How to Delete Wallpapers on iPhone (Ridiculous iOS 16 System, I Know)
Create wallpaper pairs and assign to Focus Modes; delete feature oddly tucked in Lock screen interface.
Though intended to improve wallpaper use with iOS 16 features, the new paired creation and editing system proved clunky. Wallpaper deletion bizarrely lives in the Lock screen, not the Wallpaper app or settings.
If you’re wondering how to delete wallpapers on iPhone, you’re not alone. There has been an explosion recently in people searching for how to do just that. Why? Simply put, because Apple messed wallpapers up entirely with iOS 16 (at least in my, and I’m sure many others’ opinion).
With iOS 16, Apple changed how wallpapers are created and edited, in a well-intentioned attempt to make them function better with Focus Modes and widgets. You now create wallpapers in pairs and have to edit them in pairs, and you can assign them to Focus Modes.
Unfortunately, the downside of this is that it’s a bit convoluted and clunky — cardinal sins for any of today’s best phones. One of my many grievances with this new system is that it’s not at all obvious how to delete wallpapers — this would be important anyway but is doubly so since the new system, in my experience, leads to quite a few duplicate or incorrect wallpapers.
Long press Lock screen
To delete, long press the Lock screen to unlock.
Choose a wallpaper
Choose the wallpaper you want to delete. You can tap customize to see the wallpaper pair.
Swipe up and delete
Swipe up on a wallpaper and tap the delete icon to get rid of it, then tap Delete This Wallpaper to confirm.
Note: This guides deleting wallpapers on iPhone running iOS 16; for other iOS versions, see updating an iPhone.
This process solely deletes wallpapers added or changed in iOS 16; for other iOS versions, refer to updating an iPhone.