{"id":43325,"date":"2024-05-20T14:45:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T18:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=43325"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:37:47","slug":"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/20\/ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 17.5 Resurfacing Deleted Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/05\/17\/ios-17-5-bug-wiped-devices-photos-resurfacing\/\">Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/05\/17\/ios-17-5-bug-wiped-devices-photos-resurfacing\/\"><p>A Reddit user wiped an iPad following Apple&rsquo;s guidelines in September of 2023 before selling it off to a friend. That friend updated the  iPad  to iPadOS 17.5 this week, and began seeing the Reddit user&rsquo;s old photos reappearing in the Photos app.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That would be <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/matthew_d_green\/status\/1791812281703018881\">very concerning<\/a> because it would imply that Apple is retaining deleted photos in the cloud. However, this particular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ios\/comments\/1cspwh2\/my_old_photos_appeared_on_an_ipad_i_sold\/\">Reddit post<\/a> has since been deleted, and I haven&rsquo;t seen any others making this claim.<\/p>\n<p>I do <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/13\/ios-17-5-and-ipados-17-5\/#comment-4090950\">continue<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/linklog\/ios-restoring-deleted-photos\/\">to see<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ios\/comments\/1cuochc\/didnt_update_to_175_but_old_photos_still_appeared\/\">reports<\/a> that deleted, non-cloud photos are resurrected after installing iOS 17.5. That is also a serious bug, which I hope Apple will <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/joshavant\/status\/1791892961623466424\">communicate about<\/a>. It&rsquo;s apparently <a href=\"https:\/\/512pixels.net\/2024\/05\/apple-releases-ios-17-5-1-fixing-issue-with-deleted-photos-reappearing\/\">fixed today in iOS 17.5.1<\/a>, but Apple has not posted <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/118723#175\">release notes<\/a> of that yet.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/20\/ios-17-5-1-and-ipados-17-5-1\/\">iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/13\/ios-17-5-and-ipados-17-5\/\">iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/23\/icloud-for-windows-downloading-other-peoples-photos\/\">iCloud for Windows Downloading Other People&rsquo;s Photos<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Update (2024-05-20): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/05\/20\/apple-releases-ios-17-5-1-photos-bug\/\">Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/05\/20\/apple-releases-ios-17-5-1-photos-bug\/\"><p>Images deleted as far back as 2010 were surfacing again, leading to confusion and worry over what was going on. Apple&rsquo;s information today indicates that it was a database corruption issue, and iOS 17.5.1 should solve the problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some details are still missing here. Presumably, the database was corrupted at the time of deletion, which is why the photos were left on disk. iOS 17.5 wasn&rsquo;t the cause of the problem; it just revealed the failure that happened long ago. This implies that people who don&rsquo;t (or can&rsquo;t) update to iOS 17.5\/17.5.1 may still be subject to the problem. It&rsquo;s also not clear what the fix is. How does 17.5.1 detect which photos were meant to be deleted? If the database is corrupted, how does it do that without potentially losing photos that are meant to be there?<\/p>\n<p>Is it confirmed that there is no cloud angle to this bug and that it doesn&rsquo;t affect wiped devices?<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2024-05-21\">Update (2024-05-21): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ios\/comments\/1cwgljj\/regarding_the_ios_175_photo_glitch\/\">_tysen<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ios\/comments\/1cwgljj\/regarding_the_ios_175_photo_glitch\/\">\n<p>I may or may not know somebody who is a Private Contractor @ Apple, and they may have or may not have given me an explanation on the current situation.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Now how are the deleted photos &ldquo;reappearing&rdquo; after being deleted? This is because almost every case of this incident happening which Apple has investigated has been caused by the photo(s) being deleted from the &ldquo;Photos&rdquo; app but NOT the &ldquo;Files&rdquo; app. They are two separate apps with two copies of the photos.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>But due to a rare bug within iOS 17.5 the system attempts to re-save all photos\/media\/files from the &ldquo;Files&rdquo; app into the &ldquo;Photos&rdquo; app, this happens during the re-indexing process which happens when you update your iPhone. Since the &ldquo;Photos&rdquo; app can&rsquo;t display files but it can display media\/photos, it appears as your &ldquo;deleted&rdquo; photos have reappeared ALTHOUGH they have been on your iPhone the whole time in the &ldquo;Files&rdquo; app.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This doesn&rsquo;t seem to be the full explanation because some people have reported the problem in relation to photos that are not in the Files app and indeed which predate the app&rsquo;s existence.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/linklog\/ios-reappearing-photos-update\/\">Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/linklog\/ios-reappearing-photos-update\/\">\n<p>I suppose even a &ldquo;rare&rdquo; bug would, at Apple&rsquo;s scale, impact lots of people. I heard from multiple readers who said they, too, saw presumed deleted photos reappear.