Having trouble adding some personality to your iPhone when using live wallpapers? Can’t figure out how to add movement to your iPhone’s Lock Screen? Keep reading to learn how to set-up, use, and troubleshoot your Live Wallpapers today!
Contents
- 1 Quick Tips
- 2 Live Wallpaper Basics
- 3 What’s The Difference Between Live Wallpapers and Dynamic Wallpapers?
- 4 Set your iPhone’s Live Wallpapers for your Lock Screen (and/or Home Screen)
- 5 How to fix Live Wallpaper not working on your iPhone
- 6 Low Power Mode Could Be Causing Problems
- 7 Try Changing to a Different Wallpaper
- 8 Check the Reduce Motion Settings
- 9 Change your Haptic Touch’s touch duration
- 10 Find the Best Live Wallpapers
- 11 Reader Tips
Quick Tips 
Follow These Quick Tips to Fix Your Live Wallpapers
- Make sure that the photo you select for your Live Wallpaper is a “Live” Photo
- Restart your iPhone
- Disable Low Power Mode
- Turn off Reduce Motion
- Change your Haptic Touch’s touch duration
- Enable 3D Touch, if available on your device
- Set back to a regular static wallpaper image
- Change to a different live photo for your wallpaper
- Make sure your iPhone is model iPhone 6S or newer (iPhone SE 1st generation does not support live photos)
Related Posts:
- Live Photos on iPhone, A Complete Guide – 2018
- When Using 3D Touch on Your iPhone Makes Sense: 12 Tips
Live Wallpaper Basics
Live Wallpapers have been around since the iPhone 6S and add a magical flair to your phone. However, they don’t always work correctly. So if you’ve got a problem with your Live Wallpaper, this post shows you exactly how to fix it!
There are a couple of common mistakes people make with Live Wallpapers
- First, a Live Wallpaper only works from your Lock Screen—not from your Home Screen—and to activate it you need to press firmly and engage 3D Touch or Haptic Touch
- Second, the image selected needs to be either a Live Photo or one of your iDevice’s default Live Wallpaper
- The iPhone SE 1st generation does not support live wallpaper (due to no 3D Touch or Haptic Touch feature)
- iPhones with 3D or Haptic Touch can use a Live Wallpaper
- iPads and iPods do not support Live Wallpapers. It’s an iPhone only feature
Check That Your Selected Photo is “Live”
Go to Settings > Wallpaper, and tap on the Wallpaper screen, verify that the image is a “Live Photo” and not a Still or Perspective picture.
If you know all that and still can’t get it to work, check out these easy steps below and learn just how to fix it.
Live Wallpapers using an iPhone 11, XR, or SE?
The good news is that the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, ii Pro Max, and XR now support live wallpapers!
With iOS 13.4+, all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st & 2nd generation) allow your Lock screen to play the Live Photos. The key is to press and hold on the Lock screen to play the Live Photo!
If you still use an older iOS version, when you select a live photo for your wallpaper, it shows on the lock screen as a still image. There are options for Dynamic Wallpapers, which simulate motion. But unlike Live Photos, you can’t create your own dynamic wallpapers!
So, to get live wallpapers we highly recommend updating your iOS. Remember, to back up your device first using iCloud, Finder, or iTunes!
Problems with iPhone SE second generation (2020 model) and live wallpapers?
A lot of our readers who updated to a new iPhone SE have problems getting live wallpapers to work. We reached out to Apple with mixed results–some say that yes, the iPhone SE second generation works and others say it doesn’t.
What we know is that you should update the iOS to at least iOS 13.4.1–then test if Live Wallpapers work.
According to Apple’s own guidance:
“When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation)”
What’s The Difference Between Live Wallpapers and Dynamic Wallpapers?
- Live Wallpapers animate when you 3D or Haptic Touch them. Since they need 3D/Haptic Touch, Live Wallpapers are only available on iPhones with those features feature–so it’s not available on the original first-generation iPhone SE. You can create your own live images to use as Live Wallpapers. However, Live Wallpapers only work on the Lock screen. On your Home screen, Live Wallpapers are still images
- Dynamic Wallpapers are animated images that play on a loop and they work on both the Home and Lock screens! And unlike Live Wallpapers, they don’t require 3D Touch. Unlike Live Wallpapers, you can’t create your own Dynamic Wallpapers
Be aware that Dynamic Wallpapers use a lot of power!
