iPhone Owners Alarmed as iOS 17.5 Resurfaces Deleted Nudes, Troubling Bug Reported

A troubling bug in Apple's iOS 17.5 update is reportedly resurfacing previously deleted photos, including sensitive images, causing alarm among iPhone owners. Users on Reddit and beta testers have flagged this issue, raising serious privacy concerns.

iOS 17.5 Update Reportedly Resurfaces Deleted Photos, Raising Privacy Concerns Among iPhone Users

In a recent report by The Verge, people who have reported the potential problem indicate that old images have been shown in their Recents album since the May 15 upgrade. iOS allows users to restore deleted photos, but they are supposed to be completely gone after 30 days.

The user who started the discussion stated that NSFW photos they deleted "years ago" had reappeared on their phone. Another Reddit user said they noticed photos from 2016 appearing as fresh images but did not believe they had ever removed them. In a subsequent post, a person reported that "around 300" of their old photos, some of which were "revealing," emerged on an iPad they had erased according to Apple's rules and sold to a friend.

There's a potential privacy concern here, as one user reported on X that old voicemails reappeared following the update. This was also echoed by several beta testers who experienced the same issue with the previous iOS 17 betas. Whether this problem suggests that Apple is inadvertently retaining previously deleted data or it's simply a quirk in how iOS 17.5 handles such data, it's a situation that demands caution. Nobody wants to see their deleted personal content resurface, especially if it's sensitive.

iOS 17.5 Update Causes Deleted Photos to Reappear, Sparking Privacy Concerns Among Users

On May 15, according to Reddit (via MacRumors), Apple's recent iOS 17.5 update created an issue that caused deleted photographs to reappear in users' photo libraries, sometimes years later.

After updating their iPhone, one user was surprised to see old NSFW photographs they deleted in 2021 suddenly appear in photos identified as recently uploaded to iCloud. Other people have also shared similar stories. "Same here," commented one Redditor. "I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly."

"Same thing happened to me," another user responded. "Six photos from various times, all of which I deleted; some I deleted in 2023." More reports have come in overnight. Someone commented: "I had a random photo from a concert taken on my Canon camera reappear in my phone library, and it showed up as if it was added today."

It's unclear what's going on, but given that some photographs appear to have been taken years ago, it can be okay with recently deleted photos being restored. Deleted pictures and videos in Apple's photographs app are stored in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days, allowing users to restore or permanently erase them from all devices.

The reports could be due to an indexing error, photo library corruption, or a syncing problem between local devices and iCloud Photos. Another possibility is that in attempting to remedy a photo synchronization flaw that appeared in iOS 17.3, Apple unwittingly introduced a new syncing issue that may impact iCloud backups. This underscores the importance for users to actively monitor their photo libraries and backups. Previously, people running iOS 17.5 developer beta 4 reported similar difficulties. We will continue to update this post as we learn more, but in the meantime, users must stay vigilant.

Photo: Sebastian Bednarek/Unsplash