Settings
Settings hold what every screen and every scene share: how smooth and how sharp, when Motion rests, sound and the pointer, the weather's place and a folder of calendars, sensors, the websites scenes may reach, the app's colours, privacy and reports, and starting. Open it with Settings at the foot of the rail.
Finding your way
The sections are listed down the left: Motion Hub account, Performance, Resting and battery (just Resting on a computer without a battery), Sound and pointer, Weather and calendar, Sensors, Websites scenes reach, Appearance, Privacy and reports, Startup and About. Click one to go to it.
Find a setting, in the bar at the top, narrows the page to the settings that match what you type. It knows other words for things too: "fps", "bloom", "mouse", "autostart". Ctrl+K puts you there.
Motion only shows what the wallpaper on your desktop actually reads, so a few settings appear on some systems and not others. Those are marked below.
Every change applies at once. On Plasma, these are the same settings as in Plasma's own wallpaper settings (Configure Desktop and Wallpaper); on Windows, the same as in the tray. Change them in either.
Motion Hub account
Who you're signed in as, with Manage on Motion Hub and Sign out, or Sign in when you're not. Under it, You own Motion once Motion knows you own it; until then it says why not, with Check again and Get Motion.
Performance
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Frame rate | 15, 24, 30, 60, 120, The screen's | how many times a second scenes are drawn |
| Sharpness | 25% to 100% | below 100%, scenes draw smaller and scale up |
| Lower the frame rate for slow scenes | on or off | scenes that only drift draw 30 frames a second, never more than the frame rate above. On by default. Not on Plasma |
| Show performance details | on or off | the frame rate, frame times and the graphics card's clocks, in a Corner of the wallpaper, on the screen under Show it on (with more than one screen). Not on Plasma |
Wallpapers rarely need more than 30 frames a second, which is the default; The screen's follows your monitor's refresh rate. Lower sharpness costs less. Battery and performance explains what costs what.
How much a scene blooms and how fast it moves are the scene's own: a scene that offers them has a Bloom slider (and any others its maker chose) on its page, under its settings. See The library.
Resting and battery
Pause a screen when a window covers it
- Maximised or full screen: a screen stops while a maximised or full-screen window covers it. This is the default.
- Full screen: only full-screen windows (a game, a video) stop it.
- Never.
A paused screen costs nothing while it's hidden. Each screen pauses on its own, so the scene on your second monitor keeps playing while you work full screen on the first.
When the screen is locked
On Windows, you choose:
- Pause: every screen stops while Windows is locked. This is the default. The lock screen hides the desktop, so pausing costs nothing.
- Slow down: 15 frames a second at a lighter quality.
- Keep going: as when you're at the desktop.
On Linux there's nothing to choose: it's Always paused. On Plasma, Plasma draws nothing behind the lock screen, so Motion rests then too.
During games and presentations
Only on Windows, a choice of its own: what every screen does while a full-screen game or program is in front, or Windows' presentation settings are on. Pause (the default), Slow down or Keep going, as for the lock screen.
The screen the game or program covers still follows Pause a screen when a window covers it, so with Keep going here, your other screens play on while that one rests (unless that's set to Never).
On battery
- Keep going: as when plugged in.
- Slow down: fewer frames a second. On Plasma, Frame rate on battery then appears, with 15, 24 or 30. Elsewhere it's 15 a second at a lighter quality. This is the default on Windows and on Linux desktops other than Plasma.
- Pause: stops every screen while you're on battery. This is the default on Plasma.
On Windows, battery saver pauses unless On battery is Keep going. So does Linux's low-power profile, on desktops other than Plasma.
When more than one holds
Locked on battery, say: the most restful choice wins. Pause beats Slow down, which beats Keep going. Pause all stops everything whatever these say.
Pause all
Pause all, in the bar at the top of Home, Screens and Playlists, stops every screen until you click Play all. It isn't on this page, but it's the quickest rest there is. The tray has it too on Windows.
Sound and pointer
- Hear what's playing: scenes that move to music hear what your computer plays. That's whatever goes to your speakers. Nothing is recorded or sent, and Motion listens only while a scene that uses sound is showing.
