I have an iPhone 11 iOS 13.5.1. My photos from my Live Photo album don’t work when I set them for my lock screen wallpaper, only the default Live Photo’s work as a live lock screen wallpaper. I’ve tried everything suggested here at least twice. The rest of my family with the same type of phone doesn’t have this issue. Any other suggestions? Please & thank you.

I have an iPhone 11 with the most current IOS 13.5.1 & no live photos from my Live Photo album work. Only the default Live Photo’s work. The rest of my family’s Live Photo album photos work but not mine! I’ve tried everything suggested here at least twice & nothing’s changed 🙁 any other suggestions? Please & thanks.

We are getting mixed answers from Apple on Live Wallpapers working on the new iPhone SE.

It’s clear that the SE includes all the needed hardware to support Live Wallpapers! So we believe that they should be available (if not now, then with an upcoming iOS update)

According to Apple’s own guidance:

“When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation)”

So that implies that it should work on the new 2020 second-generation iPhone SE.

When we reached out to our Apple contacts, several said it worked and several said it didn’t.

So we too are confused!

It appears that updating iOS to iOS 13.4.1 does not bring this feature to the iPhone SE 2nd generation.

If you are up for it, you could try updating to the iOS 13.5 beta and then see if Live Wallpapers works on your SE. But updating to betas always has risks!

If you don’t want to risk using the beta iOS, contact Apple Support to complain and ask them to add this feature.

Hi Matt,

Apple is sending a lot of mixed messages about Live Wallpapers and the new 2020 iPhone SE. We’ve reached out to our Apple sources (who work there) and again, we got mixed messages–some say yes, it is supported and others no, not yet. So we too are very frustrated!

What all our Apple contacts agreed upon was that the new SE has the hardware to support Live Wallpapers!

The current iOS 13 user guide says this: When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation).

So, to us, that means that yes, the iPhone SE second generation (this new 2020 model) should support Live Wallpapers!

We think this support is added in iOS 13.4 or 13.4.1–so check your daughter’s iPhone SEs and update to the latest iOS–which is currently iOS 13.4.1. Remember to backup first to iCloud, iTunes, or Finder and then update the iOS.

What we do know is that Live Wallpapers is now available on the iPhone XR–so it makes sense that it should also now work on your new model SE.

The only difference we see with the XR is that you can only choose Live Photos from the albums list–they do not show up in the top list of wallpapers (besides Dynamic and Stills.) You need to scroll down and tap the Live Photos album and then choose a photo.

Keep us posted because this has us totally perplexed!

Thanks and good luck,

Liz

One of them came from an iPhone 7 (because her touch ID was damaged) and because she transferred from the 7 the lock screen already set is Live on her iPhone SE 2020 but she can’t select a new one as the live options are not there.

The other daughter came from an original SE and has no live photos for Lock screen / Wallpaper at all. I guess the transfer proves there is nothing stopping the device from having a live photo lock screen (But I guess we all know that really) but perhaps Apple has purposely disabled the function due to price point??

Hopefully its just an accidental oversight and it’ll be fixed in future IOS updates.

Hi Sarah,

Oh what a nuisance, we are so sorry!

According to Apple, live wallpaper are supported on the iPhone SE second generation but not the first generation.

Have you updated both iPhones to the latest iOS 13.4.1 ? Take a look at Settings > General > Software Update.

If an update is shown, backup first via iCloud or your computer and then update.

Then, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, and test your Haptic Touch. Adjust the sensitivity to slow or fast as you prefer.

See if your iPhone SE 2nd gen now gets live wallpaper support.

If not, or the iPhone is already using the latest iOS, we suggest you contact Apple Support and ask them what gives…according to their own iOS 13 guide:

“When you set a Live Photo as wallpaper, touch and hold the Lock screen to play the Live Photo—on all iPhone models except iPhone SE (1st generation)”

So following their own guidance here, Live Photo’s should work on the latest iPhone SE second gen.

Hi Elizabeth,

We actually got two iPhone SE’s, and it’s not working for either of them. They imported old Live Photos and have taken new ones. We even restarted the phones after taking new Live Photos and still don’t get a Live Wallpaper option. Any other ideas?

Hi Sarah,

Do you see an album called Live Photos? If not, it’s probably because you have not yet taken any. Try taking a few test live photos, then see if the Live Photos album shows up and is available for your live wallpapers!

(Thanks for any help you can provide!)

HI JC,

What iPhone model do you use and which iOS version are you running?

iPhone XR is not supported because of the lack of 3d touch

I’m on iPad mini 5th gen and there is Still no option