iOS 16.1 Lock Screen Wallpaper Display

I also thought I’d sorted this issue as suggested, but overnight it returns. I keep juggling between one wallpaper and the next on a daily basis. As denine48 points out, we shouldn’t have to work around sorting these issues, it’s Apple fault, they need to fix it.

I am experiencing all the same things already mentioned, but in my case, it may (or may not) be related to Do Not Disturb. I do not use Bedtime to schedule DND, but rather simply have it scheduled as DND: On from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., off from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Has worked for years until upgrading from 15.7 to 16.1 on Friday. I had also created wallpaper for lock screen/home screen, and edited from chunky font for time display to thinner, obviously selecting the latter for use. (Kept the orginal unwanted set just in case, as it would be easier to simply modify than going back to wallpaper and starting over in the event it disappeared.

DND malfunctioned immediately following upgrade. It goes on (and, although doesn't always give you the quick notification at the bottom of the home screen, the crescent is displayed above) but often does NOT go off! While on, apparently it chooses to black out the wallpaper selection, which I hate, but this morning, for the first time, it disabled itself on schedule. However - it also immediately switched from my selected wallpaper set in focus to the original chunky font set! It has swapped sets at other times while working on this issue, but unfortunately, I can't be specific - particularly since I didn't realize that was what was occuring. I thought initially that it was simply changing the font.

I believe there is an interplay between DND, wallpaper (as seen in Focus), etc., and am pursuing, although now that it's reaching the engineering level, that usually ends anything productive. I'm glad to have found this discussion, and hope others will continue to post so we might be able to figure it out without the assistance we know won't be forthcoming.

Start here:--> Personalize your iPhone Lock Screen

Regards

Giulio

I have the same problem since I installed ios 16.1: no wallpaper visible anymore, not on lockscreen and not on homescreen. Only a black background. Hope this will be fixed soon! :-(

I have exactly the same problem as described by you.

I also rebooted, got my proper wallpaper back again, then it disappeared the next time I opened my phone.

Same issue on a 13 pro. I have a work wallpaper setup and only the work wallpaper isn’t black. My regular wallpaper even after a restart is stuck as a black background

I have just tried your remedy and it worked for me! Many thanks.

Should not have to work around an issue when the update was to fix issues! We pay way too much for these phones and services to have to research how to fix their mistakes!

I just got off the phone with support at Apple with this same problem, my custom images I've had set for my Home and Lock screens are suddenly missing and I'm seeing a black background for both since the iOS 16.1 update. The first support person had me heading down a path backing up then wiping my phone completely, and restoring it to factory settings and reinstalling iOS 16.1. Luckily, they sent me to a senior support person, who diagnosed the problem -- and it's now solved. The issue had to do with my Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and Sleep settings. If you have those Focus times set, you MUST select a Customized Screen for Lock and Home screens, or else when those Focus times kick on, the screen settings will default to black (nothing). Once we figured this out, I reset my non-focus Home and Lock screens to my original photos and the issue has not reoccurred.

I had never used dnd or focus either and when I scrolled up to check, none were listed as being ON. I went into Settings/ Focus and disabled Focus Status…. and that has solved the issue for me, at least for now. (It was On)

Check settings for Focus.

Look in each subject (do not disturb, driving, personal, sleep, work) and look for the "customize screens" option.

If you have focus enabled, the default will be a dark Lock Screen. But you can change each subject individually to show your favourite wallpaper.

Enjoy

/Claude

www.hunt2eat.dk

Try this...has worked every time for me.

1. If you haven't already made a 2nd wallpaper, do so.
2. Switch your wallpaper to the one you made.
3. Reboot your phone.
4. Switch the wallpaper back to the default with your original wallpaper.

I hope that helps.

I have the iPhone11Pro and the same thing happened I believe with the update to iOS16.0.2, as of iOS 16.1 the issue remains. Everyday my 7+ year old wallpaper disappears and both the home screen background and the lock screen become completely black.

I think this was caused by a faulty migration of the background settings between iOS versions.

First I decided to recover the original wallpaper image by following a series of complicated steps. The image is store as a .cpbitmap file, which I believe is an Apple proprietary image format used in iOS and iPadOS. This is what I did in case anyone is curious. Without ever deleting my current wallpaper (even if not showing in the main screen, it still appeared on the Settings app). Instructions using Windows 11 2H22:

1. Using iTunes make a full backup of your iPhone
2. Download, install, and run iExplorer on a Sandbox instance
3. Copy the main plist and manifest files to a folder inside Sandbox
4. Tell iExplorer to open that folder as the iTunes backup location
5. Insite iExplorer look for Home > Springboard and then make note of the path for "LockBackground.cpbitmap" and OriginalLockBackground.cpbitmap, it can be "86" or "7c" or something else -- I had these two files, perhaps you will have more or less files, but at least the one
6. Go back to your iTunes backup and copy just the two alphanumeric folders into the same folder inside Sandbox
7. Tell iExplorer to export the .cpbitmap files and copy those from the Sandbox back to your desktop
8. Open your browser on https://cpbitmap.github.io/ or https://www.dcode.fr/cpbitmap-format
9. Upload and convert to PNG, JPG, or TIFF
10. Using iTunes, Dropbox, or even emailing to yourself, send the photo back to your phone and set it as a background

I hope it works for you.