Use a Dynamic Wallpaper on Your iPhone
- Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper
- Tap Dynamic
- Select one of the available dynamic wallpapers
- Choose Set
How To Play Dynamic and Live Wallpapers
- Dynamic. The animation plays automatically on your Lock or Home screen
- Live. On the Lock screen, 3D/Haptic Touch and hold until the live image starts animating
Set your iPhone’s Live Wallpapers for your Lock Screen (and/or Home Screen)
- Tap on Settings > Wallpaper
- Select choose a new wallpaper
- Scroll down and tap the Live Photos album instead of the regular photos
- Choose a Live photo to set up as Wallpaper
- Tap Set
- Select where you want that live photo: on your Lock Screen, Home Screen, Both, or cancel–Live Photos only work on the lock screen
How to fix Live Wallpaper not working on your iPhone
Restart Your iPhone
Whatever issue you may have with your iPhone, the easiest fix is to restart it. This is also true for Live Wallpaper problems, so try a quick restart before anything else and see if it helps.
How you restart depends on your model
- For iPhone SE & iPhone 8 and below, iPads, and iPod Touch
- Press and hold the Top or Side button until the slider appears
- Swipe the slider to the other side to turn your device completely off
- To turn it back on, press and hold the Top or Side button again
- For iPhone X and above (models with Face ID)
- Press and hold the Side button and either volume button until the slider appears
- Swipe the slider to the other side to turn your device completely off
- To turn your iPhone back on, press and hold the Side button again
- Using iOS 11 and above
- Turn off ANY device, regardless of model, by going to Settings > General> Shut Down
Low Power Mode Could Be Causing Problems
Is the battery icon at the top of your display yellow? You might have Low Power Mode turned on.
This shouldn’t make a difference because Low Power Mode doesn’t deactivate Live Wallpapers, but sound logic doesn’t always help with technical issues. Many users have reported Low Power Mode as the cause of their problems.
Turn Off Low Power Mode
- Go to Settings > Battery
- Tap to turn off Low Power Mode
- Return to your Lock Screen and test the Live Wallpaper
Parallax, Live, and Dynamics motion effects are automatically disabled when Low Power Mode is enabled, so that’s why live wallpapers don’t work!
Try Changing to a Different Wallpaper
There could be a problem with your specific wallpaper. You can test it by switching to one of the defaults on your phone. We recommend changing to a Still Wallpaper and then trying a default Live Wallpaper to see if it works.
Change to a Default Still Wallpaper
- Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper
- Select Stills and choose any of the default Still Wallpapers
- Tap Set > Set Lock Screen (or Set Both)
- Return to your Lock Screen to see if it has changed
Change to a Default Live Wallpaper
- Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper
- Select Live or scroll down to your Live Photos album and choose any of the default Live Wallpapers
- Tap Set > Set Lock Screen (only lock screens support live wallpapers)
- Return to your Lock Screen to see if it has changed
If the default wallpaper works, there must be a problem with your old wallpaper. Is it definitely a Live Photo?
Check the Reduce Motion Settings
This is a big one and is often responsible for live Wallpapers not working on your device.
- For iOS 13+, go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion
- For iOS 12 and below, tap on General > Accessibility
- Locate Reduce Motion
- Make sure you toggle this setting OFF
If it’s ON, tap it and toggle it to OFF, restart your device, and then check if the wallpapers start their Live animation sequence now.
Change your Haptic Touch’s touch duration
Your iPhone may not be recognizing your on-screen touch as a haptic touch, so let’s try changing the touch duration for your haptic touch.
- Open Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Haptic Touch (or 3D and Haptic Touch)
- Change your touch duration from Fast to Slow or vise-versa
- Tap the image in the touch duration test to see just how long it takes to pop to a larger image
- If you don’t like the duration, change it in the settings above
For iPhones that support 3D touch, turn 3D touch on
Depending on what iOS version you use, Live Wallpapers may use 3D Touch to activate. There’s a chance your 3D Touch has been turned off. Follow the steps below to make sure that isn’t the case:
Turn on 3D Touch
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > 3D and Haptic Touch
- For older iOS, Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch
- Toggle 3D touch ON
- Adjust the 3D Touch Sensitivity to a level you can use
- Try turning the sensitivity to light and use your whole thumb on the lock screen to get the live wallpapers to work
Find the Best Live Wallpapers
Now that your Live Wallpaper up and running, it’s time to customize your iPhone with an awesome new background.
Bonus Tip: If you are looking for a wallpaper for your iPhone 11 Pro/X/XS Series phone, check out one with a Dark background. The darker pixels on an OLED screen save battery juice compared to the brighter ones.
Finding a high-quality Live Wallpapers is hard
However, you can check out the Apps below for lots of unique options:
- Wallpapers for Me (Live)
- Live Wallpapers Now
- Wallpapers and Themes (Live)
- Live Wallpapers & Backgrounds
Send us a picture of your favorite Live Wallpapers, and let us know in the comments if you need more help!
