iOS 16 offers you a ton of customization options for your iPhone’s lock screen. You can create any number of lock screens and switch between them and customize them distinctly with different wallpapers and widgets.
If you don’t wish to keep any of your lock screen wallpapers, removing them is quite easy. In the following post, we’ll help you delete a lock screen wallpaper or replace it with another wallpaper on iOS 16.
How to delete lock screen wallpaper on iOS 16
If you’ve made up your mind and you want to permanently delete a lock screen wallpaper from your iPhone, you can do that directly from your lock screen on iOS 16. To do that, unlock your phone using Face ID but do not go to the home screen yet. For this, simply press the Side button, show your face to the iPhone and let the Lock Screen get unlocked. Now, long-press anywhere on the unlocked lock screen.
When the lock screen goes into edit mode, you will see your current lock screen as a preview among other lock screens. To delete this wallpaper, swipe up on the current wallpaper preview to reveal more options.
Note: The sipe-up gesture only works if you have another wallpaper added to your lock screen collections. If you’re trying to delete the only remaining lock screen wallpaper from your iPhone, you won’t be able to perform the swipe gesture on this wallpaper.
You will now see a red-colored trash icon below the selected wallpaper. Tap on the trash icon to delete the lock screen wallpaper permanently from your iPhone.
To confirm your action, tap on Delete This Wallpaper in the prompt that appears at the bottom.
The selected wallpaper will now be removed from the edit screen and iOS will now load up your previous wallpaper on your lock screen.
How to replace your existing wallpaper instead of deleting it
If you don’t want to add more wallpapers to your lock screen collections, you can simply replace your existing wallpaper with a new one. iOS allows you to customize both your lock screen and home screen wallpapers separately. So you can follow any of the following methods to change your wallpaper wherever want to.
Replace your lock screen wallpaper
There are two ways you can replace your lock screen wallpaper – one directly from the iOS 16 lock screen and the other using the Settings app on your iPhone. The procedure is more or less the same but we’ll explain both of them here.
To get started, unlock your phone using Face ID but do not go to the home screen yet. For this, simply press the Side button, show your face to the iPhone and let the Lock Screen get unlocked. Now, long-press anywhere on the unlocked lock screen.
When the lock screen goes into edit mode, tap on Customize at the bottom of the screen.
You now enter the Customize screen for your lock screen.
You can also reach the Customize screen by opening the Settings app.
Inside Settings, go to Wallpaper.
Inside this screen, you’ll see previews of your lock screen and home screen wallpapers on the left and right sides respectively. To replace your lock screen wallpaper, tap on Customize on the left preview.
In the popup that appears, select Customize Current Wallpaper.
You will now reach the Lock Screen Customize screen where you can change your existing wallpaper.
Inside the Customize screen, you’ll see all your lock screen elements inside boxes at the top half of the screen.
To replace the existing wallpaper, tap on the Pictures icon at the bottom left corner.
On the next screen, you’ll see all the pictures in your iPhone library. From here, select the background you wish to add as your new wallpaper.
The selected background will now appear inside the Customize screen. You can use two fingers to drag around the wallpaper to reposition it or zoom into the background using the pinch gesture to get the desired look. When you’re ready to save the background as your lock screen background, tap on Done at the top right corner.
iOS will now preview your new wallpaper for your lock screen and home screen in a box at the bottom. If you’re satisfied with both the looks, tap on Set as Wallpaper Pair. You can customize the home screen separately by tapping on Customize Home Screen.
The new wallpaper will now be applied to your lock screen.
Replace your home screen wallpaper
If you wish to replace just your home screen wallpaper and not the background that’s set on your lock screen, the only way to do so is by using iOS settings. For that, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Inside Settings, select Wallpaper.
On the next screen, you’ll see previews of your lock screen and home screen on the left and right sides respectively. Here, tap on Customize under the right preview.
In the popup that appears, select Customize Current Wallpaper.
You’ll now arrive at the Customize screen with options at the bottom that let you apply a solid color, color gradient, blur/unblur wallpaper, or add another photo as your home screen background. Since we’re here to apply a new background on your home screen, tap on Photos at the bottom.
On the next screen, you’ll see all the pictures in your iPhone library. From here, select the background you wish to add as your new home screen wallpaper.
The selected background will now appear in fullscreen. Here, tap on Done at the top right corner.
The new background will now show up inside the Customize screen. To apply it as your new home screen wallpaper, tap on Done at the top right corner.
You’ll now get back to the Wallpaper screen which will now show you a preview of the new background set as your home screen wallpaper.
How to add a new wallpaper without deleting your existing one on iOS 16
iOS 16 allows you to create and use multiple lock screens at once so that you can switch between them with ease. If you wish to change your wallpaper without deleting your existing wallpaper from your iPhone, you can do that directly from your lock screen. For this, unlock your phone using Face ID but do not go to the home screen yet. For this, simply press the Side button, show your face to the iPhone and let the Lock Screen get unlocked. Now, long-press anywhere on the unlocked lock screen.
When the lock screen goes into edit mode, you can add new wallpaper to your lock screen by tapping on the + button at the bottom right corner.
You’ll now see the Add New Wallpaper screen appear. You can choose from different options available under Photos, Photo Shuffle, Emoji, Featured, Collections, Weather, Astronomy, and Color to apply as your wallpaper.
When you select your desired wallpaper, it will load onto the edit screen. Here, tap on Add at the top right corner to save it as your wallpaper.
iOS will now preview your new lock screen and home screen in a box at the bottom. If you’re satisfied with both the looks, tap on Set as Wallpaper Pair. If not, you can customize your home screen separately by tapping on Customize Home Screen.
Your new wallpaper will now be previewed as one of the wallpapers available on your lock screen. To use this new wallpaper, tap on it to activate it.
The new background will be added as the lock screen and home screen wallpapers on your iPhone.
That’s all you need to know about deleting your wallpaper on iOS 16.
You did not show how to delete a walpaper from the settings menu. Is this even possible?
This feature is such memory/battery wasting nonsense, can I just get rid of this annoyance?