How do I put my own photo on my Lock Screen and Home Screen?

The simplest way that works on any iPhone

If you only remember one method, remember this one. It doesn't depend on your iOS version:

• Open Settings. The gray gear icon, usually on your first Home Screen page.
• Tap Wallpaper. It's in the main list of settings.
• Tap Add New Wallpaper (on older versions this may read as choosing a photo for the Lock Screen or Home Screen).
• Choose Photos and pick the picture you want from your library.
• Set it on the Lock Screen, the Home Screen, or both. You can use the same photo for each, or pick different ones.

That's the whole thing. The next time you wake your phone or return to the Home Screen, your photo is there. Nothing else on the phone changes.

The faster way on newer iPhones (iOS 16 or later)

If your iPhone has been updated in the last few years, you can skip Settings entirely:

• Wake the phone so the Lock Screen is showing, but don't open it.
• Press and hold on the Lock Screen for a second. The screen will shrink slightly and show editing controls.
• Choose to add or customize a wallpaper, then pick a photo from your library.
• Confirm and it's applied right away.

This same screen is also where you can change the clock style or add small widgets to the Lock Screen — but you don't have to. A plain photo wallpaper is perfectly fine and looks clean. If you'd rather not fiddle with those extras, just set the photo and stop there.

Lock Screen vs Home Screen — what's the difference?

These are two separate surfaces, and iPhone lets you treat them differently:

• The Lock Screen is what you see when the phone is asleep or locked. A photo here is the first thing you glimpse all day, so people often put a meaningful or cheerful picture here.
• The Home Screen is behind your apps. If your apps have colorful icons, a plain or dark wallpaper behind them can actually make the screen feel calmer and the icons easier to find.

When you set a wallpaper, iPhone asks where you want it. Choosing "both" is the quickest; choosing separately takes one extra tap. Neither choice is permanent — you can change either one whenever you like.

If the photo looks wrong

A couple of small things trip people up, and all of them are easy to fix:

• "It's zoomed in." The Lock Screen crops the photo to fit the tall screen. When you're setting it, you can pinch to zoom out or drag to reposition before you confirm.
• "The clock covers the best part of the photo." Move the photo up or down in the editor so the clock sits over a less important area, or pick a photo with empty space at the top.
• "It's blurry." Use a photo that was sharp to begin with. A small screenshot stretched across the screen will look soft — choose a real photo instead.
• "I changed my mind." Go back to Settings > Wallpaper and set a different one. The old photo is still in your library.

What to do next

• If small text on the Lock Screen is hard to read, see How do I make text bigger and easier to read on my iPhone?
• If you'd like to tidy the apps behind your new wallpaper, see What is the App Library and do I need to use it?
• If you just got this phone, start with What should I change first on a new iPhone?
• If the move from Android feels sideways, see Why does my iPhone feel so different from Android?