- Play wallpapers' sound: off by default.
- Wallpapers' volume: appears when the one above is on.
- Scenes can follow the pointer: scenes can follow your mouse pointer and answer clicks on the desktop. On Plasma this needs the
motion-inputpackage.
The rail's foot says Hears what's playing or Not listening to sound. Sound and The pointer cover how scenes use them.
Weather and calendar
These are the defaults. A Weather layer can name a place of its own, and a Calendar layer a calendar of its own, in Studio's inspector; one that doesn't uses what's picked here. So one scene can show London and Tokyo side by side.
- Default place for the weather: type a town or city, Find, and pick it from the places found. Scenes use it unless a layer names its own place. Until you pick one, scenes without a place of their own show no weather. While a scene on show uses a place, this one or one its layers name, Motion asks Open-Meteo for that place's weather every half hour, once for each place; a scene that names a place of its own has it asked for whether or not you've picked one here. Only where each place is, to about 10 km, is kept and sent. Forget takes it away.
- Default calendar: where a Calendar layer's events come from unless it names its own (your desktop's own calendar, where Motion may read it), and Choose a folder… to read the .ics files in a folder of yours as well. Events are only read, and never leave your computer.
A scene that shows the weather at the default place while none is picked says so on its page. What the desktop knows has more.
Sensors
Your Motion Hub tokens, which feed readings from your phone or watch to the scenes that read them, and what they last said. This section has a page of its own: The Sensors page.
Websites scenes reach
A scene's script can read a website, but only one the scene names and you allow. It goes over HTTPS, without your cookies or sign-ins, and never to this computer or your network.
You're asked about a new site the first time a scene that names it is put on a screen (see Before a scene plays). Your answers are listed here, one row a site, with the count in the rail:
- Allow or Refuse changes the answer.
- Ask again forgets it, so you're asked next time a scene names it. The note that pops up has Undo.
Until something has asked, it says No scene has asked to reach a website yet. Every screen hears a change at once.
Appearance
Colours: Dark, Light, or As the desktop. This is Motion's and Studio's own colours, not the wallpaper's: the same section as Appearance in Studio's Settings, one choice for both. Change it in either and the other changes too, at once, while both are open.
Language picks the language of Motion and Studio (As the system to follow your computer), and also sets how dates and numbers are written. Text size makes the words bigger or smaller everywhere in Motion and Studio, from 90% to 150%.
Privacy and reports
Nothing Motion sends says who you are. See Privacy and reports for what each one holds.
- Help improve Motion: once a day, a few counts of how Motion runs. Off unless you turn it on; turning it off deletes what's waiting to be sent. The same switch is in Studio's Settings › Privacy and reports and in the first-run screens.
- Send crash reports without asking: when Motion closes unexpectedly, its report goes at once. Off, you're asked first and shown what's in it.
- Report a bug: Report… opens the report, where you say what went wrong and see all of what's sent before it goes. Studio has it in its Help menu too.
Startup
Only on desktops where Motion runs its own wallpaper: Windows, and Linux desktops other than Plasma. On Plasma, Motion starts with Plasma and there's nothing to set.
- On Linux: Start Motion when you sign in. Plays your wallpaper whenever you sign in to this desktop. On GNOME, Motion's extension has to be on as well.
- On Windows: Start Motion with Windows. Plays your wallpaper whenever you sign in. The tray's menu has the same switch.
About
About shows this Motion Player's Version: say it when you report a bug. Open-source licences lists the software by others that Motion is built with.
Where else these live
- The Screens page has quick versions of the frame rate, sharpness and wallpapers' sound, and a line saying how screens pause, with Change. See Screens.
- The first run asks about pausing, battery, sound, the pointer and Help improve Motion.
- On Windows, the tray panel's Quick settings and the tray menu carry the most used ones. See Install Motion.
The settings of one scene (its colours, how busy it is) aren't here: they're on the scene itself. See A scene's own settings.
Last changed 2 November 2026. Something wrong here? Tell us.