Wallpaper Wizard 2 is gone. Here's what to use instead
Last updated: 29 July 2026 · details checked against MacPaw's own notice and current App Store listings
MacPaw sunset Wallpaper Wizard 2 on 23 March 2026. The app and its legacy versions are no longer accessible, and collections had to be exported before that date. If you're here looking for a replacement, there are two sensible directions — and MacPaw itself recommends one of them.
MacPaw's own suggestion was 24 Hour Wallpaper on Setapp. It's a good app and a fair recommendation. We'll tell you where it differs from Wizard, where it differs from us, and let you pick — including the case where you shouldn't pick Chronoscape.
What Wizard actually did, and why the replacements feel different
Wallpaper Wizard was a library app: a large hand-picked collection of still wallpapers you browsed, favourited and shuffled, with playlists to rotate them. The pleasure of it was variety and curation — someone had picked good images, and you got a different one whenever you fancied.
Almost nothing being recommended as a replacement works that way. The apps that have taken its place are dynamic apps: fewer images, each changing through the day. That's a different pleasure, and worth knowing before you feel let down by it.
The options, side by side
| Wallpaper Wizard 2 | 24 Hour Wallpaper | Chronoscape | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still available | No — sunset 23 Mar 2026 | Yes | Launching soon |
| Big browsable library | Yes — its whole point | 100+ locations | Small and curated |
| Changes through the day | No — static images | Yes | Yes |
| Follows your local sunrise / sunset | No | Yes | Yes |
| Follows current weather | No | No | Yes |
| Shuffle / playlists | Yes | Per-wallpaper | Optional rotation timer |
| Price | Was one-time / Setapp | Free with 8 · $1.49 each · lifetime $29.99 or $69.99 · Setapp | Not announced yet |
| macOS required | — | macOS 15 or later | macOS 14 or later |
If you mostly miss the variety
Then a dynamic wallpaper app isn't really your replacement, and you should know that before you pay for one. Unsplash Wallpapers is free and pulls from an enormous photo catalogue — closest in spirit to browsing and shuffling, though without Wizard's curation or its attention to resolution and fit. Failing that, the collections you exported before March are still just image files, and macOS will happily rotate a folder of them.
If you'd rather have something better than variety
The reason Wizard eventually got boring for a lot of people is that it was still a static picture — a nicer one, shuffled more often. Both apps replacing it fix that, in different degrees:
- 24 Hour Wallpaper — photographs of real locations that move through the day, following the sun times where you are. MacPaw's recommendation, on Setapp or the App Store. Needs macOS 15.
- Chronoscape — one place per scene, rendered in every light and every weather. It reads the current conditions and matches them, so the desktop is grey when it's grey out and clear when it clears. Runs on macOS 14.
The honest split: 24 Hour Wallpaper has photography and a bigger library and you can install it right now. Chronoscape adds the weather, and doesn't exist yet.
Want to know when it's out?
One email, the day Chronoscape is released. Nothing else, ever.
Tell me when it's outQuestions
- What happened to Wallpaper Wizard 2?
- MacPaw discontinued it. The app was sunset on 23 March 2026, after which neither it nor any legacy version remains accessible. Users were asked to download their wallpaper collections before that date, and MacPaw said personal data would be removed within 180 days of the sunset.
- Which alternative does MacPaw recommend?
- MacPaw pointed users to 24 Hour Wallpaper, available on Setapp, describing it as offering dynamic time-aware backgrounds. It is a reasonable suggestion and a good app, though it works differently from Wizard: it changes one scene through the day rather than shuffling a large library of stills.
- Can I still get my Wallpaper Wizard collections back?
- Not through the app. MacPaw's notice said collections had to be downloaded before the 23 March 2026 sunset and would not be available afterwards. If you exported them at the time, the image files are still yours to use as ordinary wallpapers.
- Is there an alternative that shuffles a big library like Wizard did?
- Unsplash Wallpapers is free and draws on an enormous photo catalogue, which is the closest thing in spirit to Wizard's browse-and-shuffle approach, though it does not curate for resolution or fit the way Wizard did. Chronoscape takes the opposite approach: a small curated set of scenes, each rendered in every light and weather state.
Other comparisons
All of them on one page: Chronoscape compared with every Mac wallpaper app. Or go straight to Chronoscape next to 24 Hour Wallpaper · Wallpaper Engine · Backdrop.
Wallpaper Wizard, MacPaw, Setapp, 24 Hour Wallpaper and Unsplash are products of their respective owners and are not affiliated with Chronoscape or Elqoo. Details here were taken from MacPaw's sunset notice and public App Store listings on 29 July 2026 and may have changed since.