Start Up screen display

2015 MacBook Pro 13" with El Capitan.

I have a folder in My Documents with photos I use for my desktop screen. The photos are divided by category sub-folders, i.e., aviation, family, scenery, etc.

Prior to the issue I'm posting about, if I powered down the computer, when I did a "cold" start-up, the desktop photo would always be the specific one selected when the computer was shut down.

About two weeks ago, this changed so that a specific photo in the Apple Desktop photos is picked at start-up. Nice photo but I'd rather see a smiling photo of one of my grand children!

There's nothing that I changed that I'm aware of to cause this problem, but I'll admit to cases of prior "operator error" on my part.

What can I do so that the selected photo at shut down is the one used for start-up as it was before?

In advance, thanks.

I moved the photos I wanted to don this firey by copying the photos to iPhoto. Then in System Preferences > Desktop & ScreenSaver you can choose the preferred photo from the 'iPhoto' folder.

Having said that may depend on your operating system as the 24" iMac is getting on.

Go into System Preferences, then Desktop & Screen Saver. For Desktop, make sure the folder the images are in, that you want to use, is selected in the sidebar.

Still no luck no matter what I do.

Go into System Preferences, then Desktop & Screen Saver. Then select the Desktop tab and make sure that near the bottom "Change picture" doesn't have a check mark in it.

Pomeroy said:

Go into System Preferences, then Desktop & Screen Saver. Then select the Desktop tab and make sure that near the bottom "Change picture" doesn't have a check mark in it.

Click to expand...

No check mark selected. I'm aware of that feature and have never used it.

I have my drive partitioned with a small percentage (10%), set up for Windows 8. Even if I boot into Windows 8 from the MAC system, then leave Windows 8 when done, and go back to the MAC O/S, I still have the same picture. The computer does NOT get shut down in this process.

The picture changes ONLY when the computer has been shut completely down and then restarted from scratch.

I've experienced this but only after shutting down and re-starting following a software update.