A Bug in iOS 17.5 Caused Deleted Photos to Reappear

There was a bug in iOS 17.5 that caused deleted photos to reappear on iPhones. This happened due to a rare bug with the system, which attempted to resave all photos and media from the Files app into the Photos app during the reindexing process. The Photos app can display files but not media and photos, so the system was trying to move these files around.

This issue caused problems for users who had deleted photos from the Photos app, only to see them reappear later. However, it's been discovered that the issue was not due to Apple accidentally saving a user's data somewhere secret, as some theories suggested. Instead, the problem was with how the system handles files and media on an iPhone.

According to a Reddit post that appears to have insider information from a private contractor at Apple, the bug occurred because the system was trying to resave all photos and media from the Files app into the Photos app during the reindexing process. This is done when you update your iPhone's operating system, as the Photos app can't display files but it can display media and photos.

The issue caused images that had been deleted from the Photos app to reappear in lower quality with different file names. Videos were not affected because most people don't save videos to the Files app or the Photos app. It seems likely that this is why we didn't see any deleted videos reappearing.

It's worth noting that some users reported seeing these issues after updating their iPhone to iOS 17.5. However, it appears that Apple has already patched the bug and fixed the issue. The fix was a minor update to iOS 17.5, which is now available for download.

Geekbench Test Results

In addition to discussing the bug, I ran a Geekbench test on my iPhone to see if there were any changes in performance compared to iOS 17.5. The results show that the single-core score was 2930 and the multicore score was 7219. These scores are similar to those reported for iOS 17.5.

It's worth noting that the battery life may also be affected by this bug, but it seems unlikely that there would be any significant changes in performance or battery life as a result of this update. Apple has already addressed the issue and fixed it, so users can now feel confident about updating to iOS 17.5 without worrying about deleting photos reappearing.

The Bug and Its Fix

So what exactly happened with this bug? Essentially, there were photos saved in both the Photos app and the Files app, two completely different applications. Users would delete some of these photos from the Photos app, but they would not actually be deleted - they would just disappear from the Photos app. However, the system was trying to resave all these files from the Files app into the Photos app.

This caused memory corruption, which resulted in the photos reappearing in lower quality with different file names. The issue seems to have occurred during the reindexing process after installing iOS 17.5, when the system was trying to update the data in the Photos app.

The fix for this bug is a minor update to iOS 17.5, which Apple has now released. This update addresses the issue and prevents deleted photos from reappearing on iPhones.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there was a bug in iOS 17.5 that caused deleted photos to reappear on iPhones. However, Apple has since patched the issue with a minor update, and users can now feel confident about updating to iOS 17.5 without worrying about this problem. The fix for the bug is straightforward - it involves addressing how the system handles files and media on an iPhone.

