Wells Code

Aurora

A new wallpaper every day

Let your Mac change its desktop picture by itself, or use Shortcuts for a new Lock Screen each morning.

Aurora on iPhone, iPad and MacUpdated 14 October 2026

Aurora can put up a new wallpaper without you opening it: a fresh surprise, or one from a collection.

On a Mac

The quickest way is from the menu bar: click Aurora’s item, choose a collection, Presets or Surprises, and set Change Picture to Every Hour or Every Day. See Aurora in the menu bar.

Or, in Aurora’s window:

  1. Open Settings › Export.
  2. Under Change Desktop Picture, set Change Picture to Every Hour or Every Day.
  3. Under Using, choose New Surprises or one of your collections.

Change Now puts up the next one straight away. A daily change happens at the first chance after midnight.

Aurora changes the picture while it is running. When you close its window it stays in the menu bar, so the changes carry on. To keep them going after a restart, turn on Open at Login in Settings › General.

A collection can also be set from its gallery: with nothing selected, Change Desktop Every Day appears beside it.

With Shortcuts

Aurora adds two actions to the Shortcuts app:

  • Get Aurora Wallpaper gives a wallpaper the size of the device: a surprise, in a style you choose or any, or one from a collection, in light or dark.
  • Set Aurora Desktop Picture, on a Mac, makes one the desktop picture on every display.

For a new Lock Screen every morning on iPhone or iPad:

  1. In Shortcuts, open Automation and create a Time of Day automation.
  2. Add Get Aurora Wallpaper, then the system’s Set Wallpaper action.
  3. Turn on Run Immediately.

On iPhone and iPad, open Aurora now and then

iOS does not let apps draw in the background, so Aurora gets wallpapers ready whenever you open it: everything you have saved, and a few surprises in every style. An automation uses those. If you have not opened Aurora for a while, the surprises come round again in turn, so open it from time to time for new ones.

If an automation says Aurora needs opening first, open it once and run the automation again.

Aurora in the menu bar Change your Mac’s desktop picture from the menu bar, without opening Aurora’s window. Use a wallpaper on each device Set the desktop picture on a Mac, or save a light and a dark picture to Photos on iPhone and iPad. Collections and the library Save wallpapers into collections, select several at once, and pass designs to someone else as an Aurora file.