ScreenSleeves screensaver for Mac

Album cover artwork screensaver for MacOS

Version History

Recent changes

v6.10.6 Released December 2023

• Adds control to Preferences "No fade" which suppresses the fade transition between repositions or when track changes. This is 'per theme', If you switch between themes, you may have to set it for each theme you use.

v6.10.5 Released July 2022

• Adds support for Aurdirvana Origin and Audirvana Studio. (Previously, support was for the single Aurdirvana app).

v6.10.4 Released July 2021

• First version built as Universal Binary, runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Minimum support is now MacOS 10.12
• Restores 'fetch artwork from web' functionality (broken for a while because Gracenote service no longer avaiable)
• Alters the preferences a little. 'When no artwork is available' is a binary choice of nothing/default artwork. Adds new item 'Fetch from web:' which has the options 'never/when no artwork is probided by player/always.
• The 'always fetch from web' option is useful if the quality of your artwork in your player is not so good. The new 'fetch from web' functionality works well most of the time, and will fetch artwork at the size required for retina screens, so should always look sharp.

v6.10.3 Released April 2021

• Fixes communication problem with Audirvana (Audirvana Plus is now legacy and is no longer supported in Screensleeves, now simply called 'Aurdirvana'.)
• Fixes an issue that could result in SS remaining in idle mode with certain settings after one player has stopped and another started playing
• Removes Gracenote album title / cover art lookup because service is no longer available. No satisfactory replacement at this time. Option to find cover art from the web if no artwork available currently does nothing.

v6.10.2 Released January 2021

• Further work to the 'Keep static' setting

v6.10.1 Released January 2021

• 'Keep static' setting now always applies to the 'paused' text when the player is paused. (Be aware that using 'keep static' overrides SS's function as a screensaver, particularly if using full-screen mode and with 'prevent system screensaver when in full-screen mode' checked) Fixes a problem with wrong artwork being displayed when using Spotify and certain themes and when listening to an obscure album (caused by incorrectly always defaulting to Gracenote search under certain circs)

v6.10.0 Released July 2020

• Adds setting to hide floating window for a more screensaver experience.
• Fixes issue with displaying Preferences sheet which may have been a problem for users in the habit of closing the floating window

v6.9.0 Released July 2020

• Adds 'Responsiveness' slider to Behaviour tab of Preferences. The default value (just right of centre) should reduce the CPU time of Screensleeves and System Events while keeping SS's responsiveness to an acceptable level. Turning the slider up will increase the CPU usage and vice versa. Tuning the slider all the way down will reduce CPU use significantly (particularly when no music is playing) but SS will take a few seconds to respond if the music is changed, stopped or started.

v6.8.6 Released May 2020

• Tares system idle time. Fixes problems when using Screen Sharing to access the computer SS is running on.
• Adds theme, 'Colour effect 1'
• Small fix to window level, when 'keep on top' was off, floating window could sometimes remain on top when another app goes full-screen.

v6.8.5 Released December 2019

• About panel version number selectable
• Fixes issue where "0" displayed if release year switched on but no year available for the track being played.

v6.8.4 Released November 2019

• Adds custom About panel, tidies layout of Registration tab of Preferences.

v6.8.3 Released November 2019

• Fixes issue with left and right arrow keys not working properly (skip) with the new Music player.
• Fixes issue where Screensleeves could randomly stick on the previous track when the track changes in Music, iTunes and Spotify.
• Fixes issue with Quit menu item sometimes becoming disabled, making it difficult to quit the app.

v6.8.2 Released November 2019

• If SS is in full-screen mode and user interacts with the computer via iOS hand-off, previously SS remained in full-screen mode in its own space. Now handles as per other user interactions, ie reverts to floating window.

v6.8.1 Released October 2019

• A smoother experience due to some efficiency improvements and changes to timing
• Fixes most problems of music players failing to quit (this may still happen sometimes if the music player is quit while playing and SS is running)
• Some other UX improvements
• If music player is in a paused state and SS is displaying the paused track, and Preferences are accessed and OK'd, the artwork for the paused track is remembered.

