How Many Lock Screens Can You Have on iPhone?

You can create more than one Lock Screen on iPhone — in fact, you can build a whole collection and switch between them whenever you like. Since iOS 16 introduced the customizable Lock Screen, the design has been a gallery you swipe through rather than a single fixed screen. There is no small, frustrating cap that ordinary users bump into, so for practical purposes you can keep as many as you find useful.

The Lock Screen is a gallery now

Before iOS 16, your iPhone had essentially one wallpaper at a time. The modern system is different. Each Lock Screen you create is saved as its own card, complete with:

• A wallpaper or photo.
• A clock font and color.
• Optional widgets above and below the clock.
• An optional paired Focus.

You flip between these cards instead of editing one screen over and over. That is the core reason “how many can I have” even makes sense as a question.

How to add a new Lock Screen

Adding one takes a few seconds:

1. Wake the phone and touch and hold the Lock Screen until the gallery appears.
2. Swipe to the far right and tap the plus (+) button.
3. Pick a wallpaper — a photo, a color, an AI-generated image, or one from a curated collection.
4. Style the clock and add widgets if you want.
5. Tap Add, then Done.

Repeat as many times as you like. Each new design joins the row in your gallery.

How to switch between them

Once you have several, switching is just as quick:

1. Touch and hold the Lock Screen to open the gallery.
2. Swipe left or right to find the one you want.
3. Tap it to make it active.

You can also delete one by swiping up on its card and tapping the trash icon, which keeps the gallery tidy.

Pairing each Lock Screen with a Focus

This is where multiple Lock Screens become genuinely useful rather than just decorative. Each card can be linked to a Focus mode — Work, Personal, Sleep, or one you make yourself. When you turn on a Focus, iOS can automatically switch to the matching Lock Screen.

A common setup looks like this:

• A clean, minimal screen with a calendar widget for Work.
• A photo of family or a favorite place for Personal.
• A dim, distraction-free design for Sleep.

To link them, tap Focus at the bottom of a Lock Screen while editing and choose the mode. After that, switching Focus also switches the look of your phone.

So is there really no limit?

In everyday use, no. Apple positions the Lock Screen gallery as a personal collection, and most people settle on a handful — one per Focus, plus a few seasonal favorites — long before any technical ceiling would matter. Rather than chasing an exact maximum number, the more useful approach is to keep the screens you actually rotate through and delete the rest. A gallery of forty unused designs helps no one.

If you like rotating imagery but do not want to build dozens of separate screens by hand, Photo Shuffle is worth knowing about: a single Lock Screen can cycle through a set of photos on a schedule, giving you variety without the manual swapping.

Tips for a useful set

• Give each screen a clear purpose so you know which is which at a glance.
• Match clock color to the wallpaper so the time stays readable.
• Try different styles so your Work and Personal screens feel distinct.
• Delete duplicates you never choose; a shorter gallery is faster to swipe.

A small, well-chosen set beats a giant pile of half-finished designs every time.

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FAQ

Do my Lock Screens sync across devices? Lock Screens are tied to the iPhone where you create them. They are not a shared library you carry between phones, so you rebuild your favorites on a new device.

Does each Lock Screen need its own Home Screen? You can pair a Lock Screen with a matching Home Screen wallpaper or let the Home Screen follow the same image, but they are configured together when you set the screen up.