Can I Change The Wallpaper On My Apple Watch?

You have a new Apple watch, and you love it, but every time you look down, you see the default screen and simply want to change it to your favorite picture of your cat. Changing the wallpaper is one of the most popular features on the Apple Watch, and we’ll discuss all of your options here.

You can change your Apple Watch wallpaper, and you have a few options to customize how it is displayed. You can also change the look of the digital clock or even change it to an analog face.

However, you must take some crucial steps to ensure your watch will accept the changes for it to be successful. Without completing these, you may run into problems with a frozen watch.

Changing the Wallpaper on an Apple Watch 

Changing the wallpaper on your Apple Watch can make it feel personalized to you and your needs, whether you use it to work out, track steps, or just tell time.

The hardest part of the process is uploading your photos to your watch, but enabling the changes to the wallpaper is simple. You can customize your Watch wallpaper to be your favorite photo, fitness tracker, or even just a standard watch face. 

One of the most popular fitness trackers to sync up with the Apple Watch is the Peloton tracker.

Ensure Your Watch is Set Up Correctly

Before taking on the task of changing the wallpaper on your watch, you must ensure your watch is ready to do so. 

You have to ensure your watch is updated to the latest update to start. Depending on the age of your watch, you may have an outdated iOS that may hang up the watch when you plan on changing the face or wallpaper. Check your phone’s settings and verify the update section states you have the most up-to-date iOS version. Make sure your Apple Watch is charged before doing an update as well,

Second, you must ensure you have enough storage space on your watch. Often users have far too much music stored on their watch to load more photos. If the photo you want to use, or if you would like to rotate photos, will take up a large amount of space, you will likely run into a storage concern. Even if you have enough space, it may make the watch a bit slow to refresh.

Uploading Photos to Your Watch 

Once you have verified that you have enough space and have the most updated iOS version, it’s time to begin! The first step is to ensure the pictures you would like to use for your wallpaper are loaded on your watch. If they are not, you must upload the photos.

All of the photos you would like to load onto your watch must reside in their folder. Apple does not allow you to upload single photos to the Apple watch, so selecting the photos, you would like on your watch and putting them in a separate folder is required. By default, Apple has chosen for your “favorites” folder to be the one to sync to your phone.

Once they are all in the same folder, you can upload them by selecting the “watch” section on your iPhone. Underneath that section, there is another selection labeled “Photos.” Once that is selected, you will find the “Selected Photo Album” section. Tap on that selection and find the folder you uploaded your photos to. This will automatically sync your photos to your Apple Watch.

Selecting a Photo For Your Wallpaper

After you have synched your photos, you will need to decide which one you would like as your wallpaper. We are going to head back to your iPhone to make the selection.

1. Open the Watch app on your phone.
2. Scroll down to find the “Face Gallery” selection and choose it.

This next step will depend on whether you want to utilize the photos you just uploaded or if you want the wallpaper to change with your recent memories in real-time.

•  If you would like them to change dynamically, that is called “Dynamic” and can be seen as an option under the “photos” menu, and choose the photos under the “Memories” menu.
• If not, simply choose “photos” as described previously and press the photo you wish

3. Hard Press on the screen
4. Press “create watch face” when the photo appears on the screen.

There you have it! Your photo on your wallpaper should be displayed. 

Customizing the Face 

Finally, following these directions will lead you to display your photos as your background wallpaper quickly. Often many photos are not good for watch faces because they cover the time, or the watch arms blend in with an aspect of the photo. If this happens, you can choose a new photo as the background, or you can customize the face.

To customize the face, you must first hold down the digital crown. This should bring you to the watch face. Next, you have to hold a press on display and swipe to the right. You will see a plus icon with the word “new” above it. Tap the plus sign to choose a new face.

Turn the digital crown on the side of the watch until you see one that you believe will work well with your new wallpaper. Choose it by tapping on it, which will set your current watch face. Check to be sure that the problem was alleviated.

Final Thoughts

All you have left to do is enjoy your new background. If you upload more than one picture, it will cycle through on its own, and you’ll see a new picture every time your watch wakes. Updating your wallpaper is a simple but rewarding task that, at this point, you should be able to do. Good luck, and if you run into trouble, review this article again for troubleshooting tips.