Home screen wallpaper blur persistent on iPhone 16 and iOS 26

I have an iPhone 16 and I just upgraded to iOS 26. My homescreen wallpaper is persistently blurred. I do not have blur turned on in the customize settings. The only other help I found online was to turn off the blurred setting on "Always On" functionality but the iPhone 16 does not have that functionality.

iPhone 16, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 6:56 AM

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Posted on Nov 25, 2025 5:48 PM

They real solution is to go into Edit homescreen (by long pressing any app), then use top-left menu to select Edit Wallpaper. Then turn blur on, save (click Done). Then repeat and turn Blur off again. (You can also do similar by using Settings app for wallpaper.)


I believe people have been confusing Lock Screen with Wallpaper. There is a bug which causes the wallpaper to become blurred all the time, even with that setting off. I believe this is what the OP referred to. It’s the issue I came here for.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 25, 2025 5:48 PM in response to jhaight83

They real solution is to go into Edit homescreen (by long pressing any app), then use top-left menu to select Edit Wallpaper. Then turn blur on, save (click Done). Then repeat and turn Blur off again. (You can also do similar by using Settings app for wallpaper.)


I believe people have been confusing Lock Screen with Wallpaper. There is a bug which causes the wallpaper to become blurred all the time, even with that setting off. I believe this is what the OP referred to. It’s the issue I came here for.

Sep 16, 2025 7:05 AM in response to jhaight83

If you are using a photo from your photos as your home screen wallpaper, you need to save it in a wallpaper size. To do that, open the photo you're using. Tap the edit controls on the bottom, which looks like slider controls in an oval. Next tap Crop in the bottom options. In the upper right hand corner you'll see box within a box within a box and you'll tap that. Now look at the bottom options with are Original Freeform, etc, and slide that till you arrive at Wallpaper and tap Wallpaper. Tap done.


Now, choose the photo as your home screen Wallpaper and you won't see it blur.

Nov 28, 2025 3:17 AM in response to jhaight83

Same issue on my side but with an iPhone 17 pro running iOS 26.1.

Even though I changed the wallpaper settings and tried all other fixes as described in the messages below, it still keeps blurring overnight. And when I go into the wallpaper settings, the blur option is not even activated.

Also, I thought it was linked to sleep mode. But I checked during the sleep mode schedule, and wallpaper was clear and fine. The blurring appears somehow overnight without reason.

Home screen wallpaper blur persistent on iPhone 16 and iOS 26

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