Custom Lock Screen Date (Nugget)

English · Русский

Brings back the long date format on the iOS 26 lock screen — «Friday, September 18» instead of the shortened «Fri Sep 18» that Apple left with no setting to change.

Built on the restore engine of LeminLimez/Nugget. Works on iOS 26.0 – 26.7.

How it works

iOS renders the lock-screen date from a fixed short template (EEE d MMM). You cannot change the template, but the standard CoreFoundation key AppleICUDateTimeSymbols lets you override the short month and weekday names. This tool replaces those short names with long ones, so the system draws the full date thinking it is printing abbreviations.

The tool writes a single file — the user preferences HomeDomain/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist — and never touches the managed preferences file, so it does not interfere with other Nugget tweaks (Liquid Glass, etc.).

Before the tweak

After the tweak

Features

• All iPhone system languages and all regions — pick the exact pair your device uses.
• Month and weekday names are editable: change any of the 19 strings to whatever you want.
• Per-language presets from CLDR, with verified overrides for ru / uk / be / kk.
• Optional comma after the weekday («Friday, 18 September»).
• Optional 12/24-hour override.
• Live preview and a match indicator against the locale on the connected device.
• Bilingual UI (English / Russian).

Requirements

• Windows with the "Apple Devices" app (or iTunes) installed.
• Python 3.12 (3.14 has no prebuilt lzfse/pylzss).
• Find My must be turned off on the device before applying.

Setup

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run

python lockscreen_date.py

On Windows the app relaunches itself with administrator rights (needed to save the device pairing record). Connect the iPhone, unlock it, pick language + region, edit the names if you like, and press Apply. The device reboots to apply.

Use Remove tweak from device to restore the default iOS date format.

Warning

Do not update to iOS 27. Apple closed the partial-restore mechanism Nugget relies on; applying tweaks there wipes the device.

Credits

Restore engine and device handling by LeminLimez. This project only adds the standalone lockscreen_date.py utility.