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I have a photo set as my current iPhone wallpaper, which I would like to save. I have forgotten where I stored this file on my computer originally, so I can't easily go back to place it back on my phone. It has since been deleted from my camera roll.

Is there any way to export the photo that is currently set as the wallpaper, so that I can change the wallpaper to something else, but save the other one?

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4 Answers

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You cannot export the wallpaper, depending on the pattern (if it were repetitive) it would be possible to take screen shots and after emailing these to your self you could edit in Photoshop (other editing software is available)

You would need to take one shot of a page in iOS with only one app, and then if it is a repeatable patern you can edit out or clone out the app on the screen and the apps at the bottom.

Not great but that is the only way, I'm afraid.

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Try this: http://www.tineye.com/

I had the same problem, so I took a screenshot, uploaded it on that website and it found my image!

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Answers on Ask Different need to be more than just a link. It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone. – Daniel Lawson♦ Sep 6 '12 at 17:11
Very interesting; sadly, it won't work for my wallpaper which was a family photo :) – NickC Sep 6 '12 at 17:21
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I would Imagine, if you jailbreak, you can find where the file is stored on the iPhone's file-system.

This would involve jailbreaking, and then installing a package like Samba. All you would have to do then is mount the iPhone from your desktop, and find the image.

Alternatively, there are a number of pieces of software that allow you to browse the iPhone filesystem over USB, again assuming the iPhone is jailbroken (DiskAid is an example).

Last, there are local file managers for the iPhone, that would possible allow you to find the file and copy it directly on the iPhone.

However, I do not think there is really any way to do this without jailbreaking.

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As you have set a photo as wallpaper the photo should still be listed under photos on your iPhone. You can email that photo yourself.

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That is actually not true, since I have synced and removed photos since I set the wallpaper. – NickC Jan 15 '12 at 22:18
Sorry, I did not think that a photo can be deleted as long as it is in use. – Martin Jan 16 '12 at 12:39

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