How to set a video as your live wallpaper on a Mac
Works on macOS 26 (Tahoe) · Apple Silicon & Intel · Free · No subscription
To set a video as your live wallpaper on a Mac you need a small app that plays it natively, because macOS has no built-in option for it. Loopaper is a native macOS menu-bar app that does exactly this: drag any video onto it and your desktop comes alive on every display, looping and muted, while it quietly sips power. Here is the whole process.
What you need
- A Mac running a current macOS (Tahoe-era / macOS 26), on Apple Silicon or Intel.
- A video to use — an
.mp4or.movworks best, but GIFs, Live Photos, and images are fine too. - Loopaper, the app that turns the video into a live wallpaper. It is free, with every feature unlocked.
Set a video as your Mac wallpaper in three steps
- Drop a video onto Loopaper. Drag any video file onto the Loopaper icon in your Mac's menu bar. There's no HTML wrapper to write and no file:// URL to paste — the clip becomes your live wallpaper immediately, looping and muted, on every display.
- Set Fill or Fit for each display. Loopaper fills every connected display on its own. Open the Loopaper window to choose Fill or Fit per screen, assign a different clip to each monitor, or turn it off on one display to keep your normal macOS wallpaper there.
- Let it save power automatically. Loopaper plays through native hardware decode and pauses on its own when the wallpaper is covered, when you're on battery, under thermal pressure, when the Mac is locked, or when the screen saver runs — so it stays light without any tuning.
Put a different video on each display
Loopaper appears on every connected screen automatically and handles plugging or unplugging a monitor on its own. Open the Loopaper window to give each display its own clip, set Fill or Fit per screen, or turn the live wallpaper off on one display so your normal macOS wallpaper stays there. You can also rotate through a playlist or change the wallpaper by time of day with a schedule.
Will a live wallpaper drain my battery?
Not with a native app. The old trick runs a whole web browser just to play one clip, which keeps the GPU busy all the time. Loopaper instead plays through native hardware decode (AVFoundation / VideoToolbox), shares a single decoder across displays, and pauses or tears down playback the moment nobody is looking — when the wallpaper is covered, when you are on battery, under thermal pressure, when the Mac is locked, or when the screen saver runs. It is also tuned never to block display sleep.
Frequently asked questions
Does macOS have a built-in way to set a video as wallpaper?
No. macOS ships dynamic and aerial wallpapers, but there's no built-in way to use your own video as the desktop wallpaper. Loopaper adds exactly that: drop in any clip and it loops on your desktop across every display.
Can I set a video wallpaper on a Mac for free?
Yes. Loopaper is free with every feature unlocked, including multi-display, playlists, and schedules. An optional one-time "lifetime unlock" removes a small watermark — there's no subscription and no trial timer.
What video format works best for a Mac live wallpaper?
An H.264 or HEVC .mp4 or .mov clip is ideal, but Loopaper also accepts GIFs, Live Photos, and images. Heavier or awkwardly-encoded videos are normalized on import (30 fps, short GOP) so they loop smoothly without judder.
Does a video wallpaper slow down or drain a Mac?
Not with a native app. Loopaper uses hardware video decode rather than a browser engine, shares one decoder across displays, and pauses automatically when the wallpaper is covered, on battery, hot, locked, or idle — and it never blocks display sleep.
Download and the one-time lifetime unlock are coming soon to the Mac App Store.