

This is what you see when you are inside your Mac. Of course, the wallpaper here can be changed to anything.

4. Lock screen

You see this screen after signing in and locking your screen (Apple icon  > Lock Screen). The wallpapers here are the same as on the desktop, and they can be changed.

5. User switch screen

This is what you see after you sign in and out (Apple icon  > Sign Out Name > Sign Out). The background here cannot be changed and shows the default macOS wallpaper.

6. User login screen

You see this after logging in and logging out and selecting a user on the switch users screen. In other words, when you select a user on the user switching screen (point 5 above), you are taken to the login screen. Wallpaper can be changed here.

Change Lock Screen Background on Mac

Your Mac uses the same image you use as your desktop wallpaper for your lock screen background. Here’s how to do it:

1) Click the Apple icon  and select System Preferences in macOS Ventura or later.

2) Select Wallpaper.

3) From here:

• To use the default Apple wallpaper, explore the options under Dynamic Desktop, Light and Dark Desktop, Desktop Images, and Colors.
• To use an image from a Finder folder, such as Downloads, click the Add Folder button, select a folder in the left sidebar, and click Select.
• And to use images from the Photos app, tap Add Photo Album and select one.

4) Finally, choose the wallpaper you like and it will become the background for your Mac’s desktop and lock screen.

To check, click the Apple icon  in the upper left corner and select Lock screen. Immediately you will see that the image you chose in step 4 above is your new lock screen background.

Use different wallpapers for your lock screen and desktop

The steps below do not work in the latest version of macOS Ventura for changing the lock screen (but they do work for changing the login screen – explained below). I have tried them repeatedly on my M2 Mac mini with only one user account and on my M1 MacBook Pro with three user accounts with no success.

However, if you’re using an older version of macOS, you can use the following steps to set different backgrounds for your Mac’s lock screen and desktop:

Step 1. Get the dimensions of the original lock screen wallpaper.

1) Go to your desktop or Finder and on the top menu bar, click Go > Go to Folder. Enter /Library/Cachesand press the enter key.

2) Now open Desktop Pictures and enter the long random numbers folder. Here you will find the lockscreen.png image. Copy this file and paste it in any other folder, such as Downloads, or on your desktop.

Additional information: This folder, named by huge random numbers, has the same name as the UUID of this user account. To see the UUID go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > right click on the account name > Advanced Options and you will see the UUID for that user.

3) Select the lockscreen.png image and press Command + I to view file information.

4) Click the tiny arrow for more information and note the dimensions of the lock screen image. In my case it is 3840×2160.

Note. If you don’t see the dimensions, go to the “Sharing and Permissions”section at the bottom of the “Info”screen and allow “Read and Write”for everyone. Then close the Info screen and open it again.

Step 2: Prepare your lock screen wallpaper

1) Make sure you have the image you want to use as your lock screen wallpaper in your Finder folder.

2) Adjust the image size using the preview or a site like ILoveImg.com according to the dimensions you provided in step 4 above (3840 x 2160 in our case).

3) After that, make sure the image is in PNG format. If not, you can easily convert it to PNG using ILoveImg.com.

4) Next, rename the image to lockscreen.

Step 3: Replace the lock screen image with your own.

1) Follow the initial steps again to navigate to the Desktop Pictures folder. From there, click on the folder name with a long sequence of numbers.

2) Now drag the created lock screen image to this folder and click “Replace”.

Step 4Restart your Mac

You’re done, now restart your Mac, and after that, when you click the Apple icon  > Lock Screen, you’ll see the image you set as your lock screen with a different desktop background.

Note. If you change your desktop background, it will overwrite your custom lock screen wallpaper and you will have to follow the above steps again!

Change user login screen wallpaper

This works on all Macs, including those running macOS Ventura or later.

1. Follow all four basic steps above to change your lock screen background.
2. Go to the Desktop Pictures folder, right-click on the huge random numbers folder, and select Get Info.
3. Click the Sharing and Permissions arrow.
4. Now click the dropdown menu next to All and Other Names and set it to Read & Write. If you can’t, click the padlock icon first to authenticate.

You have successfully changed the login screen background for a user. To see this new background image, click the Apple icon  > Log out of current user > Log out and select the user whose login screen you changed. You will now see a customized image behind the screen showing the user account name, photo, and password field.

More lock screen settings on Mac

In addition to the wallpaper, you can also change your account profile picture and add a message to your lock screen to make your Mac truly yours.