Whether you’re clearing memories of a toxic friend or an event you’d rather forget, deleting pictures from your phone can seem therapeutic. Before vacation, it’s also a great method to clear out storage space. Deleted images, however, reappear on many iPhone owners’ phones due to a recent error that has made this routine a nightmare.
Apple sent a warning after multiple iPhone owners reported seeing old, deleted photographs reappearing on their devices. ‘Recently Deleted’ is a section in the Photos app for iPhones that holds deleted images and videos for 30 days before permanently deleting them. But many customers discovered that after a recent software upgrade, images they had removed months or even years prior were suddenly back in their photo libraries.
Apple claims that a rare bug that corrupted the database was the root of the problem. Apple has responded to the issue by releasing iOS 17.5.1, a security upgrade referred to as an “emergency fix” containing “important bug fixes.” Apple clarified, “This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could appear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.”
The updated software is designed to correct the issue, even if Apple initially did not officially address it. iPhone users may access and download iOS 17.5.1 by opening the Settings app, navigating to General, and selecting ‘Software Update.’ Next, users can choose “Update Tonight” to schedule the update for later or “Update Now” to install it now.
The issue caused significant concern among users, who took to social media platforms like Reddit to share their frustrations. One user claimed that “nsfw material” they had “permanently deleted” had “magically” reappeared, while another noted that old photos taken on previous phones had resurfaced, calling it a “nightmare.” Some users suggested that the resurfaced photos might have been saved in the ‘Files’ app but only deleted from the ‘Photos’ app. “Deleting in Photos does not delete it in the Files app. The new update re-indexed (and added) the picture from the Files app,” one user explained.
Users are advised to install the update as soon as feasible, as this issue has caused a great deal of distress, to avoid further interruption.
