iOS 16.1 Lock Screen Wallpaper Display

Apparently, we are not alone - there are several articles about this problem.

iPhone wallpaper turns black or disappears after iOS 16.1.1 update (piunikaweb.com) among others.

I seems that the cause may be a failed background settings transfer between iOS versions. So perhaps a iOS update will usher in a fix?

Its the "pairing" code they introduced..

Now each "Home Screen" wallpaper is paired (stored,indexed) with a particular "Lock Screen" wallpaper..the "pairs" can now be flipped between..but they remain as a pair... You can configure multiple pairs..but when you change, you change to a new "pair" no more individual setting each one.

It seems migrating the old pics ... from unpaired to the new paired storage is where it can have a problem and cause the loss of permanence on the home screen one.. hance it may eventually show up black (dropped out of cached memory it was added to on reboot)...which os why a reboot "temporarily" solves this issue ad well.

Someone jusy needs to fix that code.. but since it will only affect those who just migrated up to iOS 16 they might choose to never fix it

The December point update makes a couple of changes in how the AOD works with wallpaper and should (so far) fix the problem at least for those phones with AOD capabilities. A fresh install of the existing iOS might also fix the problem if indeed it is a failed background settings transfer between iOS versions - not a sure thing by any means, but possible.

I have done everything to solve this problem and it still doesn’t work. At first it did work when I updated to 16.1.1 on my iOS 8. but after I changed to another wallpaper the screen went black. This is a bug. Please fix it.

Today my Lock Screen started going black too. I restarted my phone and my picture came back but 2 min later it disappeared and I’m back to black. My IOS is 16.1.1 and I don’t have a prompt to update. Totally sucks because I don’t have that picture anymore either on my phone. Or at least I can’t find it and there is no way to ever recreate that moment. I updated a while ago and never had issues until today/last night over night.

I have an iOS 8 with the same problem. The problem started when I power off phone for the night. After I turned phone back on, wallpaper screen was dark with just a hint of light coming through.

Performing a reset of phone by pushing the volume button up then volume down then push and hold power button until phone shuts off and continue to hold button until you see the apple logo return, release power button, the wallpaper screen was again visible.

if I power off phone normally, then power it up, the problem returns.

Again, I would say this is a bug in the update 16.1.1. Everything else is working fine.

Interesting that the problem seems to affect even older iPhones - the iPhone 8 is about 5 years old now (other older phones have also been mentioned in this thread). That would seem to indicate the problem is related to the way the wallpapers are implemented and not some interaction between DND or AOD, and wallpapers. I believe the anticipated December update to iOS 16.2 is expected to make some changes to lock screens/wallpapers for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro max that will correct the problem - and hopefully for all iPhone series that can be updated to iOS 16.2 (including iPhone 8?).

This did not work for me. I’ve had the same Lock Screen for five years, it shows that it’s set currently. However it’s just a black screen. When I try to add new the photo I want is not in the list. You can imagine what it would be like trying to go thru photos from 5 years ago. Hope they fix this. Or, you know, test these updates before mass release.

This started happening on my 13Pro about a week ago, just out of the blue. I reboot, my normal lock screen is there, set the phone down and next time I pick it up, black screen. It was driving me nuts and to this forum.

Whats worked for me so far: long press on the lock screen and see my usual lock screen, another I didn’t create and one called “focus”. I deleted both the focus one and the random mystery one and my original seems to be sticking. Time will tell.

I'm experiencing this issue as well. You know, when I switched from Windows to Mac, I went "full fruit" and got my iPhone, too. Seems Apple is just as bad as Microsoft about rolling out broken product and buggy updates. We just spend more money for the brand name.

Socketman led me to my solution. I could not delete the current wallpaper photo I was using. But all I had to do was set the empty “paired” homescreen photo to the same one as the Lock Screen photo and no more problem.

That's a common problem, the actual cause seems to be some "random" occurrence possibly having to do with the transition between iOS 16.0 and updates. Random is very hard to cure because without an identifiable cause you can never be sure of the fix. I strongly suspect that the December update to iOS will feature changes to wallpapers and their interaction with DND and/or AOD that will also fix the black wallpaper problem.

I’ve managed to have two different photos one for Initial Screen and a different one for Lock Screen and now my only issue is a black screen when my phone is in landscape orientation. I just added a new wallpaper (even though I wanted to use my previous photos) and in the “pair” screen, first clicked on “blur” then chose the photo I wanted. Worked for black Lock Screen issue as well just by choosing same wallpaper theme. Clicking “blur” and then pairing.

Whats worked for me so far, 13Pro: long press on the lock screen and see my usual lock screen, another screen I didn’t create and one called “focus” that I also didn’t create. I deleted both the focus and the random mystery one and now my original lock screen seems to be sticking. 18 hours and counting but time will tell.

Used same workaround but had to re-save the photo I was using (of a framed shot hanging on our wall) cuz I couldn’t find it in the gazillion pic library and then it wouldn’t let me crop it correctly (another bug?). Curiously the original was still being recognized in the settings folder “current” option (even tho it had been showing black screen) so I ended reverting back to that and it rendered correctly. Wtf Apple.