How to Change the Home Screen Wallpaper on an iPad

Easy steps to change the wallpaper on iPad

Written by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: May 3, 2025 Fact Checked

Is the wallpaper on your iPad boring? There are many different ways to customize your iPad including changing the Home Screen background. The default wallpapers are attractive, but you can pick an alternate option or use your own pictures to make things a little more personal. This wikiHow article teaches you how to personalize your iPad by changing the Home Screen background.

How to Change the Wallpaper on an iPad

Open your Settings, then scroll down to click on “Wallpaper.” Tap “Add New Wallpaper” and choose a Dynamic, Still, or one of your own photos. Tap “Add” and “Customize Home Screen” to apply the image to your home screen background.

Steps

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This app icon looks like gears on a light grey background.^{[1]
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Tap Wallpaper. You'll find this under "General" in the menu on the left side of your iPad.^{[2]
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- Tap Choose a New Wallpaper. It's the option above the preview of your current wallpapers.
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Tap to choose a wallpaper style. Pick a Dynamic, Still, or one of your own pictures. Depending on the media on your iPad, you may see more options, like Live Photos, etc.^{[3]
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- The default wallpapers include dynamic wallpapers, which offer a little bit of motion, like bubbles floating up through water, while Stills are frozen images.
- You can also choose to use your wallpapers from your camera roll or images that you downloaded.
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Tap an image to use it as wallpaper. It will enlarge to cover your entire screen and show you a preview of what it would look like.
- Wallpapers marked with a half-dark, half-light circle icon will change when you activate Dark Mode.
- Tap the rectangle icon with arrows pointing out of it to turn on Perspective Zoom (it's centered at the bottom of your screen), which makes your wallpaper appear to move when you angle the iPad. This feature isn't available with all wallpapers.
Find Set in the lower right corner of the screen. You can save this image as either the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, or Both.^{[4]
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Question

How do I change the home screen if there is no background?

Community Answer

There always is a background. iPhones and iPads come with the wallapapers that Apple makes.

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If I dropped my iPad and it changed to a fluorescent color, how can I get my normal colors back?

Community Answer

Try going to Settings --> Accessibility, and look for a setting called Inverted Colors.

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How do I get rid of background windows on an iPad?

Community Answer

Simply double-click the home button. All of your background widows will appear. Swipe up on them to close them.

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Bear in mind that a Home screen background appears behind your app icons, so make sure the image doesn’t include similar colors to your apps that would make them hard to see.

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The better the quality of your wallpaper, the better it will look on your iPad, especially on the third-generation iPad with Retina Display.

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On some iPads, you press the home and power buttons at the same time to a screenshot. This can be used when you want a picture from the internet or social media as your background.

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