Reader Tips
- When you’re on the Lock screen, press FIRMLY to play and animate the Live Photo
- For iPhone XR folks, call or contact Apple support and ask them to add Live Photos to the iPhone XR’s Lock Screen in a future iOS update
- I wasn’t pushing hard enough, or with enough of my finger to enable 3D Touch, so I tried to push harder, and it started working. I usually use a light touch on my screen, so it felt a little weird to use so much force. But it worked!
- I agree. What worked for me was adjusting the 3D Touch sensitivity to LIGHT. Then make sure you press a little bit harder than normal on your iPhone’s screen while in lock mode or in a preview to see the live wallpapers
- When I applied a more forceful press, the live wallpapers proceeded to animate
- I had the same problem when I first received my iPhone X, but once I enabled 3D Touch, live wallpapers were working. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch. After enabling it your live pictures should work
Dan is a freelance writer based in South West England.
He spent two years supervising repairs as a Genius Admin for Apple Retail and uses that knowledge to keep our troubleshooting guides up to date.
Long before that, Dan turned to Apple products from a musical background. Having owned iPods for years, he bought a MacBook to learn sound recording and production. It was using those skills that he gained a first-class Bachelor of Science in Sound Technology.
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I have the same problem did you ever git it fixed?
Hi!
I have an iPhone 11 iOS 13.5.1. My photos from my Live Photo album don’t work when I set them for my lock screen wallpaper, only the default Live Photo’s work as a live lock screen wallpaper. I’ve tried everything suggested here at least twice. The rest of my family with the same type of phone doesn’t have this issue. Any other suggestions? Please & thank you.
Hi!
I have an iPhone 11 with the most current IOS 13.5.1 & no live photos from my Live Photo album work. Only the default Live Photo’s work. The rest of my family’s Live Photo album photos work but not mine! I’ve tried everything suggested here at least twice & nothing’s changed 🙁 any other suggestions? Please & thanks.
Hey,
I been trying to add a live wallpaper on my new iphone SE (2; second generation) but no luck. I have tried your steps but nothing. My phone is up to date so no updates needed. What now?
We are getting mixed answers from Apple on Live Wallpapers working on the new iPhone SE.
It’s clear that the SE includes all the needed hardware to support Live Wallpapers! So we believe that they should be available (if not now, then with an upcoming iOS update)
According to Apple’s own guidance:
“When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation)”
So that implies that it should work on the new 2020 second-generation iPhone SE.
When we reached out to our Apple contacts, several said it worked and several said it didn’t.
So we too are confused!
It appears that updating iOS to iOS 13.4.1 does not bring this feature to the iPhone SE 2nd generation.
If you are up for it, you could try updating to the iOS 13.5 beta and then see if Live Wallpapers works on your SE. But updating to betas always has risks!
If you don’t want to risk using the beta iOS, contact Apple Support to complain and ask them to add this feature.
I just got two new iPhone SE’s in the last two days in the family as both daughters got one.
One of them came from an iPhone 7 (because her touch ID was damaged) and because she transferred from the 7 the lock screen already set is Live on her iPhone SE 2020 but she can’t select a new one as the live options are not there.
The other daughter came from an original SE and has no live photos for Lock screen / Wallpaper at all. I guess the transfer proves there is nothing stopping the device from having a live photo lock screen (But I guess we all know that really) but perhaps Apple has purposely disabled the function due to price point??
Hopefully its just an accidental oversight and it’ll be fixed in future IOS updates.
Hi Matt,
Apple is sending a lot of mixed messages about Live Wallpapers and the new 2020 iPhone SE. We’ve reached out to our Apple sources (who work there) and again, we got mixed messages–some say yes, it is supported and others no, not yet. So we too are very frustrated!
What all our Apple contacts agreed upon was that the new SE has the hardware to support Live Wallpapers!
The current iOS 13 user guide says this: When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation).
So, to us, that means that yes, the iPhone SE second generation (this new 2020 model) should support Live Wallpapers!
We think this support is added in iOS 13.4 or 13.4.1–so check your daughter’s iPhone SEs and update to the latest iOS–which is currently iOS 13.4.1. Remember to backup first to iCloud, iTunes, or Finder and then update the iOS.
What we do know is that Live Wallpapers is now available on the iPhone XR–so it makes sense that it should also now work on your new model SE.
The only difference we see with the XR is that you can only choose Live Photos from the albums list–they do not show up in the top list of wallpapers (besides Dynamic and Stills.) You need to scroll down and tap the Live Photos album and then choose a photo.
