Airport Lounge
Magic Window Air Support

Thank you for flying with Magic Window Air. We are sorry if you have had an issue with the app - we are happy to help you solve it. The Airport Lounge is where we provide support for Magic Window Air on Mac. Here you will find answers to all common questions and issues that we are aware of. The lounge is divided into five terminals - you can jump directly to them from the links below. This page covers Version 3 - for older versions click here.

Issues with macOS Sonoma: Please update Magic Window Air to version 3.1.2 before updating to macOS Sonoma. It contains fixes required to workaround Sonoma bugs. If you update to 3.1.2 and still see a message about updating, restart your Mac. To update, open the Setapp app, and on the menubar select Setapp->Check for Updates. If nothing is shown you have the latest. For more information about Sonoma see the new section below.

Magic Window Air is fully compatible with macOS Ventura and Apple Silicon.

If what you are looking for isn’t here, please fill out the MWA Support Request Form and we will get back to you within 24 hours. Thank you for your patience and have a good day!

Magic Window Air has been updated to version 3.1.2 which fixes compatibility issues with macOS Sonoma. Please be sure you are running 3.1 or later before upgrading to Sonoma. You can check what version you are running by opening the airport from the menubar and clicking the “I” button. To update the app, open Setapp, and on the menubar select Setapp->Check for Updates…

If you updated to 3.1.2 but still see a message that an update is available or that you need to sign-in to Setapp, please restart your Mac. This is due to a bug in Sonoma that is worked around in the new version.

It is now required to manually select the screen saver in macOS Sonoma. You can see how this is done below.

This section is focused on getting the app installed and setup including changing various macOS settings that may be necessary to make it work correctly.

The first step to using Magic Window Air is running the app to install the Screen Saver. To install simply run the “Magic Window Air” app in your Applications/Setapp folder. Any time you run the app, if the Screen Saver is not installed, it will prompt you to install it. You must complete installation for the screen saver to work. If the pre-flight check indicates the “Screen Saver is not installed” this can be resolved by quitting and running the app again:

Once you have the app installed and running you can access the the pre-flight check by clicking the airplane icon on your menu bar. The check will indicate if any settings may need to be changed on your system in order for the Screen Saver to work.

If you see yellow or red dots there may be an issue you need to investigate. This section describes how to solve these issues.

Note that for laptops the Energy Saver settings are different when power is connected, so this error may change when you change power sources.

If pre-flight indicates the following: “Your display is set to sleep before the screen saver starts” or “Energy Saver settings conflict” it means that your Mac may be set to sleep or turn off the display before the Screen Saver is activated. You can solve this by changing the Screen Saver activation time (as described above) or by changing the display sleep time.

The display sleep settings are located in different places depending on which macOS version you are running and what model Mac you have. The fastest way to get to the option is by clicking the Sleep display(s) after time in the pop-over. Note that on Mac models with a battery, the sleep time for power adapter and battery are separate. So your settings may be correct when the power is connected, but not work when on battery.

One easy way to activate the screen saver is with Hot Corners. On macOS Monterey and earlier, these are set up in the System Preferences / Screen Saver panel similar to how activation time is set. On macOS Ventura and later, these are set in the Desktop & Dock panel of System Preferences.

On macOS Sonoma it is required to manually select the screen saver in System Settings. Prior to macOS Sonoma, when the screen saver is installed it is automatically selected. However if you select another Screen Saver, or install another Screen Saver that selects itself, you may see the error “Screen Saver is installed but not selected.” This error may also show if your system is managed by an administrator in a way that prevents choice of Screen Saver.

To select the screen saver on macOS Sonoma:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu

2. Select the Screen Saver panel

3. Scroll to the bottom to the Other section

4. Press “Show All” or scroll all the way to the right

5. Select Magic Window Air

6. Be sure “Show on all Spaces” is enabled

See the video below to see these steps in action.

On macOS Ventura and later: Open System Settings -> Screen Saver panel.

On macOS Monterey and earlier: Open System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver panel.

In macOS Sonoma, Apple introduced a warning dialog when one app attempts to access files in another app. In the case of Magic Window Air, there are actually two apps - the app itself, and the plug-in. So when you hit the settings button in the Airport pop-over to edit the plug-in settings, this dialog will be displayed.

Accessing the plug-in settings is the ONLY thing the app does with this permission.