It's worth noting that some theories and rumors surrounding this bug were completely fabricated, including claims that Apple had a secret server storing user photos. These rumors are entirely false and should be disregarded. Instead, the solution to the issue lies in understanding how the system works and addressing any potential problems with file handling and reindexing.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys my name is Brandon and today Apple released iOS 17.5 point1 just 1 week after the release of iOS 17.5 which had a major bug in it that we're going to talk about here in a moment now this was released to everybody this is not a beta update it is a public release available to everybody so in this video of course we're going to talk about what's new and explain the bug that has been fixed so you can see the size here came in at a small 316 megabytes on my 15 Pro Max which was coming from IOS 17.5 now as far as the build number goes if we go into our settings General about the new build number is 21 f90 and if we go back and check out the modem firmware the modem firmware Remains the Same as 17.5 it is still 1.6.2 okay so now let's talk about what's new here in iOS 17.5 point1 and the only change is the one that Apple mentions here so they say 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 so this has been a Hot Topic over the past week because multiple people said that they had old photos reappear in their photo library even though they deleted them weeks or months ago and the first thing I need to say about this is that no apple is not permanently saving all of your photos to some secret server without your know college that is not at all what's happening here and also there is no security risk with this bug there's no privacy no security risk anything like that because this is all on device and with your iCloud account nobody else has access to these photos other than you so there's no privacy or security concern here and this is not some type of big you know exposed scene here for Apple that they're saving all of your photos that is not what's going on here so how this happened you know and apple says this was a database corruption but it looks like you know Apple investigated this issue and found that it was caused by photos being deleted from the photos application right here and not the files app so if you deleted photos from the photos app but not the files app those could have reappeared after installing iOS 17.5 so it seems like in most cases that was actually what was going on there so basically if you go into your files application and search for jpeg photos you're going to see a lot of photos in here that you may have deleted in the past from your actual photos application like your camera roll but they were not deleted from the files application and the bug in iOS 17.5 brought these photos from files back into the photos application on accident that's why it was a bug and the reason this happened is because in iOS 17.5 allegedly the system you know resaved all photos from the files app into the photos app during the reindexing process and to be more specific this is a post that has apparently some Insider information from a private contractor at Apple so take this with a grain of salt it is Reddit so it might not be true but it seems to add up and everybody's saying that it does seem to be the case so he said due to a rare bug with an iOS 17.5 the system attempts to resave all photos media and files from the files app into the photos app this happens during the reindexing process which happens when you update your iPhone since the photos app can't display files but it can display media and photos it appears as you're deleted photos have reappeared although they have been on your iPhone the whole time in the files app so it looks like this database corruption happened during the reindexing process after installing iOS 17.5 and that would also add up because a lot of the reported cases said that the the images the deleted images were lower quality now with different file names so that would also add up and it's also why we didn't see any deleted videos reappearing because most people don't save videos to the files app and also to the photos app so this seems to make a lot of sense and it's not even remotely close to some of these theories these crazy theories we've seen out there that you know indicated that apple had some type of secret server where they were storing your photos that couldn't be further from the truth and there was also a fake story of somebody who said they sold their iPhone they wiped their iPhone and sold it and the person they sold it to saw these old deleted photos that was a fake story that was a troll that posted that and a lot of people seem to believe it but that was completely made up and the reason it's made up is because that's not physically possible I mean they would have been different iCloud accounts and the files application would be clear and it would be based on the person's iCloud information so technically that's not even possible to happen anyways I do also want to run a geekbench test here just to see if there's any possibility of having a higher score compared to iOS 17.5 so we're going to put it in Airplane Mode here and go ahead and run a benchmark test so we scored a 2930 on the single core and a 7219 on the multicore score so pretty similar to iOS 17.5 it is a little bit lower but that just could be because of my device being a little bit warm at the moment but I would not expect any type of difference in performance and the same goes with battery life I would not really expect any type of change with battery life this bug was pushed out to fix the deleted photos bug and that's pretty much it Apple wanted to address this as soon as possible and they have done so so I would not expect any changes to Performance or battery life with this update and I know a lot of people were waiting for this bug to be addressed before updating to iOS 17.5 and now it looks like it is already here just a week later so if you were holding off if you were on 17.4.55 but you were worried about this bug now you can go ahead and do so because Apple has officially patched it so basically if you skipped everything The Cliff Notes version of the bug was that people had photos saved in both the photos app and the files app two completely different applications and they would delete some of those photos from the photos application but once they updated iOS 17.5 they would notice those deleted photos going back into the photos application but the photos were never deleted to begin with because they were in the files application as well they were in two locations at the same time but the user would only delete them from one application the photos application and the memory corruption basically you know took the the photo from the files application and put it into the photos application on accident so that is what this 17.5 point1 update addresses so that that does not continue happening so that is ios7 1.5.1 a very minor update that fixes a very confusing issue that a lot of people really just jump to conclusions on so hope this video helped clear up what the bug was and it's good that Apple has addressed it and you know specifically mentioned that they fixed it as well instead of trying to you know brush it under the rug and act