Apple provided more details Thursday about a nasty iOS 17.5 bug that resurfaced old and deleted photos for some iPhone users. Since the software glitch resurfaced photos from as far back as 2010, some people theorized that iCloud Photos secretly stored their deleted images.
However, Apple shot down such theories in its explanation. (The company rolled out iOS 17.5.1 on Tuesday to patch the bug.)
No one had access to your resurfaced pictures
Apple’s release notes for iOS 17.5.1 state that the patch fixes a “rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.” Talking to 9to5Mac, Apple further explained the problem, blaming the bug on local database corruption.
“According to Apple, the photos that did not fully delete from a user’s device were not synced to iCloud Photos,” wrote 9to5Mac. “Those files were only on the device itself. However, the files could have persisted from one device to another when restoring from a backup, performing a device-to-device transfer, or when restoring from an iCloud Backup but not using iCloud Photos.”
Apple emphasized that resetting an iPhone or iPad completely erases all data from it. The company also said the bug only affected a small number of iPhone users. More importantly, no one other than the device owner, including Apple itself, had access to the resurfaced pictures.
Apple also said a Redditor’s claim of old photos resurfacing on an iPad they sold to a friend was false.
Make sure to delete all your old photos
Remember that updating your iPhone to iOS 17.5.1 won’t automatically delete any resurfaced pictures. Instead, you must delete them manually. After that, make sure to remove them from the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app.
Apple quickly issued its patch to fix the bug that led the Photos app to resurface old pictures. But such a bug, irrespective of how rare it is, should not have happened in the first place. Despite understanding the technicality behind the bug and how NAND storage works, such issues can shake user confidence.
