How to set lock screen on iphone 11

  • You can change your lock screen on an iPhone to any photo you have saved, a series of photos, and more.
  • If your iPhone has iOS 16 or newer, you can also choose from a gallery of premade lock screens or add widgets.
  • You can save multiple lock screen designs on your iPhone, and freely switch between them.

You can put pretty much any picture you want on your iPhone's lock screen. And if you've updated to iOS 16, you can even add a few extras, like widgets.

How to change your lock screen on an iPhone

There are a few ways to change your lock screen on an iPhone. But if you're running iOS 16, the easiest way is to go directly through the lock screen.

While you're looking at your iPhone's lock screen, tap and hold your finger anywhere. After a moment, the lock screen will zoom out and a few new options will appear.

Tap and hold the lock screen to find more options. Apple; William Antonelli/Insider

Select Customize to edit your current lock screen. You can tap the photos icon in the bottom-left to change the lock screen picture, swipe left or right to add a filter, and tap the boxes at the top to add widgets. If you tap the current time, you can also change its font and color. Tap Done in the top-right to save your design.

Select the plus sign in the corner to open the Add New Wallpaper window. This lets you pick from a selection of premade lockscreens, which include real-time views of the Earth, emoji patterns, color gradients, colorful swirling lines, and more. You can also choose from your own photos like normal — just tap Photos or People at the top of the screen.

You can also create a Photo Shuffle. In a Photo Shuffle, you'll pick a series of photos that your iPhone will randomly select to use as your lock screen, changing every so often. You can make the photo change every day, every hour, or even every time you unlock your iPhone.

iOS 16 gives you a lot of preset options. Apple; William Antonelli/Insider

If you're using an iPhone XR or newer, some lock screen photos can also have Depth Effects. This gives your photos a faux-3D effect by making the photo's subject block your view of the clock.

Once you've made multiple lock screens, you can switch between them whenever you want by tapping and holding your finger on the lock screen again. When the current lock screen zooms out, just swipe to switch to another one.

How to change your lock screen if you don't have iOS 16

If you're still using iOS 15 or older, then you can't change your lock screen by tapping and holding your current one. You also can't use the new premade options.

Instead, open your iPhone's Photos app and find the picture you want to put on your lock screen. It can be a picture that you took yourself, or one you saved from another app.

Once the picture is open, tap the share icon in the bottom-left corner. It's the icon that looks like a box with an arrow coming out of it.

Scroll down and tap Use as Wallpaper. Your iPhone will show you a preview of what the new lock screen looks like — when you like how it looks, tap Done in the top-right, or Set at the bottom of the screen.

You can set any photo as your lock screen from the Photos app. Apple; William Antonelli/Insider

If it asks whether you want to make the picture your lock screen or home screen, choose the lock screen option.

William Antonelli

Tech Reporter for Insider Reviews

William Antonelli (he/she/they) is a writer, editor, and organizer based in New York City. As a founding member of the Reference team, he helped grow Tech Reference (now part of Insider Reviews) from humble beginnings into a juggernaut that attracts over 20 million visits a month. Outside of Insider, his writing has appeared in publications like Polygon, The Outline, Kotaku, and more. He's also a go-to source for tech analysis on channels like Newsy, Cheddar, and NewsNation. You can find him on Twitter @DubsRewatcher, or reach him by email at .

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If you're wondering how to change the Lock Screen on your iPhone, you might initially be a bit disappointed. There's no option for deep customization of your Lock Screen like Android typically offers, but don't despair. Your iPhone still offers some Lock Screen settings that let you tweak a few small aspects.

We'll walk you through the available Lock Screen settings for your iPhone (and iPad), showing all the ways you can customize this important part of your device.

How to Change Your Lock Screen Wallpaper on iPhone

One of the simplest, yet most personal, aspects of your iPhone's Lock Screen is its wallpaper. You see it every time you unlock your phone, so it's fun to change it up occasionally.

It's easy to change your iPhone's Lock Screen wallpaper: open the Settings app and select the Wallpaper field. Here, tap Choose a New Wallpaper to see the options available.

The Dynamic, Stills, and Live categories at the top represent the different types of default wallpapers, which usually change with each major release of iOS. Dynamic wallpapers move as you move your device, Stills are static, and Live wallpapers play an animation when you touch and hold the screen.

Below these, you'll see the various folders of photos on your device in case you want to use one of your own images as a wallpaper. There are also plenty of places to find new iPhone wallpapers if none of the existing choices inspire you.

Tap a wallpaper to preview how it will look on your Lock Screen. Depending on the image, you might be able to tap and drag to move it, as well as pinching to zoom in.

At the bottom, you'll see an icon for Perspective Zoom (except on Dynamic wallpapers). When this is enabled, your wallpaper will shift slightly as you move your phone. For Live wallpapers, you can turn off the Live Photo option to disable the animation.

