How to Put a Calendar on Your iPhone Lock Screen (2026)

To put a calendar on your iPhone lock screen, use an app like Daily — Life Calendar to turn a calendar view into a wallpaper image, then set that image as your lock screen. iOS does not have a built-in calendar wallpaper, so the trick is to generate the image and let a Shortcut refresh it each day.

Here is the whole process, start to finish.

What you need first

You need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 17 or later. That’s it. There is no jailbreak, no configuration profile, and no account to create. Daily keeps your data on-device and syncs through your own iCloud, so nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to sync it.

Before you start, think about what you want to see when you glance at your phone. A month at a glance? Your habit streaks? A countdown of days left in the year? Daily gives you all of those as separate views, so you can pick one to start.

How do I set up the calendar wallpaper?

Follow these five steps:

1. Add your habits and events. Open Daily and add the habits you want to track. Daily also reads your existing Apple Calendar events and Reminders, so you don’t have to retype anything you already have.
2. Choose a calendar view. Pick a monthly calendar, a weekly calendar, the year-in-dots view, or the Eisenhower priority matrix. Each one lays your information out differently.
3. Generate the wallpaper. Daily renders your chosen view into a wallpaper image and saves it to your Photos library.
4. Set it as your wallpaper. Long-press the lock screen and tap Customize, or open the image in Photos and choose Use as Wallpaper. You can also go to Settings, then Wallpaper.
5. Turn on daily auto-refresh. Add Daily’s built-in iOS Shortcut automation once. After that, iOS updates the wallpaper for you every day.

The first four steps take a couple of minutes. The fifth step is what makes it feel automatic afterward.

Why not just use a widget?

Widgets are useful, and Daily includes four of them: Year Progress, Habits, Contribution Chart, and Memento Mori. But a widget shares space with everything else on your screen. A full wallpaper gives your calendar the entire canvas, so a month or a year fits comfortably and stays readable. Many people use both: a wallpaper for the big picture and a widget for a quick number.

How does the auto-refresh actually work?

iOS Shortcuts can run automations on a schedule. Daily ships a prebuilt automation that regenerates your wallpaper and sets it, so days you complete fill in and countdowns tick down without any tapping. You set it up one time. If you ever want to change your view or theme, you open Daily, pick the new look, and the automation carries it forward from there.

Pick a theme that stays readable

Daily includes color themes like Sage and Aqua, plus light and dark modes, and photo-gallery wallpapers with shuffle. Choose a theme with enough contrast that the dates and dots stay legible over your clock and notifications. If you like variety, the photo shuffle rotates backgrounds while keeping your calendar layout on top.

Once it’s running, your lock screen quietly does a job every time you look at it: it reminds you what day it is, what you planned, and what you’ve kept up with. If you want the year-at-a-glance version specifically, read what a life calendar is next.

You can get Daily on the App Store and have a calendar on your lock screen in a few minutes.