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 23, first published May 20, 2024

Responses to the new update continue to be positive, not to mention helpful. The clearest explanation of what might have happened (remember, Apple still hasn’t said what caused the problem beyond describing it as database corruption and there’s no mention of how it manifests) came from a Reddit user. They said, “It’s quite simple. The database keeps track of files. It was marked for deletion, but it was removed from the database before it was actually deleted, so I just sat there. Repairing the database by scanning the file systems restores it because now you don’t know if it was deleted or not.”

Another commented that it could be that the file was accidentally left behind when the entry was deleted from the database. They said: “Some engineer added a ‘fix’ by scanning 17.5 for lost files on the system and adding them back to the database so the user can decide what to do with them.” The same user sarcastically commented, “Someone actually thought this was a good idea.”

Whatever the cause, it seems increasingly likely that the problem has already been fixed and the consensus is that it was never a privacy issue. As YouTuber Brandon Butch noted: “There is no risk to privacy, security or anything like that because everything is done on your device and using your iCloud account. No one but you has access to these photos.”

In some cases, it appears that photos were deleted from the Photos app but not from the Files app, which could have caused them to reappear, says Brandon Butch. This may not be the full story, however, as some users have reported images from before the Files app existed.

That said, many users will 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 noticed their photos reappearing 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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