Apple is fixing a frustrating bug with iPhone photos

Did you update your iPhone to iOS 17.5 on Monday, May 13? Well, it’s time to do it again, because iOS 17.5.1 has already landed. This is a smaller update that has just one feature: fixing an issue with the key Photos app.

Updated May 22, first published May 20, 2024

Many users would be relieved that Apple rolled out this update in record time, especially if they deleted their photos and sold their device, as was the case with some users who discovered that their photos had reappeared on an iPad now belonging to someone else. The issue affects more devices than just the iPhone, and updates have also been released for the iPad and Apple TV.

As Victoria Song commented in The Verge: “A reasonable person would expect a deleted file to remain in this state. “So it’s understandable that people panicked last week when photos they deleted years ago suddenly reappeared in their iPhone photo library.”

The problem with this release has to do with the fact that Apple has yet to provide any public comment on it beyond calling it “rare” in the update’s release notes.

In this comment, Apple describes this as database corruption, and it appears that any zombie images brought back to life will be on the device rather than in the cloud.

As Song put it: “Apple should comment on everything just because it advertises itself as a company that cares about your privacy.”

Which iPhones support iOS 17.5.1?

If you have an iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max or iPhone XR from 2018 or any newer iPhone, yours is compatible. This means the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series. This also applies to the second and third generation iPhone SE models.

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How to get it

You already know this procedure, but just in case: open the Settings app, click General, then Software Update. You can download the new software right here, which usually means it will be available on your iPhone sooner. Select Download and Install and you’ll soon be golden.

What’s in the release

This release focuses on a bug that appeared in iOS 17.5, which Apple describes in the release notes as “a rare issue where photos that suffered database corruption could reappear in the Photos library, even if they have been deleted.”

This issue was controversial, although rare. This meant that images that in some cases had been deleted years ago were reappearing after installing iOS 17.5, much to the surprise and dismay of users. Apple still hasn’t revealed how this happened, though it’s most likely something as simple as deleting photos on your iPhone or iPad. After clicking the Delete button, the data that makes up the image will not be overwritten, but only detached.

These data files would only be overwritten when that part of the memory was needed, so they could remain hidden until then. Something in iOS 17.5 brought them back to life.

This update, which “also includes important bug fixes,” as Apple puts it, aims to make zombie photos a thing of the past.

This is especially important for anyone who has given away or sold their iPhone and wouldn’t want old photos to magically come back.

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