Vidwall Hub

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Vidwall Hub is a tool that allows you to easily import videos (mp4, mov) into the system wallpaper service and use them as lock screen animations in System Settings.

When trying to implement both dynamic wallpapers and dynamic lock screens through the Vidwall app, this feature could not be realized due to macOS sandbox restrictions. Therefore, I created a standalone version of the tested code and provide it for free, as a complement to Vidwall. Even when running independently and bypassing the sandbox, it still cannot directly set dynamic lock screens because macOS does not provide the related API. Vidwall Hub only imports videos into the system wallpaper service, and users need to complete the final application in the wallpaper options in System Settings.

URL Scheme

Vidwall Hub allows activating the tool via URL and automatically importing a video based on the file path parameter in the URL.

vidwallhub://open?file=/file/to/path/video.mp4

Lock Screen (macOS 26+)

Based on the current implementation, the lock screen import workflow of Vidwall Hub is as follows (user-level, no administrator privileges required):

1. Load system manifest: Read ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.wallpaper/aerials/manifest/entries.json.
2. Create Vidwall category (first time): If the Vidwall category does not exist, create a Vidwall Videos category and its subcategory.
3. Generate asset entries: Create an asset entry for each imported video and write it into entries.json.
4. Write thumbnails: Generate a PNG thumbnail from the first frame of the video and save it to ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.wallpaper/aerials/thumbnails/<UUID>.png.
5. Write video files:
   • .mov: Copy to ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.wallpaper/aerials/videos/<UUID>.mov
   • .mp4: Export to .mov using AVAssetExportPresetPassthrough, then write to the directory above
6. Refresh wallpaper services: Run
   killall Wallpaper WallpaperAgent WallpaperAerialsExtension WallpaperImageExtension WallpaperLegacyExtension
   to force the system to reload the resources immediately.

Resource usage notes:

• The import process incurs one-time file read/write operations and (for .mp4 only) container remuxing overhead.
• After import is complete, playback is handled by the system wallpaper-related processes. Vidwall Hub does not participate in rendering and does not continuously consume additional CPU or GPU resources.
• The application's responsibility is limited to managing entries.json and the associated media files (videos/thumbnails), including importing, updating, and deleting them.

macOS 15 is not supported yet

/Library/Application Support/com.apple.idleassetsd/Customer/4KSDR240FPS
/Library/Application Support/com.apple.idleassetsd/Customer/entries.json