How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (2024)

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Written byDarlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: November 10, 2023Fact Checked

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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.

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  1. 1

    Open Settings. This app icon looks like gears on a light grey background.

  2. 2

    Tap Wallpaper. You'll find this under "General" in the menu on the left side of your iPad.

    • Tap Choose a New Wallpaper. It's the option above the preview of your current wallpapers.

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  3. 3

    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.

    • 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. 4

    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.
  5. 5

    Tap Set and then choose what to set it as. 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.[1]

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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?

    How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (9)

    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer

    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

    How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (10)

    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.
    As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!Claim Your GiftIf 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?

    How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (11)

    wikiHow Staff Editor
    Staff Answer

    This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

    How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (12)

    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.
    As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!Claim Your GiftIf 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 1Helpful 2

  • Question

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

    How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (13)

    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.
    As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!Claim Your GiftIf 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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      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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      About This Article

      How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (29)

      Written by:

      Darlene Antonelli, MA

      wikiHow Technology Writer

      This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been viewed 213,643 times.

      How helpful is this?

      Co-authors: 12

      Updated: November 10, 2023

      Views:213,643

      Categories: Ipad

      Article SummaryX

      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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      In other languages

      Español:cambiar el fondo de la pantalla de inicio en un iPad

      Русский:сменить фоновый рисунок рабочего стола на iPad

      中文:更改iPad的主屏幕壁纸

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      How to Change the Home Screen Background on an iPad: 5 Steps (2024)

      FAQs

      How do I customize my Home screen on my iPad? ›

      Apple iPad - Customize Your Home Screen
      1. From the App Library, touch and hold an app. To access the App Library, swipe left from a Home screen.
      2. Drag and drop the app to the preferred Home screen. For the app to be successfully added, there must be sufficient space within the selected Home screen.

      How do you just change the Home screen background? ›

      On your phone's Home screen, touch and hold an empty space. Tap Wallpaper & style. If you don't see "Wallpaper & style," tap Wallpapers. Tap Change wallpaper.

      How do I change my Home screen on my school iPad? ›

      Personalize the look of your Home screen and Lock screen. Open Settings, tap Wallpaper, then choose a preset image or one of your own photos.

      How do I Customise my Home Screen? ›

      Customise your home screen

      Drag it to another part of the screen. Add a favourite app: From the bottom of your screen, swipe up. Touch and hold an app. Move the app into an empty spot with your favourites.

      How do I change the theme on my iPad? ›

      On your iPhone or iPad, navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness and tap the Dark theme under the Appearance section. This will automatically change the theme for built-in apps like Files, Messages, Music, Notes, Safari, and Settings.

      Can you customize your iPad? ›

      You can tailor your iPad to your own interests and preferences. Personalize your Lock Screen and Home Screen, keep certain features like brightness or text size handy, turn on accessibility features, adjust your privacy settings, and more.

      Can you have different home screen backgrounds? ›

      You can have different wallpapers for the Lock and Home screens, as well as different wallpapers for different Focus settings. But to do this they must be new wallpapers, because the older ones don't have the software “hooks” necessary for the new features to work.

      What is iPad Home Screen? ›

      Unlike a PC or a Mac, the Home screen on iPhone and iPad is a place to store every app, shortcut, and widget you have installed. It began simply enough but has gained more and more functionality over the years, though much of it has been tucked away to reduce confusion.

      How do I change my iPad background to black? ›

      to turn Dark Mode on or off. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness, then select Dark to turn on Dark Mode or select Light to turn it off.

      How do I customize my iPad Home Screen with widgets? ›

      Go to the Home Screen page where you want to add the widget, then touch and hold the Home Screen background until the apps begin to jiggle. at the top of the screen to open the widget gallery. Scroll or search to find the widget you want, tap it, then swipe left and right through the size options.

      How to set different Wallpaper on Lock Screen and Home Screen iphone? ›

      Settings -> Wallpaper. Tap on the right "home screen". There you can choose a separate background for your home screen. You can also choose a separate wallpaper for your lock screen there.

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