v6.7.0 Released October 2019

• Clarifies the 'Behaviour' preferences that deal with what happens when music is paused. The checkbox that said "show artwork when music is paused" (which related to the user pausing the music via ScreenSleeves with the space bar) has been replaced by a popup button containing a number of options.
• The labels on that control and the one that used to say "When there is no player / music playing" have been clarified

v6.6.1 - v6.6.4 Released September-October 2019

• Various fixes related to support for new Music app

v6.6.0 Released August 2019

• Adds support for the forthcoming Music app
• Other improvements to behaviour, particularly concerning music being paused and resumed.

6.5.1 Released July 2019

• Fixes problem causing freeze or black screen after a random time if a player is running but not playing music.
• Adds Quit to the status menu which shows when the menu bar / dock icon are hidden

6.5.0 Released May 2019

• Adds option to remove dock icon and status bar. The checkbox in Preferences > Behaviour should take immediate effect and there should be a status bar menu when the dock icon / menu bar are hidden so that you still have access to the Preferences. (cmd-comma will work either way)
• App is notarized by Apple as from this version.

6.4.0 Released March 2019

• Adds option for Screensleeves to rotate multiple artwork images if available (iTunes only). If the option is off then only the primary image will be used, as before.

6.3.4

• Adds Audirvana Plus support (artwork, artist track title, album and progress bar all appear. Advanced information such as file kind, bit rate etc are missing because the current version of Audirvana Plus doesn't supply it)

6.3.3

• Fixes bug which caused a 'double-fade' when iTunes or Spotify track changed and progress bar visible
• Improves updating of progress bar time remaining/elapsed
• Improved efficiency. Previously high CPU usage may have been noted where multiple players were running but no music playing.

6.3.2

• Handles an exception experienced occasionally

6.3.1

• Clock now moves around the screen as it should (positioned as per hour hand)

6.3.0

• Adds a number of options to the 'Pro' tab - can display release year, date added, play count and last played date.
• Minimum system supported is now OSX 10.11 (El Capitan). Users of systems 10.8 - 10.10 should use version 6.2.0. Version 6.3+ *may* work on 10.8-10.10 if the date added and last played dates are not switched on, but this is not guaranteed.

6.2.0

• Adds option to display a clock, works like the screensaver clock, shows digital time, moves in a circle positioned where the hour hand would be. Only visible in full-screen mode
• When user pauses music with spacebar, the cover artwork for the paused song continues to be shown. (This does not apply if music is paused when SS is first started, because it doesn't know what the paused track is. )
• Fixes some jerkiness in some of the animations

6.1.1

• Fixes some options (automatically switch to full-screen etc) not working properly under some themes.

6.1.0

• Adds option for the auto-full-screen to only kick in after a period of inactivity *if* there's music playing
• Fixes the options under "When there is no music playing, show: " which were not all working properly

6.0.1

• Fixes cursor not re-appearing after exiting full-screen mode
• Prevents spurious mouse activity immediately after pressing the green window control (for full screen) from 'waking' Screensleeves back out of full-screen mode

6.0.0

• Built as a standalone app. The version number indicates continuity with the earlier true screensaver version
• Screensleeves works as before but within its own window which can be full-screen or any size and floating
• Able to switch to full-screen with the keyboard shortcut ctrl-cmd-F
• Able to simulate screensaver by:
  • switch to full-screen after a configurable period of user inactivity (Preference, "never" by default)
  • switch from full-screen to floating window after a keypress or mouse movement (excluding keys with a pre-defined use within Screensleeves) (Preference, off by default)
  • block system screensaver, screen sleep or computer sleep while in full-screen mode and as long as music is playing
  • Able to hide mouse pointer when in full screen mode (Preference, on by default)

5.4.1

• Hopefully fixes problem with lyric theme where white panel sometimes seen on the right-hand side.