Keep us posted because this has us totally perplexed!
Thanks and good luck,
Liz
I just got one of the 2020 iPhone SEs, and I can’t get an option for Live wallpapers to show up. I updated my iOS to 13.4.1 and followed your steps, but I still don’t see this as an option, just Dynamic and Stills. What now?
(Thanks for any help you can provide!)
Hi Sarah,
Do you see an album called Live Photos? If not, it’s probably because you have not yet taken any. Try taking a few test live photos, then see if the Live Photos album shows up and is available for your live wallpapers!
Hi Elizabeth,
We actually got two iPhone SE’s, and it’s not working for either of them. They imported old Live Photos and have taken new ones. We even restarted the phones after taking new Live Photos and still don’t get a Live Wallpaper option. Any other ideas?
Hi Sarah,
Oh what a nuisance, we are so sorry!
According to Apple, live wallpaper are supported on the iPhone SE second generation but not the first generation.
Have you updated both iPhones to the latest iOS 13.4.1 ? Take a look at Settings > General > Software Update.
If an update is shown, backup first via iCloud or your computer and then update.
Then, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, and test your Haptic Touch. Adjust the sensitivity to slow or fast as you prefer.
See if your iPhone SE 2nd gen now gets live wallpaper support.
If not, or the iPhone is already using the latest iOS, we suggest you contact Apple Support and ask them what gives…according to their own iOS 13 guide:
“When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation)”
So following their own guidance here, Live Photo’s should work on the latest iPhone SE second gen.
Dynamic wallpapers won’t work can anyone help me
HI JC,
What iPhone model do you use and which iOS version are you running?
Do you know if the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 pro will have 3-d touch and live wallpapers capability? I would like to know before I purchase, made this mistake with the iPhone XR and don’t want to do that again. Thanks for any help.
Hi Harry,
The iPhone 11 does not have 3D Touch but instead replaced this feature with haptic touch (like the XR.) However, Apple does add a lot of haptic touch quick actions in iOS13, so many of the 3D touch capabilities are there.
It is not clear if the iPhone 11s will support live wallpapers–there isn’t any information about live wallpapers at this time.
Liz
I don’t have an option for live or 3D Touch can you help me turn it on?
Hi Callie,
What model of iPhone do you have? To check, go to Settings > General > About.
Most iPhone models after the iPhone 6s support live wallpapers and 3D Touch; however, neither the iPhone XR or the iPhone SE support Live Wallpapers.
Is apple going to update and have XR and XS have live wallpaper or no
Hi Alexandria,
The XS support wallpapers but the XR does not.
To access on an iPhone XR, go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper > Live.
The XR support dynamic wallpapers-these move continuously rather than just when you tap on it.
What if you don’t have an option for Live Photo
Hi Sam,
If you don’t see an option for Live Photo, it’s possible that your model does not support this feature.
But first, make sure your Camera is set to photo mode when taking a picture. You cannot take Live Photos in any other mode of the Camera
Live Photos is available on iPhone 6s or later, iPad 5th generation or later, iPad Air 3rd generation+, iPad mini 5th generation+, all models for iPad Pro, and iPod touch 7th generation+.
To check your model, go to Settings > General > About.
To learn more about iPad and iPod models, see this article.
Liz
I’m on iPad mini 5th gen and there is Still no option
I can’t get any picture (regular, not live) to show up on my iPhone XR lock screen.
The default pics don’t really show up either.
They all have a black screen showing up in front of them, and the picture is hidden in the background. Is that right? Any way to fix it?
(This phone was not worth the upgrade! I’ve never been so unhappy with apple.)
Hi AK,
First, update your iPhone XR to the latest iOS version–got to Settings > General > Software Update
Next, close all open apps and then try restarting your device by fully powering off, waiting for 1-2 minutes, and then powering back on.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for all open apps
6. Then power off, wait, and power up
Once done, try setting a picture for your lock screen.
If that doesn’t work, try resetting all your personalized settings.
Reset all settings
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
* You need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts
iPhone XR is not supported because of the lack of 3d touch
The steps mentioned here are good. But I have found this app: Live Wallpaper HD for iPhone.
The instruction is informative & effective. I may be wrong. I am all ears for suggestions.
Not to mention this app has a live photo converter which is totally free. At least, I can still make live photos from my videos. Thanks.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Pls add live wallpaper to iPhone XR
I don’t have a 3D Touch option?? iPhone XR
Hi Robert,
Unfortunately, the iPhone XR does not support live wallpaper (because like you mention it lacks 3D Touch.)
Sam