Driftwood

Native live wallpapers for macOS. Local files only, no cloud catalog, free and open source.

Driftwood lives in the menu bar and plays video or Metal wallpapers on your desktop and Lock Screen. Import your own files, assign them per display, and keep everything offline on your Mac.

Download

Download Driftwood for macOS

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Driftwood requires macOS 26.0 or later.

Features

• Native live wallpapers: make Driftwood your macOS wallpaper, including Lock Screen support
• Your files, kept local: import .mp4, .mov, or .driftwoodscene files without sending them to a cloud service
• One wallpaper per display: use a different wallpaper on every monitor
• Playlists: group wallpapers, choose how long they stay up, and play or shuffle them on selected displays; rotation continues after you quit Driftwood
• Smooth transitions: wallpapers crossfade over one second when you switch
• Simple controls: browse your library, favorite wallpapers, pause, skip, switch displays, and change playback speed
• Energy-aware playback: optionally pause on battery, in fullscreen apps, or when CPU usage is high
• Menu bar app: keep Driftwood out of your Dock and launch it at login if you want

Wallpapers are silent. Driftwood never plays audio.

Using Driftwood

1. Download the DMG above, open it, and drag Driftwood to Applications.
2. Launch Driftwood. It appears in the menu bar.
3. Open the main window from the status item (Open Driftwood).
4. In My Media, add wallpapers with the button, ⌘O, or drag and drop.
5. Apply a wallpaper to one or more displays.
6. In Playlists, group wallpapers, set how long each one shows, then press Play or Shuffle.

Imported media is stored on your Mac under ~/Library/Application Support/Driftwood/.

Metal scenes

Driftwood also supports procedural Metal wallpapers packaged as .driftwoodscene folders. The bundled 2D Clouds scene is a complete example for anyone who wants to make their own.

Contributing

Development setup, build commands, release instructions, architecture notes, and the .driftwoodscene package format are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Bug reports and feature ideas are welcome in the GitHub issue tracker.

License

MIT. See LICENSE. Third-party notices are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.