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TLDR: Apple fixes bizarre iPhone bug causing deleted photos to reappear, possibly due to indexing, corruption, or syncing issues with iCloud.
Apple has fixed a peculiar bug on the iPhone and iPad that caused deleted photos to reappear on the devices.
A Strange Issue
Following the rollout of iOS 17.5 last week, reports of this weird issue began to surface. Apple never publicly commented on the issue, but their engineers quickly worked to resolve it.
The Fix
The fix came in the form of update 17.5.1, rolled out to iPhones and iPads on Monday. To get it, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Apple’s release notes stated: “This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.”
User Experiences
Users delete photos from their devices for various reasons, such as choosing the best shot from similar ones or discarding those with poor quality. However, according to some forum posts, even deleted NSFW images were reappearing, sometimes years after removal.
One Reddit user said: “I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly.” Another mentioned: “Same thing happened to me. Six photos from different times, all I have deleted. Some I had deleted in 2023.”
Possible Causes
MacRumors suggested the bug could be due to “an indexing bug, photo library corruption, or a syncing issue between local devices and iCloud Photos.” They also mentioned that while trying to resolve a syncing issue with iOS 17.3, Apple might have “inadvertently caused a new syncing issue to occur that may involve iCloud backups.”
Digital Trends has reached out to Apple for more information on this peculiar issue and will update the story when they respond.
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