Samuel Axon
Apple has released its first bug fix update for iOS and iPadOS. The 17.5.1 release claims to fix a bug that saw some users’ deleted photos resurface long after deletion.
The release notes list just one bullet point:
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.
Users started reporting the issue after iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 were released on May 13. The optics certainly weren’t great for Apple, as some users assumed that the company was keeping their long-lost deleted photos (sometimes nude photos, as some reported seeing those pop up again) in the cloud without telling them.
The reality seems to be that the photos never actually left users’ devices. Instead, Apple’s notes suggest photos that had been moved to the 30-day deletion grace period on the local device ended up being resurfaced due to corruption.
Regardless, the bug rightfully infuriated users who thought their deleted photos were done and gone. At least one user reported deleted photos had appeared on a device that had been wiped and given to a different user.
We didn’t receive a reply when we reached out to Apple for comment a few days ago, but this update now claims to resolve the issue.