How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad

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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.

Steps

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  1. This app icon looks like gears on a light grey background. [1]
  2. You'll find this under "General" in the menu on the left side of your iPad. [2]
    • Tap Choose a New Wallpaper . It's the option above the preview of your current wallpapers.
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  3. 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]
    • 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    My iPad is from my school and they have restricted the wallpaper settings is there any way I can change the wallpaper?
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    If your school restricted that access, then NO. There's no way to change the wallpaper.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
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  • Question
    How do I change my background if it’s restricted?
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer
    If your school/organization/company restricted that access, then NO. There's no way to change the wallpaper.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
    Yes No
    Not Helpful 6 Helpful 3
  • 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.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
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    Not Helpful 9 Helpful 11
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      Tips

      • 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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      References

      1. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/change-the-wallpaper-ipad997d908e/ipados
      2. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/change-the-wallpaper-ipad997d908e/ipados
      3. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/change-the-wallpaper-ipad997d908e/ipados
      4. ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/change-the-wallpaper-ipad997d908e/ipados

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      1. Open Settings.
      2. Tap Wallpaper .
      3. Tap Choose a New Wallpaper .
      4. Tap to choose a wallpaper style.
      5. Tap an image to use it as wallpaper.
      6. Tap Set and then choose what to set it as.

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