Multi-monitor screensaver for Mac

A Mac with one screen is increasingly the exception. A laptop with two externals, a Mac mini behind a desk of monitors, a studio machine with a reference display off to one side — once there is more than one panel, an idle desk full of dark rectangles is a lot of wasted surface for a photo archive to be hiding from.

Memory Screen Saver Plus covers connected displays with independent timing, so each screen runs its own rotation rather than all of them flipping together. Before setting it up, though, there is one thing about macOS worth knowing up front — it works differently here than on Windows.

How idle mode works on macOS

On Windows the app registers as a classic .scr screensaver. On Mac it does not. The install script registers a login-item idle agent, which watches for idle time and launches the slideshow when you step away. This release does not appear as a native screen saver in System Settings.

That matters practically: you turn it on by running the install script and allowing the login item, not by picking it from the System Settings screen saver list — where it will not be listed. If nothing happens when you step away, that agent is the first thing to check.

Every connected display, on its own schedule

Independent timing is the part that makes a multi-display setup worth doing at all. Screens changing in unison read as one large slideshow chopped into pieces; screens changing on their own schedules read as several photographs that happen to share a desk. The second is much better to sit next to for eight hours.

If you would rather not take over the whole desk, Live Presentation Mode can target selected monitors instead — dedicating one display to photos while the others are left completely alone. That works the same on macOS as on Windows.

Apple Silicon or Intel — and why it matters here

There are two Mac builds, and the difference is not just architecture. The Apple Silicon archive is a native arm64 build: photos, Soft Effects and Presentation Mode all work. Bundled video for arm64 is not ready yet.

The Intel archive is x64 with video bundled, and it also runs on Apple Silicon through Rosetta. So the choice is really about video: if you want clips in the rotation on an M-series Mac today, take the Intel archive and run it under Rosetta. If your library is stills, the native arm64 build is the better fit.

Not sure which chip you have? Apple menu → About This Mac shows Chip on Apple Silicon and Processor on Intel.

Set it up across your displays

1. Pick the right archive

   Choose Apple Silicon or Intel per the section above. Full download and extraction detail is in the Mac install guide.

2. Run the install script

   Running install.sh places the app and registers the login-item idle agent. This is the step that makes the screensaver happen at all on macOS — skipping it leaves you with an app you can launch manually and nothing that starts on idle.

3. Add your folders

   Open Settings, add your local media folders on the Media Files tab, and turn on Include subfolders if your library is organized by year or event.

4. Confirm it across the displays

   Wait out the idle period and check that every connected screen picks up its own rotation. If one display stays dark, that is the thing to investigate — not the app as a whole.

The rest works the same as on Windows

Beyond idle behaviour and the video caveat, macOS is not a reduced version. Soft Effects with Ken Burns motion and all eight collage layouts, 29 transition effects, filename overlays, picture frames, random or sequential order, and per-frame playback history all behave the same way.

Local folders, nothing uploaded

The app reads the folders you point it at on your own Mac. Nothing is uploaded, streamed, or sent anywhere, and after install it needs no internet connection — no account, no cloud.

If nothing happens when you step away

• Check the login item. Confirm the agent is allowed and that install.sh actually completed. This is by far the most common cause.
• Do not look in System Settings. The app is deliberately not a native screen saver in this release, so its absence from that list is expected rather than a fault.
• Read the log. Settings → Log, with the file under ~/Library/Logs on the Mac running the app.

Download for Mac