There is one trick that will eliminate this dialog from showing, and that is providing the app with full disk access in System Settings. To do this open System Settings, open the Privacy panel, select Full Disk Access, and then enable the switch by Magic Window Air. You can see this in the screenshot below.

Common Fix: If you are experiencing issues with the System Preferences or System Settings panel, closing and re-opening it will usually resolve the issue. This re-loads the plug-in. In general, unless you are modifying Cache settings, it’s best to modify settings directly through the popover in Version 3.

Magic Window Air offers three different formats of video and automatically selects which format is best for your Mac based on a complicated algorithm. Depending on your Mac model, the app may select HD because it does not believe the machine has the hardware necessary to run 4K. To override this setting…

1. Open Screen Saver Settings through the menubar.

2. Select the Advanced tab.

3. Check the “Video Format” setting at the top.
   

About HEVC and hardware decoding

MWA uses Apple's AVFoundation framework to play the videos as your screen saver. When available, AVFoundation will use hardware decoding (from your CPU or your graphics card) to minimize the resources needed for video playback. You can find guidelines in the help button next to the Video Format setting. By default, MWA automatically selects the most appropriate format for your Mac. Please note that all 4K HEVC videos are encoded with the Main10 profile, which may not be hardware accelerated by your machine, while some other HEVC videos (encoded in Main profile) will be.

While we wish to provide everyone with the best setting for their machine, the GVA framework from Apple doesn't let us distinguish HEVC Main10 profile acceleration from general HEVC acceleration. Early feedback we gathered also seems to point that on machines with multiple decoding options (Intel QuickSync and AMD UVD), QuickSync will always be preferred (even if you "force" the discrete GPU use with an external monitor or via code, as of macOS Mojave).

These are our recommendations so far:

• Macs older than 2011 may lack H.264 acceleration.

• Macs with an Intel CPU (With iGPU) from the Sandy Bridge (2011) generation to Broadwell (Early 2015) should have H.264 hardware acceleration available.

• Late 2015 and 2016 Macs (Skylake and Kaby Lake) may only have partially accelerated HEVC decoding. We recommended you stick to 1080p H.264 on laptops. You may consider the HEVC format on desktops but understand that decoding may be CPU intensive and spin up your fans.

• Macs 2017 and up should have full HEVC acceleration (the 2017 12 inch Macbook being a notable exception, only having partially accelerated HEVC decoding).

Depending on your Mac model, the number of displays connected, the resolution of those displays, and your multi-monitor settings, your Mac may not have enough power to play the videos smoothly. If video playback is not smooth the best thing to try is changing the resolution setting as described above in B1. Realistically you need a pretty powerful Mac to run more than 2 4K streams at a time.

Magic Window Air progressively downloads more videos each time it is activated. In your first hours using the app, you may see videos repeat more often, as the total number of videos downloaded is slowly growing. If you are seeing the same few videos cycle, you can just wait for more to download, or force them to download through the Screen Saver Options panel.

1. Open Screen Saver Settings through the menubar.

2. Select the More Videos panel.

3. Press Download All Videos to download everything.

Magic Window Air downloads the videos it plays from our magical cloud. In order to download these videos your system must not have apps blocking network access. The most common reason why downloads do not work is the network filter Little Snitch. If you use Little Snitch you must follow the directions below for downloads to work.

1. Have you confirmed you have free disk space?

For videos to download there must be free space available on your main disk. Depending on the format you have selected, up to 10GB of storage space is required to download all videos.

2. Have you checked your network connection?

To confirm you can access our server open http://air.magicwindow.tv/ in your browser. If you see the text “Welcome to Jetson Creative Media Server” that indicates your network is at least allowing access to the manifests. If you are unable to access this please check your network or filters (steps below.)

3. Are you using any network filters or blockers like Little Snitch?

The most common source of problems with downloading in Aerial is applications that block network access like Little Snitch. If you use Little Snitch or a similar app to monitor or block your network access you may need to manually add access to the following hosts:

• air.magicwindow.tv

• public.24hourwallpaper.com

Prior to Catalina access is granted to ScreenSaverEngine. On Catalina access needs to be granted for legacyScreenSaver which can be found here:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/PlugIns/legacyScreenSaver.appex

4. Is it possible your network source is being filtered or blocked

In some countries and locations network filters are in place limiting access to certain sites. If you have already done the above steps and tried accessing our server in your browser, try using the alternate links provided in the install instructions. We offer two different download hosts and it could be one is blocked for you but the other is not.