like it didn't exist they actually addressed it which is a good move but anyways guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed make sure to subscribe for more iOS videos and I'll see you very soonwhat's up guys my name is Brandon and today Apple released iOS 17.5 point1 just 1 week after the release of iOS 17.5 which had a major bug in it that we're going to talk about here in a moment now this was released to everybody this is not a beta update it is a public release available to everybody so in this video of course we're going to talk about what's new and explain the bug that has been fixed so you can see the size here came in at a small 316 megabytes on my 15 Pro Max which was coming from IOS 17.5 now as far as the build number goes if we go into our settings General about the new build number is 21 f90 and if we go back and check out the modem firmware the modem firmware Remains the Same as 17.5 it is still 1.6.2 okay so now let's talk about what's new here in iOS 17.5 point1 and the only change is the one that Apple mentions here so they say 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 so this has been a Hot Topic over the past week because multiple people said that they had old photos reappear in their photo library even though they deleted them weeks or months ago and the first thing I need to say about this is that no apple is not permanently saving all of your photos to some secret server without your know college that is not at all what's happening here and also there is no security risk with this bug there's no privacy no security risk anything like that because this is all on device and with your iCloud account nobody else has access to these photos other than you so there's no privacy or security concern here and this is not some type of big you know exposed scene here for Apple that they're saving all of your photos that is not what's going on here so how this happened you know and apple says this was a database corruption but it looks like you know Apple investigated this issue and found that it was caused by photos being deleted from the photos application right here and not the files app so if you deleted photos from the photos app but not the files app those could have reappeared after installing iOS 17.5 so it seems like in most cases that was actually what was going on there so basically if you go into your files application and search for jpeg photos you're going to see a lot of photos in here that you may have deleted in the past from your actual photos application like your camera roll but they were not deleted from the files application and the bug in iOS 17.5 brought these photos from files back into the photos application on accident that's why it was a bug and the reason this happened is because in iOS 17.5 allegedly the system you know resaved all photos from the files app into the photos app during the reindexing process and to be more specific this is a post that has apparently some Insider information from a private contractor at Apple so take this with a grain of salt it is Reddit so it might not be true but it seems to add up and everybody's saying that it does seem to be the case so he said due to a rare bug with an iOS 17.5 the system attempts to resave all photos media and files from the files app into the photos app this happens during the reindexing process which happens when you update your iPhone since the photos app can't display files but it can display media and photos it appears as you're deleted photos have reappeared although they have been on your iPhone the whole time in the files app so it looks like this database corruption happened during the reindexing process after installing iOS 17.5 and that would also add up because a lot of the reported cases said that the the images the deleted images were lower quality now with different file names so that would also add up and it's also why we didn't see any deleted videos reappearing because most people don't save videos to the files app and also to the photos app so this seems to make a lot of sense and it's not even remotely close to some of these theories these crazy theories we've seen out there that you know indicated that apple had some type of secret server where they were storing your photos that couldn't be further from the truth and there was also a fake story of somebody who said they sold their iPhone they wiped their iPhone and sold it and the person they sold it to saw these old deleted photos that was a fake story that was a troll that posted that and a lot of people seem to believe it but that was completely made up and the reason it's made up is because that's not physically possible I mean they would have been different iCloud accounts and the files application would be clear and it would be based on the person's iCloud information so technically that's not even possible to happen anyways I do also want to run a geekbench test here just to see if there's any possibility of having a higher score compared to iOS 17.5 so we're going to put it in Airplane Mode here and go ahead and run a benchmark test so we scored a 2930 on the single core and a 7219 on the multicore score so pretty similar to iOS 17.5 it is a little bit lower but that just could be because of my device being a little bit warm at the moment but I would not expect any type of difference in performance and the same goes with battery life I would not really expect any type of change with battery life this bug was pushed out to fix the deleted photos bug and that's pretty much it Apple wanted to address this as soon as possible and they have done so so I would not expect any changes to Performance or battery life with this update and I know a lot of people were waiting for this bug to be addressed before updating to iOS 17.5 and now it looks like it is already here just a week later so if you were holding off if you were on 17.4.55 but you were worried about this bug now you can go ahead and do so because Apple has officially patched it so basically if you skipped everything The Cliff Notes version of the bug was that people had photos saved in both the photos app and the files app two completely different applications and they would delete some of those photos from the photos application but once they updated iOS 17.5 they would notice those deleted photos going back into the photos application but the photos were never deleted to begin with because they were in the files application as well they were in two locations at the same time but the user would only delete them from one application the photos application and the memory corruption basically you know took the the photo from the files application and put it into the photos application on accident so that is what this 17.5 point1 update addresses so that that does not continue happening so that is ios7 1.5.1 a very minor update that fixes a very confusing issue that a lot of people really just jump to conclusions on so hope this video helped clear up what the bug was and it's good that Apple has addressed it and you know specifically mentioned that they fixed it as well instead of trying to you know brush it under the rug and act like it didn't exist they actually addressed it which is a good move but anyways guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed make sure to subscribe for more iOS videos and I'll see you very soon\n"