https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/15/ios-17-5-deleted-photos-app-bug/

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  * iOS 17.5

iOS 17.5 is allegedly resurfacing pictures that were deleted years
ago for some users

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller | May 15 2024 - 6:20 am PT
32 Comments
Photos App iPhone

A bug in iOS 17.5 is allegedly resurfacing photos that were deleted
years ago for some iPhone users, according to posts on Reddit. The
affected iPhone users say that after updating to iOS 17.5 - which was
released on Monday - there are a number of pictures in the Photos app
that were deleted years ago.

iOS 17.5 has a pretty bad Photos app problem

The images in question reportedly show up as the most recent images
in the Photos app after installing iOS 17.5. One user says:

    When in conversation with my partner, I went to send a picture
    and saw that the latest pictures were NSFW material we'd made
    years ago when we were living apart. It was permanently deleted
    years ago, but magically it's back?

     I checked my iPad and it also has pictures (some art work I did
    years ago). I feel so uncomfortable.

"Same here. I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the
latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly,"
another user writes in the Reddit thread.

There are a number of reports of similar situations in the thread on
Reddit. Some users are seeing deleted images from years ago reappear
in their libraries, while others are seeing images from earlier this
year.

By default, the Photos app has a "Recently Deleted" feature that
preserves deleted images for 30 days. That's not what's happening
here, seeing as most of the images in question are months or years
old, not days.

Apple hasn't commented on the problem, but it naturally raises
countless concerns and questions about privacy and data retention.
Some users on Reddit speculate that iOS 17.5 may have made changes to
the Photos app that required the app to re-index photo libraries.

Still, even if the Photos app goes through some sort of re-indexing
process in iOS 17.5, there's no excuse for images that users thought
were deleted to re-appear.

Have you noticed any older pictures re-appear in your Photos app
after updating to iOS 17.5? Let us know down in the comments.

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Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller chancehmiller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest
Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com

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