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How to change the wallpaper on your Chromebook: A step by step guide

Changing your Chromebook wallpaper adds a personal touch to your device. Here's how to do it.
By
October 23, 2023

One of the first things to do when you get a new Chromebook is to customize it by changing the wallpaper. It’s so easy anyone could do it — and it only takes a minute or two. You can either use a custom Chromebook wallpaper or opt for one of the wallpapers already available on the device.

QUICK ANSWER

The simplest way to change the Chromebook wallpaper is to use the Files app to navigate to the image you want to use, right-click on the image, and select Set wallpaper.


JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS

Editor’s note: We used an ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX34 Flip running Chrome OS version 117.0.5938.157 to formulate these instructions. Remember some steps and menus may be slightly different depending on your hardware and software version.

How to set a custom Chromebook wallpaper

ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX34 Flip review 4
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

The first step is to ensure the image you want to use as your wallpaper is saved on the device. Find a great wallpaper online and download it to your Chromebook if it’s not. Once that’s sorted out, you can follow these steps to change the wallpaper.

  1. Download an image you want to use from the web.
  2. Click the circular Launcher icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  3. Click the up arrow.
  4. Find and open Files.
  5. Click Downloads and locate the image you want to use as your Chromebook wallpaper.
  6. Right-click the image and select the Set wallpaper option.
How to set a custom Chromebook wallpaper (1)

Go with a pre-installed Chromebook wallpaper

Choosing a pre-installed wallpaper is even easier and faster than opting for a custom one. Chromebooks come with a few pre-loaded images.

  1. Right-click anywhere on your desktop.
  2. Select Set wallpaper & Style. You can also launch this menu by going to Settings > Personalization > Set your wallpaper & style.
  3. Click on the wallpaper or the arrow in the Wallpaper box.
  4. Go through the folders and pick the wallpaper you wish to use.

By the way, you can also use this method to install downloaded wallpapers. There is a My Images option in the wallpaper folders. You can even access your Google Photos gallery.

Sync your wallpaper across devices

You can sync your wallpaper (and settings) across multiple Chrome OS devices. This will ensure you already have your wallpaper whenever you log into another Google device using your Google account.

  1. Select the Time/account section in the bottom-right corner.
  2. Select the gear icon to enter the Settings app. You can also find it in your app list.
  3. Go into the Accounts tab.
  4. Select Sync and Google services.
  5. Choose Manage what you sync.
  6. Select what you want to sync, including Wallpaper, or pick Sync everything.

FAQs

This shouldn’t be happening, but some users are experiencing issues with the wallpaper turning black. It is usually associated with one of two things: grayscale mode or dark mode. You can learn all about Chrome OS dark mode here. If you want to control color, go to Settings > Accessibility and toggle Color correction on. Click on the Filter drop-down menu and select anything other than Grayscale.

You should be able to use any image as a wallpaper on Chrome OS, as long as the image file format is supported. Google mentions Chrome OS supports JPEG and PNG photo files.

You can also change your screensaver on a Chromebook. Just go to Settings > Personalization > Set your wallpaper & style > Screen saver, and select your screen saver.