New macOS Sequoia beta has a secret serene wallpaper that’ll turn your desktop into a hidden forest

Edited image of a MacBook Pro with Sequoia background on screen

(Image credit: blackzheep via Shutterstock)

A fifth beta of macOS Sequoia has dropped for developers, and while we begin to dig around for any potential new changes, we’ve already stumbled upon this small but fun addition. A new forest-themed wallpaper called Sequoia Sunrise has been added to macOS 15, but you can’t set it as your desktop wallpaper just yet - not via the official method, anyway.

By this we mean that wallpaper is not selectable in the Settings menu, but rather, it’s tucked away in system files. This was spotted by Mr Macintosh, who also pointed out the cute retro Mac wallpapers that popped up a while back in the macOS 15 beta (which required jumping through some hoops to access).

According to MacRumors, to get the forest wallpaper, you’ll need to head to the System/Library/Desktop Pictures/.wallpapers folder, where it’s hidden - literally. This means it’s a hidden file, so you’ll need to press Shift + Command + Period to see it.

A serene teaser while we wait

Sequoia wallpaper — (Image credit: Mr Macintosh/Apple)

Once you find the image, you’ll be able to set it as your wallpaper. If you need a bit of a refresher on how to change your Mac wallpaper, you can check out our guide.

We should also note that not everyone who is running the fifth dev beta of macOS Sequoia will see the wallpaper after installing the update, so it’s not guaranteed that you’ll have it - yet.

The image is quite calming and serene and gives off a fantasy vibe. It’s nice to see more allusions to the Sequoia forest and greenery come to the Mac as we gear up for the macOS Sequoia public release later in 2024.

If you want to try out macOS Sequoia early, we have a full guide on how to install the macOS 15 public beta on your Mac. Be warned, though, that beta releases are not stable and there could be risks to your data as Apple irons out the various kinks in the OS, so proceed with caution, and back up your Mac and files before taking the plunge.

As with the retro wallpapers, Mr Macintosh has posted a high-quality screenshot of the Sequoia Sunrise on his website if you want to take a quick peek. The new wallpaper is not a major change, obviously, but it’s still good to see even a minor tweak in the pipeline, as we await the bigger features in macOS 15 like Apple Intelligence and iPhone Mirroring.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).