How to remove lock screen wallpaper on iPhone

If you change your iPhone wallpaper often, you probably have a long list of old wallpapers that you no longer use. What’s the point of keeping things that you no longer care about? This article explains how to remove wallpapers from your iPhone to reduce clutter.

How to remove iPhone wallpaper from lock screen

Modern versions of iOS don't have an option to remove your iPhone's wallpaper from the Settings app. You can only add or customize wallpapers there.

To remove your iPhone wallpaper, you need to go to the lock screen. To do that, just press the power button to put your device to sleep, then press it again to wake it up and show the lock screen. Alternatively, you can open Control Center by swiping down from the top left corner of the screen.

Either way, press and hold anywhere on your lock screen wallpaper (your device must be unlocked to open the wallpaper menu). Now, swipe left or right to see your previous wallpapers. Swipe up on the wallpaper you want to delete. Tap the Trash icon and select Delete this wallpaper to confirm.

Remove iPhone Wallpaper from Lock Screen

Does removing iPhone wallpaper delete the original photo?

Rest assured that removing your iPhone wallpaper from the lock screen will not delete the original image.

For example, let's say you took a photo of your child or pet and saved it to the Photos app. Using the photo as your iPhone wallpaper and then deleting that wallpaper later won't affect the original photo in the Photos app.

However, if you have deleted the original image in the Photos app, deleting the iPhone wallpaper will delete that image and make it inaccessible.

Currently, there is no way to save your iPhone lock screen wallpaper to the Photos app. You can take a screenshot of your iPhone's lock screen to get a copy of the image, but it won't be perfect. Elements like the date and time will also be included. Your next best option is to use a backup to recover deleted photos on your iPhone.

While you can use the Lock Screen or Settings app to change your iPhone wallpaper, you can only remove wallpapers from the lock screen or Control Center on iOS. Just save the original photo in the Photos app, so you don't have to worry about losing your favorite photo even if you remove the wallpaper from your iPhone.