Tap Set when you're happy with your wallpaper, then choose Set Lock Screen to use this wallpaper for the Lock Screen but not the Home Screen. Choose Set Both if you want to use it everywhere.

Some default iPhone wallpapers will change with Dark Mode or Light Mode. You can also change your iPhone wallpaper on a schedule.

How to Change Your iPhone's Passcode and Security

Of course, the most important function of the Lock Screen is to protect your device from outsiders. It's thus important to know how to change your passcode or biometric security when needed.

Visit Settings > Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode for iPhone models without Face ID) for the relevant options. For iPhone models with Face ID, choose Reset Face ID if the feature is not working correctly and you want to restart Face ID from scratch.

There's also an option to Set Up an Alternate Appearance. This allows you to, for example, add your spouse or trusted friend's face to let them unlock your device. Face ID continually learns what you look like, so you shouldn't need to use this feature for small changes like growing a beard or wearing a hat.

For devices with Touch ID, touch a finger to the scanner to identify it in the Fingerprints list. Tap an existing fingerprint to delete it, swipe on one to delete it, or tap Add a fingerprint to set a new one (you can have up to five).

On either type of device, you can tap Turn Passcode off to disable all lock screen security, though we strongly recommend against this. Hit Change Passcode to create a new iPhone passcode. During the process, tap Passcode Options to change the length of the code or even use letters in it.

Scroll down to Allow Access When Locked to see a list of features that are accessible even when your device is locked. Disable the slider for anything that you only want to be accessible after you've unlocked your iPhone. Keep in mind that anyone who has your iPhone can use the enabled functions (though some functions are limited, such as Siri not reading your recent messages while locked).

Finally, with the Erase Data option enabled, your iPhone will erase everything after someone enters an incorrect passcode 10 times. Because your iPhone locks for a short period of time after multiple incorrect attempts, the risk of this feature deleting your data due to a child messing around is low.

How to Change Your iPhone Lock Screen Timeout Period

To keep your device safe and preserve your iPhone's battery life, your phone automatically locks after a certain amount of time. At that point, the screen goes blank and you have to get past the Lock Screen to use your device.

You can customize how long your device goes without any input before locking at Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock. The shortest time is 30 seconds, with the longest being 5 minutes (as well as Never). We don't recommend choosing a long time for this, as keeping the screen on wastes battery and makes your phone open to anyone who picks it up if you leave it unattended.

On iPhone models with Face ID, you should also visit Settings > Face ID & Passcode and make sure Attention Aware Features is on. With this, your iPhone won't turn off the screen as long as you're looking at it.

How to Change Your iPhone's Lock Screen Notifications

Your iPhone's Lock Screen displays notifications, allowing you to stay updated even without unlocking your device. But like the other features mentioned above, this can also be a privacy risk—you don't want everyone to see the contents of your emails, texts, and similar.

For a broad approach, first head to Settings > Notifications and change Show Previews to When Unlocked. This will, for example, show a Lock Screen notification that you received an iMessage from Joe Smith, but won't show the text itself.

To control where individual apps send notifications, scroll down, select an app, and disable Lock Screen to keep them from appearing there. See our guide to controlling iPhone notifications for more tips.

How to Turn Off the iPhone Lock Sound

If you don't like the clicking sound that plays when you lock your device, visit Settings > Sounds & Haptics and scroll to the bottom of the page. Disable Lock Sound and you won't hear anything upon locking your screen.

This setting can be useful for confirming when your device has locked, but it's just an annoying tone most of the time.

How to Change Medical ID on iPhone

Medical ID is one of the most important aspects of your iPhone available from the Lock Screen, since it could help someone save your life in an emergency.

See how to set up Medical ID on your iPhone to learn where to access it and add this important information on your own device.

All the Ways to Change Your Lock Screen on iPhone

We've looked at the various Lock Screen settings available on your iPhone, so you now know the various ways to tweak the Lock Screen and control what appears on it. It's worth taking a few minutes to make sure you're not inadvertently providing too much information on the Lock Screen.

Meanwhile, there are more ways to keep your iPhone secure if you want to go further.

How do I set my iPhone lock screen?

Touch and hold the Lock Screen until the Customize button appears at the bottom of the screen. If the Customize button doesn't appear, touch and hold the Lock Screen again, then enter your passcode. Swipe to the Lock Screen you want to use, then tap it.

How do I set my iPhone 11 to lock?

Lock and unlock device Press the Side button then slide the bottom bar up. To lock iPhone, press the Side button. Settings app > scroll to and select Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock > select the desired lock time.

Where do you find lock screen on iPhone 11?

Press the Side button. Slide your finger upwards starting from the bottom of the screen. Press Display & Brightness. Press Auto-Lock.