macOS Tahoe: MacBook Air custom wallpaper upside down

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Level 1

5 points

macOS Tahoe: MacBook Air custom wallpaper upside down

I just updated my 2025 MacBook Air to macOS Tahoe 26.3.

Now, desktop wallpaper has turned upside down. It only happens with my own photos, any of the provided wallpaper categories still have the right orientation. I have tried different photos, tried choosing them from Photos and from File. Changing the orientation of the photos and rotating them 180° also doesn't help. When I choose photos I have rotated from Photos or File, they get turned back by Wallpaper, and show up upside down again when choosing them as a Wallpaper.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.3

Posted on Feb 15, 2026 5:09 AM

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Answer 1

CT

Level 7

24,351 points

Feb 15, 2026 6:57 AM in response to LB_1

Maybe this:

MacBook Air wallpaper rotated 90 degrees - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Top-ranking reply

Owl-53

Level 10

110,175 points

Feb 15, 2026 7:30 AM in response to LB_1

Open the photo in Preview application

Rotate it until it looks correct

Go to File >>Export

Choose a different file format like .png and High Quality

Important >> Save as a new file

Then set that exported file as wallpaper.

This rewrites the image without problematic orientation metadata.

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Answer 3

LB_1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 15, 2026 7:34 AM in response to CT

Thanks! Tried it just now and it worked, even though that's exactly what I already tried before.

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Answer 4

Mar 4, 2026 10:23 PM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for this, but it doesn't address the problem when you have over 30,000 photos, a great number of which are upside down. It is a bug in Tahoe. There are no other applications, my phone, my ipad, Google photos, Apple Photos, which display the image upside down - just wall paper.

I was most disappointed that the latest update does not fix the problem

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Answer 5

Owl-53

Level 10

110,175 points

Mar 5, 2026 1:31 AM in response to gregfromwest pennant hills

gregfromwest pennant hills wrote:

Thanks for this, but it doesn't address the problem when you have over 30,000 photos, a great number of which are upside down. It is a bug in Tahoe. There are no other applications, my phone, my ipad, Google photos, Apple Photos, which display the image upside down - just wall paper.

I was most disappointed that the latest update does not fix the problem

CREDIT to my Colleague @leroydouglas

Quote " There are some known bugs yes.

Duplicate your photos move them to a new folder— different from where they are located now and compare your results.

If necessary rotate the images in the new folder to get them to appear in your in wallpaper oriented correctly...

Command R will rotate an image

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple "

END QUOTE

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Answer 6

Owl-53

Level 10

110,175 points

Mar 5, 2026 2:06 AM in response to gregfromwest pennant hills

Heads up

There was a Tahoe 26.3.1 update released Wednesday Mar 4, 2026

From reports I have read, this current issue " which are upside down " is still not fixed

Hopefully and presuming Tahoe 26.4 is the next update

We will have to cross our fingers and hope that will fix matters

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