iOS 16.1 Lock Screen Wallpaper Display

I have the same problem, on an iPhone 11 Pro. I just upgraded from 16.0 to 16.1 and my old wallpaper photo disappears when the phone goes to sleep, or sometimes even when I switch from one app to another. The proposed workaround doesn’t work for me because I no longer have the photo I use for my wallpaper.

In my long experience, Apple largely ignored these discussions. To bring a problem to Apple’s attention, post it on Product Feedback - Apple.

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.

Good freaking grief! This problem has going on for at least 5 months, and they didn't even fix it in the latest update? But we got more emoji! 🙄

What a load, apple!

Both my iphone and ipad currently have this exact same problem. And now it's April 2023. I'd really like to have wallpaper that STICKS. That's the definition of the term. Especially with this constant brag ⬇️ that it can be changed from said lock screen. There are more than enough dumb emoji. Fix it so I can actually see what I personally choose to display on my screens.

Now I know not to waste time with support, since there's clearly no fix.

After spending many thousands of dollars over the years on your products and services, the least you can do is have ios operate as advertised. Windows never works the it should.

Stuff like this is too dumb and too frustrating for a nearly trillion-dollar valued corp.

I thought I had it fixed, but like others, it has come back. Seems to happen overnight. I have to do just as jbk134 says:

1. 1. select a different wallpaper as default
   2. reboot phone, then
   3. switch back to original wallpaper

A total PITA.

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.

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

Oct 29, 2022 8:44 AM in response to gestler

I have worked around this issue by going to Settings/Wallpaper/+Add New Wallpaper and then selecting the wallpaper image I used in the past.

In response to this person, changing the wallpaper itself DOES NOT resolve the issue. Not sure why it's marked as "solved" as stated above

Returning to the problem this thread is about - - I've posted on Product Feedback - Apple several times, so apple should be aware of the wallpaper changing to a black problem. Fixing it may take some time unless the community can discover a reliable way of duplicating the problem.

There have been suggestions (speculation?) that perhaps the problem happens after a OS update - like the update from 16 to 16.1 or 16.1.1 and that a complete reset would resolve the issue. Of course, a complete reset would involve a reinstall of the OS and loss of all settings and data on phone so unless you have a good, reliable backup it might be quite difficult with no guarantee of satisfactory result.

Start here:--> Personalize your iPhone Lock Screen

Regards

Giulio

Hey, it is possible to recover you image if you haven't replaced it with another one in the meantime (I think).

Try to follow the steps I outline in my post. I had the same problem as you, and I recovered my 7-ish year old background --> iOS 16.1 Lock Screen Wallpaper Display - Apple Community

Initially I thought it would break something, so I made sure to do an iCloud backup to my computer as well as iCloud, and because I've always found these 3rd party iTunes replacement apps a bit sketchy, I prefer to use the Windows sandbox mode, just in case.

Good luck!

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.

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)

I bought 3 iPhone 14 Pro’s in October. The wallpaper on the Lock Screen on one keeps turning black. When I restart the phone, it comes back for a little while, then the goes back to black, only displaying the time and camera and flashlight icons. What’s the warranty on a New iPhone? Can I take it back? Is it defective? Or is it a bug? But if it’s a bug and I have 2 other iPhone 14 Pro’s running the same software, then why aren’t these doing the same thing? Should I expect them to start doing the same thing? How can I get this fixed..? It’s highly annoying and frustrating.