Apple Admits: iPhones Resurrect Deleted Photos, Introduces Fix in iOS 17.5.1 Update

Following the release of iOS 17.5 last week, some users were astonished to discover photos they had deleted years ago mysteriously reappearing in their albums. This phenomenon was not isolated, as numerous individuals shared similar experiences on social forums.

The majority of these users reported the reappearance of photos deleted approximately three years ago, with some extreme cases involving photos from as far back as ten years.

The unexpected resurgence of deleted photos sparked discussions regarding Apple's privacy and security measures, raising questions about the permanence of photo deletion and whether deletions were merely superficial.

A plausible theory suggests that Apple might mark photos as invisible to users rather than completely erasing them, implying that the files aren't truly deleted.

However, this theory fails to account for the storage space that content deleted years prior would occupy. Considering the limited storage capacity of phones and the increasing space requirements of new content, it's unlikely that such pseudo-deletions could persist without quickly exhausting the phone's storage.

Today, Apple released an update, iOS 17.5.1, addressing this issue as a critical bug fix. The update aims to resolve rare instances where database corruption could cause previously deleted photos to reappear in the album.

Notably, despite acknowledging the issue in the update log, Apple has yet to issue an official statement, leaving the cause of this significant privacy concern and the potential for future occurrences unclear.

This issue has had a notable impact on the market for second-hand iPhones, raising concerns about unknowingly selling a device only for previously deleted photos to be restored. From a privacy and security standpoint, users might reconsider selling their iPhones unless Apple can definitively resolve this issue and ensure its permanent non-recurrence.