How to Delete Wallpaper on iPhone (iOS 17/18 Step-by-Step)

Anyone who’s customized their iPhone Lock Screen knows how quickly wallpapers can pile up. Deleting them is straightforward using Apple’s Lock Screen carousel, a process that hasn’t changed since iOS 16 and works the same on iOS 17 and 18.

Apple Support pages on wallpaper deletion: 1 official page ·
iOS versions supporting wallpaper customization: iOS 16 through 18 ·
Maximum wallpapers saved on iPhone: 50 ·
Steps to delete a single wallpaper: 2

The key facts below capture the essentials from Apple Support and verified third‑party guides.

How to completely remove wallpaper on iPhone?

Open the Lock Screen gallery

1. Wake your iPhone and long-press the Lock Screen. The wallpaper gallery slides into view, showing all saved wallpaper sets (Apple Support (official iPhone help)).
2. If you’re on iOS 16 or later, this is the only entry point for deletion — you won’t find a delete option in Settings (Setapp (productivity app guide)).

Swipe up and tap the delete icon

1. Once the gallery is open, scroll to the wallpaper you want to remove. Swipe upward on that wallpaper — a red trash‑can icon appears (Laptop Mag (tech publication)).
2. Tap the trash‑can icon. A confirmation sheet slides up with the option Delete This Wallpaper (Victra (mobile retailer blog)).

Confirm deletion

1. Tap Delete This Wallpaper to confirm. The wallpaper disappears instantly — there is no undo (Setapp (productivity app guide)).
2. Repeat for any other wallpaper sets you wish to remove.

The implication: Apple deliberately keeps wallpaper deletion inside the Lock Screen carousel, not in Settings. That makes sense for quick access, but it also means there’s no “select all” button.

How do I delete multiple wallpapers on my iPhone?

Using the wallpaper carousel

• Each wallpaper must be deleted individually — iOS 17 and 18 offer no batch‑delete feature (YouTube video tutorial (community source)).
• The carousel displays all saved wallpaper sets; swipe through them one by one and delete each as described above.

Deleting wallpaper pairs

• Deleting a wallpaper also removes its paired Lock Screen and Home Screen combination (Apple Support (official iPhone help)).
• If you only want to change the Home Screen, you can customize it without deleting the pair — but removal is all‑or‑nothing for that set.

Limitations on batch removal

• As of iOS 18, there is no “delete all” button or swipe‑to‑select gesture (Laptop Mag (tech publication)).
• Third‑party apps cannot access the Lock Screen wallpaper gallery, so no workaround exists outside Apple’s interface.

What this means: users with 20+ saved wallpapers face a manual grind. The trade‑off is that Apple keeps the gallery simple and secure — no third‑party app can accidentally mass‑delete your setups.

How to get rid of old wallpapers?

Identify unused wallpapers

• Open the Lock Screen gallery by long‑pressing. Scroll through each set to see which ones you no longer use (Victra (mobile retailer blog)).
• Look for wallpapers with duplicate photos or outdated designs — these are prime candidates for deletion.

Delete individual wallpapers

• For each unwanted wallpaper, swipe up, tap the trash icon, and confirm. The same three‑step process works for custom photo wallpapers and Apple’s built‑in options alike (Setapp (productivity app guide)).
• Deleted wallpapers cannot be recovered — if you think you might want it later, take a screenshot first.

Manage custom wallpaper sets

• Photo Shuffle wallpapers require a slightly different approach: open the gallery, tap Customize, then the Photo Shuffle icon, and remove unwanted photos from the shuffle set (Setapp (productivity app guide)).
• This does not delete the wallpaper itself — only the photos it cycles through.

The pattern: whether you’re clearing out one or twenty, the interface stays the same. Apple designed it for manual curation, not mass cleanup.

Is there an easy way to manage iPhone wallpapers?

Wallpaper management interface

• Long‑press the Lock Screen to enter the wallpaper gallery — this is the central hub for all wallpaper management (Apple Support (official iPhone help)).
• From the gallery you can add, delete, or reorder wallpaper sets. Drag to rearrange them in your preferred sequence.

Organizing wallpaper sets

• There is no folder or grouping feature — all saved wallpapers appear in a single carousel (Setapp (productivity app guide)).
• The only organizational action available is deletion of unwanted sets, one at a time.

Third-party tools vs native options

• No third‑party app can access the Lock Screen wallpaper gallery, so no external tool can help manage or delete wallpapers (Laptop Mag (tech publication)).
• Apple’s limited interface means you must use the native carousel for all wallpaper management tasks.

The implication: Apple treats wallpaper management as a manual curation task — there’s no shortcut or third‑party bypass. You either delete manually or live with the clutter.

Quotes from the experts

“Swipe up on the wallpaper you want to delete. Tap the recycle bin icon and confirm.”

— Apple Support (official iPhone help)

“Swipe up on the chosen wallpaper and tap Delete This Wallpaper to confirm.”

— Setapp (productivity app guide)

“Long-press the Lock Screen, scroll to the wallpaper to delete, drag it upward to reveal a red trash can, and confirm deletion.”

— Laptop Mag (tech publication)

For anyone with a cluttered wallpaper gallery, the choice is clear: delete each one manually now, or wait — potentially forever — for a batch tool that may never come.

Related reading: How to delete wallpaper on iPhone (Setapp) · Change the wallpaper on iPhone (Apple Official Guide)

Frequently asked questions