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Thumbnails don't match the background when I try to change the desktop background

When I try to choose a photo from my Photos to put as my desktop background, the thumbnails I select are never the photo that shows up as the background. For example, if I have photos of a horse, a dog, and a cat, and I select the thumbnail image of the cat, the horse will show up as the background. I have tried to close and restart, as well as restart my computer. Any suggestions would be helpful. It's frustrating because I have thousands of photos, and I now just have a plain yellow background because I couldn't find any of the photos I was actually looking for.


Side note, when I attempt to choose from an "album", the contents of the album are also wrong.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 12:44 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 1:55 PM

Start with this of M1 Mac...


Start up a Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until the startup options window appears showing available startup disks and Options.

Select a startup disk.

Press and hold the Shift key, click Continue in Safe Mode, then release the Shift key.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac normally, without pressing and holding any keys during startup.



Start with this if IntelMac...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 29, 2021 1:55 PM in response to rayadverb

Start with this of M1 Mac...


Start up a Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until the startup options window appears showing available startup disks and Options.

Select a startup disk.

Press and hold the Shift key, click Continue in Safe Mode, then release the Shift key.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac normally, without pressing and holding any keys during startup.



Start with this if IntelMac...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


Thumbnails don't match the background when I try to change the desktop background

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