How to Put Your Calendar on the iPhone Lock Screen
Apple’s widget shows one event. Calendarly puts your whole day, week or month on the Lock Screen and redraws it every morning. Here’s how to set it up in about five minutes.
The easiest way to put your whole calendar on the iPhone Lock Screen is to make it the wallpaper. Calendarly draws your day, week or month from the Calendar app into a Lock Screen wallpaper and redraws it every morning through an Apple Shortcuts automation, so the date and the events on it are always today’s. Apple’s own Calendar widget can add your next event under the clock, and that is all it shows.
If you have tried the widget, you already know why people look for something bigger. It shows the next event in a strip about the height of a notification, so a morning with four meetings looks the same as a morning with one, and a birthday or a day off never appears at all.
This guide covers what Calendarly puts on your Lock Screen, how to set it up in about five minutes, which layout suits which kind of week, and where Apple’s widget still earns its place.
What a calendar on your Lock Screen looks like
With Calendarly the calendar is the wallpaper itself. You pick a layout, and the app draws your real events into it at the exact size of your iPhone’s screen: times down the side, titles in your calendar colours, all-day events at the top of the day. The iOS clock and date stay where they always are, and notifications and widgets sit on top as usual.
Every morning, at a time you choose, an automation in Apple’s Shortcuts app asks Calendarly for a fresh picture and sets it as the wallpaper. It takes a second or two and runs while the phone is in your pocket, so the Lock Screen you see at eight already shows today, and tomorrow it shows tomorrow.
It reads the same calendars as the Calendar app, so iCloud, Google, Outlook and Exchange accounts all appear once they sync to your iPhone. Apple Reminders and Todoist can sit beside the events, and one look covers what is booked and what you still have to do.
How to put your calendar on the Lock Screen with Calendarly
The setup takes about five minutes, and you only do it once.
- 1Download Calendarly
Get Calendarly from the App Store. It is free, needs iOS 16.6 or later and asks for no account.
- 2Allow calendar access
When the app asks, allow access to your calendars. Calendarly reads them on the iPhone, and you can choose which ones appear on the wallpaper later.
- 3Pick a layout in the Gallery
Every layout is shown on a real Lock Screen. Tap one to open it: today, the next few days, the week, the month or several months at once.
- 4Make it yours in the Studio
Change the background, the colours, the type and what the card shows. The preview redraws as you go, with your own events in it.
- 5Tap Use as Wallpaper
The first time, Calendarly adds its shortcut, Update Calendarly Wallpaper, to the Shortcuts app and walks you through the one automation that runs it every morning. Nothing has to be built by hand.
- 6Lock your phone
Your calendar is now the Lock Screen, and tomorrow morning it is redrawn with tomorrow.
The automation can only replace a photo wallpaper. If your Lock Screen uses one of Apple’s live styles, such as Astronomy or Weather, switch to a photo Lock Screen first. Apple’s guide to custom Lock Screens shows where that lives, and its Shortcuts guide explains how automations run if you want to see what is happening underneath.
Which layout to choose
Pick the layout that answers the question you ask when you pick up the phone. For most people that is what is happening today and when, so start with a day layout and change it after a week if your days need something else. Switching takes two taps, and the morning update keeps running.
- Today, hour by hour
The next events with their times under a big date. The best start for most people, and the most room for long titles. More in daily schedule wallpapers.
- The next few days
Today and the days after it as one list, empty days included, so on Monday you can already see that Thursday is the busy one.
- The week
A seven-day grid for shifts, classes and anyone whose days differ a lot. See the weekly schedule and class timetable guides.
- The month and beyond
A month, several months or the whole year, for spotting free days and deadlines more than reading every appointment. The year progress layouts take that furthest.
- Events with your to-dos
The calendar on top and reminders or Todoist tasks underneath, for days that are half meetings and half errands. See calendar and reminders on one Lock Screen.
If the look matters as much as the schedule, the aesthetic calendar wallpaper guide goes through the styles, from paper and ink to glass and your own photos.
Why the built-in Calendar widget isn’t enough
Apple added Lock Screen widgets in iOS 16, and Calendar has a few. The rectangular one, Up Next, shows your next event with its time, and a smaller one shows the date. To add one, touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, tap the box under the clock and choose Calendar. Apple’s widget guide has the full steps.
For telling you what is next, it works well. For anything more, it runs out of room:
| Calendar widget | Calendarly | |
|---|---|---|
| Events shown | The next one | The whole day, week or month |
| All-day events | Never shown | At the top of the day |
| Reminders and to-dos | A separate widget, one list | Beside your events, from Reminders or Todoist |
| Space | A strip under the clock | The whole Lock Screen |
| Look | The system style | 152 layouts, your colours and backgrounds |
| Updates | Live | Every morning, or whenever you run it |
| Price | Built in | Free to download, 96 layouts free |
The missing all-day events surprise people most, because they are the things that shape a day: a birthday, a deadline, a day off, a flight. If yours seem to vanish, here is why the Lock Screen calendar widget shows no events.
The two also work well together. Keep Up Next in the widget row for the live answer to what is next, and let Calendarly carry the rest of the day behind it.
Google Calendar, Outlook and shared calendars
Calendarly reads whatever your iPhone’s Calendar app reads. To add a Google, Outlook or work account, open Settings, then Apps, then Calendar, then Calendar Accounts. On iOS 17 and earlier it is Settings, then Calendar, then Accounts. Apple’s guide to calendar accounts covers each provider.
Shared family calendars, subscribed holiday calendars and the Birthdays calendar that iOS builds from your contacts all work the same way. In Calendarly you choose which of them appear on the wallpaper, so a noisy shared calendar can stay in the app and off your Lock Screen.
Keeping it current during the day
A calendar wallpaper is redrawn on a schedule, so a meeting moved at noon shows up at the next update. For most people one morning run is enough. If your day changes a lot, add a second time to the same automation in Shortcuts, after lunch for example, or run the shortcut by hand on the odd day when everything moves.
For a live view, Calendarly also has free Live Activities that keep today’s next events on the Lock Screen through the day, and free widgets for the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. A good mix is the wallpaper for the shape of the day and a Live Activity for what is next.
Who can see your Lock Screen
Anything on the Lock Screen can be read without Face ID by whoever picks the phone up. For most calendars that is fine. For medical appointments or anything private, give the events neutral titles in the Calendar app, or keep that calendar off the wallpaper in Calendarly.
Your calendar itself never leaves the phone. Calendarly draws the picture on the iPhone, has no account and sends nothing about your events anywhere.
Sources
Questions people ask
Install Calendarly, pick a layout, tap Use as Wallpaper and turn on the morning update when the app asks. Your calendar becomes the wallpaper and is redrawn every morning. For just the next event, Apple’s Calendar widget also works.
Yes, as a wallpaper. iOS has no month widget for the Lock Screen, but Calendarly’s month and multi-month layouts put the whole month there, with today marked.
Yes. A Shortcuts automation redraws it every day at the time you choose. You can add more times or run it by hand whenever you like.
Yes. Calendarly draws all-day events at the top of the day. Apple’s Lock Screen Calendar widget doesn’t show them at all.
Yes, as soon as the account syncs to the iPhone’s Calendar app.
Yes. The calendar is part of the wallpaper, so the clock, notifications and Lock Screen widgets stay on top of it.
It is free to download, and 96 of the 152 layouts are free, including day, week and month layouts. Widgets, Live Activities and the daily update are free too. Calendarly Pro unlocks every layout and your own photos as backgrounds.
No. It runs for a second or two when the automation fires, then stops.
