How to set up the Left Wallpaper shortcut

The Left Wallpaper turns your Lock Screen into a living view of your time — year progress, life in weeks, a countdown, or a blend of a photo and a time view. To keep it current, you'll wire it up to an Apple Shortcuts automation that runs once a day. Here's the full setup.

Step 1 — Create a new shortcut

From inside the Left app, tap Open Shortcuts to jump to the Shortcuts app. Then:

1. In Shortcuts, tap the + button in the top-right to create a new shortcut.
2. You'll see an empty editor with a search bar at the bottom — that's where you'll add the two actions.

Step 2 — Build the shortcut

Add two actions, in this order:

1. In the action search bar, type "Left wallpaper" and tap the action to add it. This is the action that asks Left to generate a fresh wallpaper image.
2. Search again for "Set Wallpaper Photo" and add that action too.
3. On the Set Wallpaper Photo action, set the target to Lock Screen.
4. Turn off Show Preview so the shortcut doesn't interrupt you when it runs.
5. Turn off Crop to Subject so the wallpaper isn't auto-cropped to a person or object.
6. Tap the shortcut name at the top, rename it to something memorable like "Left Wallpaper", then tap Done.

Step 3 — Create the automation

The shortcut won't do anything until something triggers it. The cleanest trigger is a daily time-based automation.

1. In Shortcuts, switch to the Automation tab at the bottom.
2. Tap the + button and choose Time of Day as the trigger.
3. Set the time to 00:01 (one minute past midnight) or any other time you prefer.
4. Set the frequency to Daily.
5. Make sure Run Immediately is selected, and turn off Notify When Run so you don't get a notification every day.
6. Tap Next.

Step 4 — Automate the shortcut

1. On the next screen, search for the shortcut you created in step 2 (e.g. "Left Wallpaper") and select it.
2. Tap Done to save the automation.

That's it. Tomorrow at the time you set, iOS will run the shortcut in the background, Left will regenerate the wallpaper, and your Lock Screen will pick up the new image automatically.

Troubleshooting

• The wallpaper isn't updating. iOS sometimes delays background automations when the phone is hot, in Low Power Mode, or hasn't been unlocked recently. Unlock your phone and the automation will catch up.
• "Run Immediately" is greyed out. Update to the latest iOS — earlier versions required a tap to confirm. Recent versions of iOS 17+ support fully unattended automations.
• The shortcut asks for permission every time. Open Settings → Shortcuts → and disable "Show When Run" if it's on. Also confirm that the Left action is listed under your trusted shortcut actions.
• I want it to update more than once a day. Create a second automation at a different time, pointing to the same shortcut. iOS does not currently support sub-daily Time of Day triggers natively, but you can stack two or three.

Tip — pair it with a Lock Screen widget

For belt-and-suspenders accuracy, add a small Left widget to your Lock Screen alongside the wallpaper. Widgets refresh more aggressively than wallpapers, so you'll always have a current number even if the wallpaper is a few hours behind. See the Lock Screen widget guide for the steps.