I hate that wallpapers get removed with each version

[MakaniKai]

The iOS 17, 16, 15, etc wallpapers were really nice. But every update, the last version’s wallpaper just gets thrown away. Why? Do they seriously take up that much space? Or is it some exclusivity thing? It bothers me a lot.

Sure, I could download a photo of the old wallpapers, but it won’t have the very nice animations that they often come with when unlocking the phone, for example.

 

[fatTribble]

I agree. It’s never made sense to me. They could even upgrade them to higher resolutions and sizes match the new iPhone specs each year. It could be a cool thing for them to do.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

You know you can get them off the internet right? And then point your wallpaper at an album in Photos?

 

[MakaniKai]

You know you can get them off the internet right? And then point your wallpaper at an album in Photos?

If I’m not mistaken, these will be still photos instead of animated like the official ones. If you set your wallpaper to one of the official iOS version wallpapers, then lock and unlock your phone, you’ll notice that parts of the image move in different directions. It’s a small thing that makes the phone feel really well polished to me.

 

[xxFoxtail]

They replaced some of the CarPlay wallpapers with iOS 18. I actually really liked the one I was using and there's no way of getting it back without downgrading back to iOS 17. I suppose it's not really that big of a deal, just would have been nice for the option. Or even letting me set my own CarPlay wallpaper.

 

[Paddle1]

If I’m not mistaken, these will be still photos instead of animated like the official ones. If you set your wallpaper to one of the official iOS version wallpapers, then lock and unlock your phone, you’ll notice that parts of the image move in different directions. It’s a small thing that makes the phone feel really well polished to me.

You can somewhat work around this since iOS 16. You can customize and save a lockscreen before updating that you can then swap to later. I still have one from iOS 14 that I can swap to where the "special feature" (which in this case is having both a dark and light variant) still works.

 

[MakaniKai]

They replaced some of the CarPlay wallpapers with iOS 18. I actually really liked the one I was using and there's no way of getting it back without downgrading back to iOS 17. I suppose it's not really that big of a deal, just would have been nice for the option. Or even letting me set my own CarPlay wallpaper.

I totally forgot about the CarPlay wallpapers. That explains why mine looks a little different than I remember it. It would be very cool if they let us pick a photo of our own. I think Android Auto recently got that feature? Could be hallucinating.

You can somewhat work around this since iOS 16. You can customize and save a lockscreen before updating that you can then swap to later. I still have one from iOS 14 that I can swap to where the "special feature" (which in this case is having both a dark and light variant) still works.

Oh, nice trick! That means they still leave the old wallpapers on at least the phones which still use them. I wonder if they’re secretly hidden on all phones. Without a jailbreak we won’t know.

 

[BigBlur]

Oh, nice trick! That means they still leave the old wallpapers on at least the phones which still use them. I wonder if they’re secretly hidden on all phones. Without a jailbreak we won’t know.

That's not quite how it works. When you set your wallpaper on your phone, it makes a copy of it in your user data. Your user data is left alone when doing updates (or gets restored when doing a backup/restore), so that's why they still show after an update.

As an example, you can set a photo in your photo library as your wallpaper and then delete that photo. Your wallpaper still shows that photo because it made a copy of it. Same thing happens when using the system wallpapers.

We also know they aren't secretly hidden somewhere. We can extract the IPSW file and have a peek at the filesystem that way. (Think of it as one big ZIP file.) That's where/how we get the "original" wallpapers we find on the web to download.

 

[MakaniKai]

That's not quite how it works. When you set your wallpaper on your phone, it makes a copy of it in your user data. Your user data is left alone when doing updates (or gets restored when doing a backup/restore), so that's why they still show after an update.

As an example, you can set a photo in your photo library as your wallpaper and then delete that photo. Your wallpaper still shows that photo because it made a copy of it. Same thing happens when using the system wallpapers.

We also know they aren't secretly hidden somewhere. We can extract the IPSW file and have a peek at the filesystem that way. (Think of it as one big ZIP file.) That's where/how we get the "original" wallpapers we find on the web to download.

Thanks for the info! That makes way more sense

 

[miamialley]

I know. You’d think they’d want to keep adding new wallpapers every year. Instead, they have like various of three to choose from.

 

[chfilm]

I know right? So frustrating- instead of adding cool new ones every year!!

 

[Blaidd]

Is there a website where they have been catalogued ? Always like revisiting older wallpaper from previous generation iOS.

 

[joeblow7777]

I've been complaining about this for years! It seems like they add fewer wallpapers each year, AND they get rid of old ones. I don't understand why.

 

[BigBlur]

Is there a website where they have been catalogued ? Always like revisiting older wallpaper from previous generation iOS.

There's a few sites out there. I like this one because it has all the original resolutions for the various devices made.

GitHub - SniperGER/iOS-Wallpapers: An archive of every iOS wallpaper officially released by Apple

An archive of every iOS wallpaper officially released by Apple - SniperGER/iOS-Wallpapers

github.com

Wallpapers for iOS 16 and newer are harder to find because they're composed of multiple layers to support the animation we see when swiping up to unlock. There's no single/flat image like older versions of iOS. Someone has to compose them manually.

I also wish Apple would give us a way to download older versions like they have started doing for macOS.