Guide
Wallpaper that follows the day
macOS can do this on its own. Pick one of its dynamic wallpapers and set it to Dynamic, and it brightens and darkens with the sun where you are. For your own pictures, or a change at an exact time, there are a few more steps.
By Chris at Neon FrenchieUpdated Checked on macOS 27.0.1 on
Use a dynamic wallpaper
- Open System Settings, then Wallpaper. You may need to scroll the sidebar to find it.
- Under Dynamic Wallpapers, click a wallpaper. If it shows a download arrow, clicking it downloads the wallpaper first.
- In the menu next to the wallpaper’s name, choose Dynamic.
That menu has four choices, and two of them sound alike but work differently:
| What it does | |
|---|---|
| Dynamic | Brightens and darkens gradually through the day, following the time of day where you are. |
| Automatic | Switches between the light and dark picture when your Mac's appearance switches. It only changes if Appearance is set to Auto. |
| Light (Still) | Always shows the light picture. |
| Dark (Still) | Always shows the dark picture. |
Not every wallpaper has all four. Some only have a light and a dark version, so they can switch with your appearance but can’t follow the sun. On macOS 27, the ones that follow the sun include The Beach, The Cliffs, The Desert, The Lake, Big Sur, Catalina and Solar Gradients.
Let it follow your location
A dynamic wallpaper times itself to the sun where you are, so it needs to know roughly where that is. Make sure System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services is on. When it can use your location, Wallpaper settings describe the wallpaper as changing throughout the day based on your location.
Use your own pictures
Shuffle a folder or album
In Wallpaper settings, choose Add Photo…, then Choose Folder…, or pick an album, then set Shuffle to an interval: from every 5 seconds to every day, or on login or on wake. Turn on Randomly to mix the order. This changes the picture on a timer, not at a time of day.
Change at an exact time with Shortcuts
The Shortcuts app can run a personal automation at a time of day. Create one with the Time of Day trigger, add the Set Wallpaper action and choose a picture. Make one automation per change, for example a bright photo at 7 am and a dark one at 8 pm.
Make your own dynamic wallpaper
A dynamic wallpaper is a single HEIC file holding several pictures, each tagged with when to show it. There are three kinds:
- Solar: each picture is tagged with a position of the sun, so the timing follows your location and the season.
- Time: each picture is tagged with a clock time, the same wherever you are.
- Appearance: one light picture and one dark one, which switch with your Mac’s appearance.
Equinox makes all three from your photos. It’s free and open source, on the Mac App Store, and was updated for macOS 27 in September 2026. wallpapper does the same from the command line. Choose the finished file with Add Photo…, then Choose File….
Change the whole desktop on a schedule
Everything above changes the picture and nothing else. If you’d like the whole desktop to follow your day, MacScapes schedules switch between vibes at a set time, at sunrise or at sunset, with an offset of up to three hours either way and a choice of weekdays. A vibe carries the wallpaper, its palette, your widgets and an ambient sound, so a bright morning scene can give way to a dim, slow one after dark, with a cross-fade in between. Two rules are free.
MacScapes works out sunrise and sunset on your Mac. Location is optional; without it, the times are estimated from your time zone.