5.4.0

• Adds support for Airfoil Satellite - Screensleeves can display track, artist, album, and artwork, and control the music (playpause, next / previous) when music is streaming to Airfoil Satellite from another device.

5.3.4 - released June 2017

• Adds new theme - 'Cover only' which displays artwork and no text. Included in free and pro versions. Has optional 3D effect and reflection, and other options such as size, static, centred.
• Fixes problem with artwork not being fetched properly from Spotify, was defaulting to web search if that option was switched on, or no artwork if not. Now correctly fetches from Spotify
• Fixes problem with overlapping text when album / artist / track name consist of chinese or japanese characters
• Fixes problem with image being cropped in Mosaic view
• 'Loved' is now default value (rather than star rating) in iTunes for new users - user's existing settings won't change
• Adds screen grab - if you've set a modifier on the Behaviour tab of Options (eg control) use that modifier with the S key to take a screen grab and save it to the desktop. So that you can take lots of lovely screen grabs of Screensleeves' themes and share them

5.3.2/3 - released June 2017

• Adds support for iTunes 'dislike' property. If using keyboard shortcuts within Screensleeves, the forward slash key '/' will set 'disliked' for the current track
• (if using the screensleeves broadcaster and iTunes, then you'll need to update that too in order to get the 'dislike' support. The broadcaster is included in the dmg with Screensleeves) (Pro version only)
• Adds 'time elapsed' to the options for the time showing on the progress bar
• Fixes problem with the time elapsed being truncated if hours come into play (eg audiobook)
• Fixes little glitch where progress bar would sometimes go off the left side of the screen with certain settings in Classic theme

5.3.1

• Fixes problem with Ambience theme on Retina screen (since 5.3) (Pro version only)

Version 5.3 - released Aug 2016

• Adds support for Hermes, the Pandora desktop client
• Fixes problem with lyrics (in lyric mosaic theme) sometimes missing the first letter of the first line

Version 5.2 - released April 2016

• Adds functionality for control keys (spacebar and arrows) to control music playing on another computer via the SS Broadcaster
• Important fix (pro version only) - Ambience theme's blurred background is now displayed as intended on retina screens

Version 5.1.1 - released April 2016

• Small fix which improves the reliability of listening for info when music is playing on another computer

Version 5.1 - released April 2016

• Adds new theme 'Ambience', an attractive theme, exclusive to the Pro version of Screensleeves
• The new theme uses a static coloured background (blurred, using colours from the album artwork) so care must be taken if the same artwork is to be displayed for a long time (audiobook, for example)

Version 5.0.1 - released April 2016

• Can display artwork and information for music playing on another mac (Pro version) and dmg includes free broadcaster utility which runs on any other mac on the network
• Restores support for OSX10.6. Unfortunately it's not been possible so far to include support for 10.6 in the broadcaster utility - that only runs on 10.7 up
• Improvement to fetching Spotify artwork
• Fixes problem of 'reflection' in classic theme appearing too small if the actual artwork is smaller than the required image size
• Includes the file kind / bit rate etc to the Lyrics Mosaic theme
• Classic style progress bar has thinner lines

Version 4.3.3 - released March 2016

• Fixes problem of Screensleeves showing Paused after user has paused the music and then re-started using a remote or another method other than the keyboard

Version 4.3.2 - released February 2016

• Fixes problem of Screensleeves web page showing after screensaver exit

Version 4.3.1 - released Jan 2016

• Fixes rating not showing when using Swinsian (since 4.3)
• Fixes potential crash of System Prefs when closing config panel in free version

