How to customise your iPad lock screen in iPadOS 17

The first step to customising your iPad’s lock screen is to tap and hold the lock screen to access the lock screen picker menu. 

You can either customise your current lock screen or create a new one from scratch. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be creating a new lock screen. To do so, tap the Plus icon in the bottom right. 

You’ll now be presented with a range of lock screen styles to choose from. These range from basic colourful screens to themed options like Weather and Space that’ll automatically change as the day progresses. You’ve also got Photo Shuffle lock screen presets that’ll display a swathe of photos throughout the day. 

Browse through the selection and tap the layout you’d like to customise.

Now the customisation process can begin. Let’s start with the clock; tap it to change both the font and the colour of the clock. The default colour will automatically sync up with the background colour, but you can override this if you choose. 

Here’s the really fun part; adding widgets to your iPad lock screen. Simply tap the empty space to the left of the screen (in landscape orientation) and browse from the selection of widgets available. To add one, tap it or drag it into place. 

Certain widgets, like the Reminders and Home widgets, can be interacted with directly from the home screen, allowing you to toggle smart tech on or off and check things off your to-do list without unlocking your iPad. 

An important thing to note here is that, unlike the iPhone lock screen system, the iPad has two separate lock screen layouts – landscape and portrait – and you can display different widgets depending on the orientation. So, before you continue, rotate your iPad and add its vertical orientation widgets too.

Once you’re happy with the way your new iPad lock screen looks, tap Add in the top-right to save your changes.

The next step is to decide whether you want to pair your lock screen wallpaper with your home screen wallpaper. To do this, tap Set as Wallpaper Pair. Alternatively, you can tap Customise Home Screen to select a different wallpaper to use. 

You should now be able to tap your newly-created lock screen and select it for use on your iPad. You can create as many as you like for different scenarios – like work and home – so make as many as you like and get creative!