Why did my wallpapers stop changing?

Tapet changes your wallpaper on a schedule — until your phone's battery saver decides to stop it. A couple of settings fix it for good.

Takes about two minutes. No technical skills needed.

What's actually happening

When you pick an interval in Tapet's settings, the app asks Android to wake it briefly at each interval. It generates a fresh wallpaper, applies it, and goes right back to sleep. The whole thing takes about a second and uses a negligible amount of battery.

The catch: most phone makers ship aggressive "battery optimizers" that silently kill scheduled work from apps you haven't opened recently. To the optimizer, Tapet looks like an app you're not using — you set it up once and expect it to run forever. So the wallpaper changes stop, usually a day or two after everything seemed to work fine. This affects alarm clocks, fitness trackers, and automation apps too; it's not a Tapet bug, and it's fixable.

First, check inside Tapet

  1. The interval is on. Open Tapet → Settings → Interval and make sure it isn't set to Disabled.
  2. Alarms & reminders are allowed. On Android 12 and newer, Tapet needs the "Alarms & reminders" permission to schedule exact wallpaper changes. Tapet asks for it when you pick an interval; you can also check under System Settings → Apps → Tapet → Alarms & reminders.
  3. Don't force stop Tapet. "Force stop" in app info cancels all of an app's scheduled work until the next time you open it. Swiping Tapet away from Recents is fine on most phones, but on some of the brands below it counts as a force stop — locking the app in Recents (see your brand's section) prevents that.

Then, tell Android to leave Tapet alone

This is the step that fixes it for most people, on every brand:

  • Open System Settings → Apps → Tapet → Battery and choose Unrestricted (on older versions: Battery optimization → All apps → Tapet → Don't optimize).
  • A shortcut on many phones: long-press the Tapet icon → App info → Battery.

Don't worry about the "unrestricted" wording — Tapet only wakes for a moment at your chosen interval and sleeps the rest of the time. Battery Saver and "extreme" power modes can still pause wallpaper changes while they're active; changes resume when the mode ends.

Brand-specific fixes

Some manufacturers add their own app killers on top of Android's. Find your phone's brand below and apply its extra steps. Menu names shift between versions, so if a path doesn't match exactly, search your settings for the highlighted words.

Google Pixel, Motorola, Nokia, and other stock Android

Good news: the general battery step above is all you need. If wallpapers still stop, make sure Battery Saver isn't scheduled to run permanently.

Samsung (One UI)
  • Settings → Battery (or Battery and device care) → Background usage limits: turn off "Put unused apps to sleep", and make sure Tapet is not in the Sleeping apps or Deep sleeping apps lists.
  • Add Tapet to the Never sleeping apps list on the same screen.
  • Settings → Battery → More battery settings: consider turning off Adaptive battery if the problem persists.
Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO (MIUI / HyperOS)
  • Settings → Apps → Manage apps → Tapet: enable Autostart.
  • On the same screen, open Battery saver and choose No restrictions.
  • Open Recents, long-press the Tapet card, and tap the padlock to lock it — otherwise a swipe kills the app and its schedule.
OnePlus (OxygenOS)
  • Settings → Apps → Tapet → Battery usage: choose Allow background activity / Don't optimize.
  • Settings → Battery → Battery optimization → menu (⋮) → Advanced optimization: turn off Deep optimization and Sleep standby optimization.
  • OnePlus is known to quietly reset these after updates — recheck if wallpapers stop again.
Oppo, Realme (ColorOS)
  • Settings → Apps → Tapet: enable Allow Auto Startup.
  • Settings → Apps → Tapet → Battery usage: enable Allow background activity.
  • Open Recents, tap the menu on the Tapet card, and choose Lock.
Vivo, iQOO (Funtouch / OriginOS)
  • Settings → More settings → Applications → Autostart: allow Tapet.
  • Settings → Battery → Background power consumption management: allow Tapet high background power consumption.
  • Open Recents and lock the Tapet card (swipe it down or use its menu).
Huawei, Honor (EMUI / MagicOS)
  • Settings → Battery → App launch: turn off "Manage automatically" for Tapet, then enable all three manual toggles (Auto-launch, Secondary launch, Run in background).
  • Settings → Apps → Tapet → Battery: choose Don't allow under battery optimization.
Tecno, Infinix, itel (HiOS / XOS)
  • In the Phone Master (or AI Charge / Power Marathon) app, remove Tapet from any clean-up or power-saving lists, and disable auto-clean.
  • Settings → Apps → Tapet → Battery: Unrestricted, and allow Autostart in the app's settings.

Still stuck?

Email support@tapet.app and tell us your phone model and Android version — we'll figure it out together.

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