Skip to main content

How to delete a wallpaper on your iPhone in iOS 17

How to delete a wallpaper on your iPhone.
DIgital Trends

While it may not have as many customization options as the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Apple gives you plenty of ways to make your iPhone your own. This remains the case with iOS 17, which brought heaps of new features to the smartphone lineup, ensuring that the iPhone 15 and its predecessors remain some of the best smartphones of 2024. As you'd expect, one of the most popular features on the iOS is updating your wallpaper and give your home or lock screen a brand new look. These can be paired with widgets for even more functionality.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • An iPhone with iOS 16 or iOS 17

But how do you delete a wallpaper on iOS 17 after it has been created? The process is simple once you know where to look — but it's hidden in a slightly strange location. Here's how to delete a wallpaper on iOS 17.

How to delete a wallpaper on your iPhone.
DIgital Trends

How to delete a wallpaper on your iPhone

To delete a wallpaper on your iPhone, you'll need to use the phone's long-press feature and follow additional instructions.

Step 1: To get started, lock your phone. The easiest way to do so is by pressing on the side button (on newer iPhones) or the top button (on older models).

A screenshot showing how to lock the screen on a late model iPhone.
Digital Trends

Step 2: With your iPhone locked, long press on the home screen.

Step 3: From this screen, go back and forth and see the installed wallpapers. Choose the one you wish to delete.

A screenshot showing how to swipe between wallpapers on iPhone.
Digital Trends

Step 4: Swipe up, then tap the delete icon. Confirm by tapping Delete This Wallpaper.

Screenshot showing how to delete a wallpaper on an iPhone.
Digital Trends

Deleting a wallpaper on your iPhone requires following a few simple steps that starts with locking your phone. Once you do this, you'll be done in just a few minutes.

Bryan M. Wolfe
Former Mobile and A/V Freelancer
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
3 big iOS 19 changes that I hope Apple reveals at WWDC 2025
iOS 19 sample logo.

We’re less than two days away from Apple’s big WWDC 2025 keynote, where the company will reveal new versions of each of its software platforms. One of the biggest changes this year is the expected shift from iOS 19 to iOS 26, with new versions of macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS also set to follow suit. We're also expecting to see the evolution of Apple Health, including a new AI doctor and Health subscription.

iOS 26, if it is to be named that, is expected to introduce one of the biggest evolutions in design for Apple software since the first iPhone was launched. Inspired by visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro, it’s expected to be a monumental redesign, but I hope that Apple also takes the time to make a few improvements.

Read more
iOS 26 rumored to go back to basics with four intriguing upgrades
An iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18, showing its home screen.

In just two days from now, Apple will take the stage at WWDC 2025 and showcase the big yearly upgrades for its entire software portfolio. I am quite excited about the platform-wide design update and a few functional changes to iPadOS, especially the one targeting a more macOS-like makeover for the iPad’s software. 

Of course, analysts will be keenly watching for Apple’s next moves with AI, but it seems some of the most dramatic features have been pushed into the next year. Apple can afford some of those delays, as long as the company serves enough meaningful updates to its user base. Apple won’t exactly be running dry on AI, though. 

Read more
iPhone 17 price looks more certain to rise for first time since the iPhone 12
Apple might be preparing its first iPhone price increase in five years
iPhone 16 Pro Max next to the 16 Plus, 16 Pro and regular iPhone 16

For years now, Apple has launched the base model iPhone at $799 - but in 2025, more and more signs are pointing towards prices being increased for the introduction of the iPhone 17.

The likelihood of an iPhone 17 price increase was raised by the Wall Street Journal in May, and now Counterpoint Research notes in its recent 2025 shipment forecast that "cost increases are expected to be passed on to consumers" by not only Apple, but Samsung as well.

Read more