Updates and downloads
sylvan.apple.com
sylvan.apple.com serves Apple's Aerial screen savers and wallpapers. Apple lists it for tvOS and macOS, on ports 80 and 443.
Short answer
Apple's host for Aerial screen savers and wallpapers on tvOS and macOS.
Safe to block
Safe to block. Aerial screen savers and wallpapers that aren't downloaded yet won't download. Pick a still wallpaper to avoid the downloads.
- Matches
sylvan.apple.com
A name with *. covers every name under it: *.push.apple.com matches 1-courier.push.apple.com.
What it serves
Apple's enterprise host list names sylvan.apple.com in its Apps and additional content section, for “Aerial screen savers and wallpaper”.
Aerial screen savers and wallpapers are video. Downloading one is larger than a still image.
Apple doesn't say which process downloads them, or how many download on their own.
What breaks if you block it
Safe to block
Safe to block. Aerial screen savers and wallpapers that aren't downloaded yet won't download. Pick a still wallpaper to avoid the downloads.
What breaks if you block it
- Aerial screen savers and wallpapers that aren't on the Mac yet can't download.
With Kilobat Pro and the network filter, you can block a host for every app or for one app: in Connections, select a connection and choose Block. Apple’s own services are never blocked by Kilobat’s Protection lists.
Notes
To avoid the downloads, choose a picture or a colour in System Settings › Wallpaper and Screen Saver instead of an aerial.
Apple’s rules for its hosts
Apple’s list, Use Apple products on enterprise networks, says that devices open these connections, not Apple’s servers. Apple services fail any connection that uses HTTPS interception, so a proxy that inspects TLS should leave Apple’s hosts alone.
If a firewall allows hosts by name, allowing *.apple.com covers most Apple services, Apple says. A firewall that works only with addresses can allow 17.0.0.0/8 for IPv4, and 2403:300::/32, 2620:149::/32 and 2a01:b740::/32 for IPv6.
To see which app on your Mac opened a connection to this host, use Kilobat’s Connections tab, or the agent network log for AI agents.
Sources
Checked on 1 November 2026.