Version 4.3 - released Jan 2016

• Adds support for iTunes 'loved' feature as an alternative to the rating. Choose this in the screensaver options. (Set loved the same way as rating, ie the keys 0-5 - 0,1,2 will 'unlove' and 3,4,5 will 'love' the track)
• If track is more than an hour (eg audiobook) then progress bar (total or remaining) displays hours:minutes:seconds (before just minutes:seconds)
• Fixes fullscreen 'Ken Burns' effect sometimes stopping before fading out when longer cycle time is set

Version 4.2.1 - released December 2015

• Small fix re multiple players running and Swinsian playing

Version 4.2 - released December 2015

• Adds support for Swinsian

Version 4.1.3 - released November 2015

• fixes issue with progress bar with Spotify

Version 4.1.2 - released October 2015

• fixes bitrate etc still showing after player paused with some themes
• increases max size of artwork with Apple TV theme

Version 4.1.1 - released August 2015

• fixes 'stuck options button' problem after installing Pro

Version 4.1 - released August 2015

• Now available as free version and Pro version. Pro version allows you to enter a key, and then gives you some extra options, such as switching the tour/ticket info on/off and adds the options to display bitrate, sample rate, file kind (all themes but when using iTunes only)
• Some updates to lyrics theme
• If option to black screen after x minutes is being used and has kicked in, then using a remote app to start playing (iTunes or Spotify) will re-activate Screensleeves

Version 4.0.2 - released July 2015

• Free app no longer asks for donation (though donations are still very welcome via peacockmedia.software/donate)

Version 4.0.1 - released July 2015

• Fixes problem of iTunes starting up without user intervention - this happened when 'show random artwork when music stops' option is used (the feature accesses the iTunes library). It will work as before if iTunes is running. If Spotify is being used but not iTunes then artwork for recently-played music is shown. If another player is being used and iTunes isn't running then this feature may appear not to work.

Version 4.0 - released June 2015

• 'Please support' message becomes tour / ticket information, shown if the artist is on tour. User can press the T key for ticket / tour information
• The tour / ticket feature is switchable, off by default for registered users, who can switch it on, and on by default for free users who need to register to be able to switch it off
• Default theme is now Apple TV

Version 3.9.7 - released May 2015

• Fixes bug related to Gracenote queries, affecting album title search (for internet radio) and album artwork search, only affecting recent new users (format of Gracenote ID assigned to the user has changed)

Version 3.9.4 - 3.9.6 - released May 2015

• Various improvements around fetching artwork from the web and working around Spotify's broken artwork provision

Version 3.9.3 - released April 2015

• Fixes a problem in Lyric theme when artist is a single word. Exception seen in the Console, but I don't think this has caused crashes

Version 3.9.2 - released April 2015

• further fix - 3.9 & 3.9.1 could hang when OK'ing Options sheet after selecting lyric theme with maximum values for font size and artwork size

Version 3.9.1 - released April 2015

• Fixes possible hang when using lyrics theme
• Recognises a change of track more quickly when listening to internet radio via iTunes or one of the other supported apps
• small improvements to lyrics theme

Version 3.9 - released March 2015

• Adds new theme 'Lyrics Mosaic'
• Adds slider to control panel for adjusting the fade/reposition time. Default is a little longer than the cycle used to be. Max is around a minute
• Removes asterisks from track name provided by Snowtape

Version 3.8 - released March 2015

• Adds support for Radium
• Note that in the current version of Spotify, 1.0.1.xx, it has its scripting support broken or removed, the Spotify helpdesk has a report of this problem and I'm hoping it is unintentional and temporary.

