If I delete a wallpaper, is it gone forever?

It depends. If you deleted one of Apple's gallery wallpapers that come pre-installed on your iPhone, you will be able to add it back from the gallery. If you deleted a custom photo wallpaper you uploaded, then you will need to manually upload it back.

If your wallpaper was selected from the gallery of wallpapers included with iOS on your iPhone, then the removed / deleted wallpaper will still remain in the gallery. You will be able to select it in the future if you like.

Axel F.

Keep in mind that if you change your wallpaper and it was in the wallpaper gallery, Apple annually changes wallpapers when the new iPhones and iOS version is released. If the wallpaper you were using is retired, then it is gone. You can almost always find the retired wallpapers at sites like 9to5 Mac, which publishes wallpapers from previous generations.

For example: When iPhone 16 and iOS 18 were released, the wallpapers for iPhone 15 and iOS 17 were retired. Next year, we will likely see that the wallpapers for iPhone 16 and iOS 18 will be retired, when iPhone 17 and iOS 19 are released.

AeroFlightFan wrote:

Great, thanks for clarifying.

You are most welcome. Glad to have helped and good to see you again.

AeroFlightFan wrote:

That's really handy info, thank you.

You are most welcome!