macOS digital signage setup.

Launching the app on startup is not turned on when you first install our app. If you want the app to launch after a power outage, or simply when you power on your player, go to my.playsignage.com, Screens, open the settings for the screen, and toggle on Launch player on startup.

See the Mac section of our portrait guide.

There is a built-in auto-updater; however, in certain circumstances, the software is not automatically updated. You can apply the update manually without having to link the screen again.

• Close the player application if it’s running.
• Download the latest version: macOS 64-bit Apple chip (M, arm) (computers from 2020 and later) or macOS 64-bit Intel (x86) (computers from before 2020).
• Double-click the downloaded .dmg file.
• Drag the app to the Applications folder.

Options can be accessed directly by the player or in settings for your player.

• Launch player on startup - Toggle this ON to make sure our app starts when your player starts up, for example after a power outage.
• Always on top - Tells the operating system to keep our app window above other windows. This prevents pop-ups or notifications from showing on top of it.
• Show top menu bar - Toggle this ON if you want the top bar to appear when moving the mouse or using the remote for your player. Toggle this OFF if you want a kiosk experience where users can’t exit the app by clicking the exit button on the top menu bar. You can still access the menu with the “Ctrl + O” command.
• Optimize for touchscreen - Toggle this ON if you are planning on using our app on a touchscreen. This setting will make small adjustments to how our app works in conjunction with a touchscreen.
• Analytics - Toggle this ON if you need analytic data from this particular player. Read more about Analytics
• Display Orientation - This option should only be used if your player operating system does not support changing the orientation, as we recommend the adjustment on an operating system level instead. You have the option of portrait (Clockwise) and portrait (Counter-clockwise).
• UserAgent - UserAgent is a piece of text that browsers use to identify themselves to the web server. Certain websites will render a mobile view, although the site is displayed on a big screen. With this option, you can work around this issue and spoof a desktop computer’s UserAgent. The UserAgent lets you pick Default, Mobile, Desktop, or Custom.
• Reload player every day at - It is good practice to clear the cache on the player once every 24 hours. Here you can set a convenient time, for example at night when no one is watching your TVs.
• Tags - If you are using tags, they are listed here. You can also find and add a tag.
• Clear cache - If you need to clear the cache manually, you can do that here. For example, if you are changing your content continually and you experience something not working as expected, clearing the cache should help, as it removes any old data stored on the players’ storage.
• Transfer Screen - Move screens between teams without deleting or relinking them. Learn more about Transfer Screen
• Reload - Reloading your player is similar to clearing the cache. In addition, reloading will close and start the app.
• Status - Status tells you if the app is connected to the cloud. Green means you are connected, and red means you are not connected. If you see a red status, you should check the internet and wifi connection to your player.
• Device Time - The device time tells you the player’s time and date. If the device time is wrong, it will also be wrong in our app and thus all time-related scheduling will be off, so make sure to correct the time on the player operating system if you are having problems.
• Resolution - The resolution is the resolution according to your player’s operating system. If the operating system on the players tells us it’s running HD, your content on the TVs will be optimized for HD. Please note that many devices that are advertised as 4K can only decode video in 4K but run apps in a lower resolution. This means you may see a lower resolution reported by our app, but any 4K video that you use will still be played as 4K. If you are seeing a lower resolution, you can install a 3rd party “resolution checker” app on the device to confirm the resolution from another app as well.
• Version - This is the version of our app.
• Screen ID - Also called UID: the unique ID of your player.
• Disc Usage - Disc usage will tell you how much data has been used on the player’s storage. We recommend using no more than 80% of the storage.
• Screen edges - If you have an LED screen, a video wall or an older TV, you might have to adjust the edges so that they match your TV and the content.
• Browser - Here you can easily access the browser used by the app to check content, connectivity, etc.
• Reset - If you need to unlink your player or link it to another account, you can use reset.

I got my screen linked, what next?

We recommend checking out our Getting Started video.

Design your content

My device says it’s offline

If the device is offline, it means the device is not connected to the internet and therefore cannot connect to our digital signage cloud. See our Offline guide.

App outdated?

Under certain circumstances, the player may not update automatically. If you add a new plugin that is not supported in your current player version, it will simply not be shown to maintain backward compatibility. See our App Outdated guide.

How do I know if I have M (arm) or X86 mac?

Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner and select “About This Mac”. If the Chip section says something like “Apple M”, you have a processor with arm architecture.

The mouse cursor is visible after restart?

Other software on the system can interfere with our application and steal focus after our app has launched, which prevents our app from hiding the cursor. macOS Ventura (13.0.0) made significant changes to how it handles the mouse, which makes it more likely that the mouse is not hidden after a restart. Currently, there is a workaround using third-party software that hides the cursor after a set time of inactivity:

• Download Cursorcerer.
• Unzip it and click on the Cursorcerer3.prefPane file.
• Install the preference pane for all users and set the “Hide idle cursor after” value to 5 seconds.
• Log out and log in again
• When you log in, macOS will ask for permission to open Cursorcerer. Give the required permissions
• Now after a restart, the cursor will be hidden after some period of inactivity

Where are the files stored?

The player downloads files to ~/Library/Application Support/PlaySignage/assets

Can I run several instances of the application?

By default, the application allows a maximum of one window. However, if you have a Mac with several monitors, you may need to run one player application per monitor. To do this, you need to set a different data directory for each application window using the --data-dir parameter, for example:
open /Applications/PlaySignage.app --args --data-dir=/path/to/storage/folder

Intranet website with a self-signed SSL certificate is not showing?

By default, as a security precaution, the application does not show websites with certificate errors. However, if you need to show a website that does not have a valid SSL certificate, you can launch the app with a --ignore-certificate-errors parameter, for example:
open /Applications/PlaySignage.app --args --ignore-certificate-errors

How do I run the app on my secondary display?

To run the app on your secondary display, go to OPTIONS in the app and choose your preferred display.

Our software cannot move an application to another space, as macOS does not allow it. If you want to show signage on another display, make sure that all displays share the same space.

macOS 13 (Ventura) and later: Open System Settings, find Desktop & Dock, scroll down and turn off Displays have separate Spaces, log out and log in again.

macOS 12 (Monterey) and older: Open System Preferences, click Mission Control and then turn off the option Displays have separate Spaces.

The plugins don’t work

If one or more plugins don’t work on your Mac, the Play Digital Signage app on your player may be out of date. Read how to update an outdated app.

How do I access OPTIONS if I disabled the top menu bar?

In the app options, you can hide the top menu bar, for example if you are running a touch screen. To access the top menu bar when it is hidden, you can use Cmd + O for options or Cmd + Q to close the app.