Version 3.7 - released January 2015

• Adds new theme, 'Apple TV' which is similar to classic but with no 3D effect, no reflection, always centred and with a new-style progress bar
• Splits 'Keep centred and static' switch into two switches - 'keep centred' and 'keep static'. (As with the other controls, they may be individually enabled / disabled or even linked as appropriate for the theme)
• Enables 'show rating' feature for full-screen mode
• Fixes small bug which caused the time remaining to randomly show or not

Version 3.6.2 - released December 2014

• Alters donation url to reflect the move to Paddle

Version 3.6.1 - released November 2014

• Adds support for Rdio (desktop app)
• Fixes small bug causing progress bar time remaining / total time to be missing under some circumstances

Version 3.6 - released October 2014

• Each theme stores its own settings, so for example you can set the artwork size to large for Classic theme and smaller for Full-screen theme
• When a theme is selected, irrelevant options are greyed out. For example, wIth the Text theme it makes no sense to show the Artwork size slider
• Note that when Random theme is selected, all of the theme-specific settings are greyed out because each theme has its own settings

Version 3.5.4 - released September 2014

• Further fix relating to 'hang' experienced by some users
• Minor adjustments relating to Yosemite

Version 3.5.3 - released September 2014

improvements to 'random artwork' feature:

• No longer caches recently played artwork, instead pulls random artwork from iTunes library
• the cache in previous versions could take significant disc space. On first run, this version clears that cache, freeing up the space
• previous caching may have been responsible for one or two cases of System Prefs or the Screensaver hanging
• If iTunes isn't running (ie if another player is running and paused) then it will be launched in order to access artwork. If you don't want this behaviour switch off 'Random artwork' in Screen Saver options / Behaviour / When music stops

Version 3.5.2 - released August 2014

• Adds support for Ecoute music player
• Fixes 'glitch' in full-screen mode when track changes or star rating is changed

Version 3.5.1 - released August 2014

• improvements to new Full-screen theme - fixes flickering on earlier systems (10.5 and 10.6), smoother fading and panning, more efficient (uses less cpu, fan less likely to cut in)
• alters some default settings (for new users) - by default Screensleeves will now show if a player is running but paused, by default random artwork is shown if no music is playing (after user has listened to some music and Screensleeves has accumulated a cache of artwork)
• small bug fix - clock could clash with info panel in full screen mode between 4 and 5 o'clock

Version 3.5 - released August 2014

• Adds Full Screen theme with Ken Burns effect (best with good-quality artwork in your library or being a distance from the screen)
• Adds Random theme, selects from the graphic themes (not plain text)
• Adds font size slider to options panel
• Reorganises the options panel, 'Keep centred and static' is moved to the 'Appearance' tab. It operates on Classic and Full-Screen themes
• Fixes some weird things happening in the System Prefs preview after switching themes
• Adds screen grab, a modifier key must be set in options, that modifier + S key saves a screen grab to the desktop
• Yosemite tested and supported

Version 3.4.7 - released June 2014

• Smoother fading in Mosaic theme
• If user pauses the music using spacebar or IR remote, current artwork will keep showing along with 'paused' message (because that is what will start to play if the user presses spacebar again). (Not possible with some remote apps.) As before, when the music reaches the end of a playlist, the user's choice of action will kick in, eg random artwork, default artwork, black screen etc)

Version 3.4.6 - released May 2014

• Improves drawing of progress bar, looks consistent on small and very large screens
• Improves 'show random artwork' when player(s) paused - not all recent artwork was being used

Version 3.4.5 - released April 2014

• Fixes problem under certain settings where progress bar time doesn't clear itself properly and numbers turn into blobs

Version 3.4.4 - released March 2014

• Adds support for iOS apps which control iTunes remotely (previously wasn't responding to play / pause from such apps)
• Improves 'show random artwork' when player(s) paused - fixes problems of images becoming repetitious and images sourced from the web not being used
• Fixes bug causing screensaver to fail when using Snowtape if some information isn't provided by the radio station playing

Version 3.4.3 - released March 2014

• Much improved album cover web search
• Fetches the album title from the web if not available from iTunes or if listening to a radio stream (iTunes radio or Snowtape, which don't usually provide the album title)

Version 3.4.2 - released March 2014

• Adds support for iTunes internet radio streams (album art can be found from the web if the 'find from web' option is turned on)
• Adds checkbox for ignoring the Apple Remote (taking control of the remote causes problems for users of certain other apps which take control of the Remote)
• Makes 'please support' message smaller and less bright
• User can press a key to find out how to remove the 'please support' message. After that, the same key ('S' for support) will take the user to the support page

