How To: Fix Wallpaper Zooming Issues in Apple's New iOS 7.1 for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch

Fix Wallpaper Zooming Issues in Apple's New iOS 7.1 for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch

When the first version of iOS 7 was released, there was a wealth of awesome new features, but there was also a lot to complain about. The biggest issue by far was, and still is, how custom home and lock screen wallpapers work on iPads and iPhones.

Previously, when you set a custom wallpaper for your home or lock screen, your image would automatically be zoomed in, an unwelcome side effect of the parallax effect.

Even if you had "Reduce Motion" turned on in your Accessibility settings, things got tricky, and it varied from device to device. There were (and still are) plenty of ways to fix these wallpaper woes, but things just got a little easier with the public release of iOS 7.1.

How iOS 7.1 Fixes Custom Wallpaper Resizing Issues

In the latest version of iOS 7.1, Apple has finally included a way to stop your custom wallpapers from zooming in automatically. Best of all, you don't have to go into any clunky settings to change it.

Just set your custom wallpaper as you normally would, then when previewing it, you'll see an option for "Perspective Zoom" above the toolbar. You can set Motion on or off by clicking on it, or simply zoom out of the image to automatically turn Perspective Zoom off.

Above images: Perspective Zoom OFF (left) and ON (right)

Even if you have "Reduce Motion" disabled in your Accessibility settings, you will still be able to have an un-zoomed wallpaper on your home or lock screen, similar to how it was in iOS 6.

Above images: Perspective Zoom OFF (left) and ON (right)

Now, even with Perspective Zoom off on your wallpaper, it will still zoom in a little when you turn on and off your screen, and that's nothing we can disable at the moment. Perhaps that'll get address in iOS 7.2 when it comes out, considering this is just a band-aid for a serious issue.

To perfect your wallpapers, you can still check out my previous guide to fixing iOS 7 wallpaper woes, which might be necessary if you're still upset about the slight zoom in when you're turning on/off your screen.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for TV, Messages, News, and Shortcuts, as well as important bug fixes and security patches. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.6 update.

1 Comment

It's not a slight zoom in affect. It zooms to the point that you lose well over 50% of your image.

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