Due to performance issues on certain Mac models, the title and other text you see overlaid on the Screen Saver is 1x resolution by default. If you have a Mac with a discrete GPU you can change this option and will likely not encounter problems. To enable 2X text:

1. Open Screen Saver Settings through the menubar.

2. Select the Overlays tab.

3. Press Text Settings at the bottom.

4. Check “High quality text”
   

This is an unfortunate macOS bug that results from the Screen Saver panel only being able to load one Swift Screen Saver at a time. If you switch between Swift-based Screen Savers like MWA and Aerial, you need to close and reopen System Preferences to apply the change and access the other Screen Saver.

Magic Window Air is highly customizable and full of features that let you tune and enhance it. In this section we address the most commonly requested options and how to use them.

Note that many of the answers in this section involve accessing “Screen Saver Options” which can be found on the System Preferences/Screen Saver panel. The easiest way to get here is by pressing “Open System Preferences” in the Airport popover.

There are two different ways to add a clock. The first is with the built-in macOS Screen Saver clock, which moves in a circle around the screen. This can be enabled by checking the “Show with Clock” checkbox in System Preferences/Screen Saver or System Settings/Screen Saver on Ventura and later. The app also has a built-in, highly configurable clock that can be enabled and configured from the “Overlays” panel in Screen Saver Options.

Yes, you can hide or customize the title (“Location”) - it can also be set to hide after 10 seconds. These options are also in the “overlays” panel under Screen Saver Options/Settings similar to the Clock option above.

Yes! You can add your own videos to the collection by following these steps:

1. Open Screen Saver Settings through the menubar.

2. Select the More Videos tab.

3. Click the Add Local button at the bottom of the window.

The app offers several ways to both hide videos and select subsets of videos. If you’re interested in seeing only certain types of videos, you can select different categories under the “Now Playing” tab in the video browser. If you want to hide a specific video, you can select the video in Browse Videos and press the “Hide” button.

You can find all hidden videos by selecting the “Hidden” option from the Browse: options box. You can then select a hidden video and press unhide.

Yes, you can enable or disable specific monitors through the “Displays” section of the Screen Saver Settings panel. Set “Play videos on:” to “Selected Displays” and then click the displays you want to enable or disable.

Yes, you can choose to span one video across several displays through the “Displays” section of the Screen Saver Settings panel. Select “Spanned” as the option under “Viewing mode:”

Yes, please see B3 above for instructions.

The videos downloaded by the Screen Saver will vary in size depending on what format you have selected. Here are the total sizes for each format option: 4K - 20GB, HD HEVC (SDR) - 10GB, HD H264 - 10GB

Sorry, no. Due to macOS limitations the videos must be in the legacyScreenSaver container.

You can set a limit on the maximum amount of disk space for downloads to use on the Cache panel. You can also disable automatic downloads to prevent the app from consuming more space. To get to the Cache panel, you must access Screen Saver Settings through the System Preferences/System Settings panel.

Sorry, no. At this time we have not found a way to allow Aerial and MWA to access each others videos. This is something we are investigating for the future.

Sorry, no. At this time the Screen Saver does not support including videos from Magic Window and Magic Window 4K. This is something we are investigating for the future.

We are happy to help with any issues you have or answer any questions not covered in the Lounge. We are a tiny airline so it may take us up to 24 hours to respond to your request. The best way to reach us is through the Magic Window Air Support & Feedback Form. This form allows you to attach photos, videos, and logs, which can be very helpful in resolving issues. You can also e-mail us at support@magicwindow.app.

Support & Feedback Form:
https://forms.gle/9g2j96AzL5WQmLmw8

We hope you had a good adventure! Follow the steps below to remove the downloads, plug-in, and app from your system. Note that it is easiest to remove the downloads while you still have the plug-in installed.

Part 1 - Remove Downloads

1. Open Screen Saver Settings through the System Preferences or System Settings panel.

2. With Magic Window Air selected, press Options or Screen Saver Options.

3. Select the Cache tab.

4. Press Clear Cache.

5. Close the panel.

Part 2 - Remove Plug-in and App

1. In the System Preferences/Settings -> Screen Saver panel, right click on "Magic Window Air” and select Delete. This will remove the plug-in from your system, but the app still needs to be removed.

2. Open the Setapp folder and drag Magic Window Air to the trash. Empty trash.

That’s it! After those steps Magic Window Air is fully removed from your Mac.