Version 3.4.1 - released February 2014

• Some fixes relating to preferred player and spacebar for play / pause

Version 3.4 - released February 2014

• Adds support for Snowtape. Limited support as Snowtape doesn't provide album title or any kind of rating or popularity. a progress bar is by definition difficult and to date unsuccessful obtaining station name too
• Note that in Snowtape some stations don't provide track information and this obviously isn't a failing of Snowtape or Screensleeves
• Note that Snowtape doesn't always change the track information straight away when a new track starts, or will send the track information before the track changes. Screensleeves will respond to the information it's given
• Adds option to find album cover if not available in iTunes
• Adds option to always try to obtain album cover from web if using Snowtape. This is because the artwork provided by Snowtape is low resolution and can sometimes not be a great choice of cover. This depends on the style of music playing, try switching this control and see what works best for you

Version 3.3 - released November 2013

New features and fixes

• Choose what happens when music is paused or runs out (no artwork, default artwork, random artwork or black screen)
• (Random artwork feature uses images stored by Screensleeves, so you'll need to use SS for a while before this feature works properly)
• Option to switch to black screen X minutes after music is paused or runs out
• Adds some validation to options panel (hiding of buttons not relevant)
• Adds compatibility with forthcoming app Ambisleeves (Philips Hue bulb controller)
• Fixes bug causing display not to change immediately when track changes if progress bar not showing

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Version 3.2 - released October 2013

Improved experience

• generally smoother, fixes annoying glitch sometimes seen when cover is faded down
• some changes ready for Mavericks
• new icon, as the previous iTunes / Spotify one used copyright images

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version 3.1 released August 2013

More information

• Adds option to show track length with progress bar - either time remaining, total track length or neither

More flexible

• Adds option to keep display centred and static (only use if you're sure your screen is non-burnable) (Classic theme only)
• Adds support for Apple remotes - pause/play, volume up/down and skip to next/previous all work from remote. Previously using remote caused screensaver to quit which obviously no longer happens.
• Up and down arrow keys now adjust volume (volume keys on keyboard still work as before)

Small fixes and enhancements

• If you pause or the music runs out, you will continue to see artwork of song which was playing along with the 'paused' message rather than no artwork
• Fixes bug relating to pausing your non-preferred player. If paused, pressing play now continues the player which was playing rather than the preferred player
• Increases artwork size for classic theme, reduces it a little for the mosaic theme, text size reduced a little for the larger artwork sizes. Still all adjustable within sensible limits.

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version 3.0 released July 2013

Adds two new themes and adds a drop-down selection box to Options. Select from 'Classic', 'Text' or 'Mosaic'
Recognises change of track more quickly and changes display accordingly (with fade-down)
Tries to avoid placing the information where the text would clash with the clock (if displayed)
Adds field in Options for licence key, if no key is present, displays 'Please support ScreenSleeves' at bottom of screen

version 2.0.1 released May 2013

Fixes a couple of problems apparent in 2.0:
when starting on OSX 10.5
dialog asking for location of Spotify if Spotify not installed

version 2.0 released May 2013

Adds 3D rotated effect to album artwork, adjustable from flat to quite tilted
Adds progress bar for current playing track switchable on/off
To avoid rating being accidentally changed, adds option to require modifier key along with keys 1-5 to set rating
Keys 1-5 to set rating only work if rating displayed

version 1.1 released April 2013

Displays rating / popularity (optional)
Keys 1-5 set the rating if rating is showing and iTunes playing
Adds option to switch off default artwork image (ie display just text) if no artwork is available
Fixes problem of dialog appearing asking to locate Spotify if Spotify is not installed
Reflection of artwork is made slightly strongerIncreases frame rate slightly for smoother fading

version 1.0 released April 2013