<\/p>\n<p>The thing about these bare release notes &mdash; which are <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-ca\/118723\">not yet on Apple&rsquo;s support site<\/a> &mdash; is how they do not really answer reasonable questions about what happened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Apple did eventually publish the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/118723#175\">release notes<\/a>, but they don&rsquo;t answer the questions people have.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/2024\/05\/20\/ios-17-5-1-and-ipados-17-5-1-fix-photo-reappearance-bug\/\">Adam Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/tidbits.com\/2024\/05\/20\/ios-17-5-1-and-ipados-17-5-1-fix-photo-reappearance-bug\/\">\n<p>I don&rsquo;t know if there&rsquo;s an easy way to tell if you&rsquo;re affected&mdash;I certainly couldn&rsquo;t tell you if a few deleted photos reappeared in my library.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>While the exact cause remains unknown, reports suggest Apple may have been attempting to fix a problem that caused photos to be lost if the iPhone crashed during upload and corrupted the database underneath the Photos library.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Is there any connection to iCloud Photos here? Some people who have experienced the bug do not use iCloud Photos, so it&rsquo;s not required. However, it would be more troubling if deleted images were retained online instead of just locally.<\/p>\n<p>What happens to the corrupted images after updating to iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1? Are they kept or deleted?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/5\/20\/24161152\/apple-ios-17-photo-bug\">Victoria Song<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/5\/20\/24161152\/apple-ios-17-photo-bug\">\n<p>It raises valid questions as to how Apple stores photo data and whether iPhone owners can truly trust that their deleted data is actually deleted. <em>The Verge<\/em> has reached out to Apple multiple times to comment publicly on the matter but has yet to receive a response. Doing so would at least shed light on why this bug happened, what&rsquo;s been done to fix it, and what it&rsquo;s doing to ensure that this won&rsquo;t happen again.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>If anything, Apple ought to comment simply because it markets itself as a company that cares about your privacy. It&rsquo;s spent countless WWDC keynotes talking about software updates to keep your data encrypted so that not even Apple knows what&rsquo;s going on on your phone. That you can trust its services because privacy is a fundamental, core tenet of its philosophy. Responsible disclosure and transparency are the hallmarks of a company that truly believes in protecting your privacy. Brushing things under the rug? Not so much.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/apple-photo-bug-resurfaced-fix-icloud\/\">Lauren Goode<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=40422136\">Hacker News<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2024-05-22\">Update (2024-05-22): The bug also <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/22\/tvos-17-5-1\/\">affected tvOS<\/a>. Since it&rsquo;s now &ldquo;fixed&rdquo; everywhere, I suppose this is all we&rsquo;re going to hear from Apple, but something about this story still doesn&rsquo;t <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@tolmasky\/112482157019705474\">sit<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/toot.community\/@koolinus\/112482868272222915\">right<\/a> with me.<\/p>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2024-05-24\">Update (2024-05-24): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/apple-wasnt-storing-deleted-ios-photos-in-icloud-after-all\/#google_vignette\">Bill Toulas<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/apple-wasnt-storing-deleted-ios-photos-in-icloud-after-all\/#google_vignette\"><p>Analysts at&nbsp;Synactiv&nbsp;reverse-engineered the iOS 17.5.1 update that addressed the problem, examining the IPSW files and comparing the DYLD shared caches of the two versions to find changes.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>Apple removed a routine in the function responsible for scanning and re-importing photos from the filesystem, which caused it to reindex old files on the local file system and add them back to people&rsquo;s galleries.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>&ldquo;The reason why those files were there in the first place is unknown.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.synacktiv.com\/en\/publications\/inside-the-ios-bug-that-made-deleted-photos-reappear\">Quentin Salingue<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/_saagarjha\/status\/1793205370900693330\">Saagar Jha<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.synacktiv.com\/en\/publications\/inside-the-ios-bug-that-made-deleted-photos-reappear\"><p>The 17.5.1 update removed the scanning of the filesystem that was added in 17.5 to prevent deleted photos stored outside of the photo library to re-appear. According to our analysis, no code was added to purge the imported photos from the library as well as the &ldquo;deleted&rdquo; pictures lying on the filesystem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/appdot.net\/@jgordon\/112496130560105856\">John Gordon<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/appdot.net\/@jgordon\/112496130560105856\">\n<p>Am I wrong that Apple had a recovery fix for Photos.app images lost due to sync bugs but then rolled it back so now there is no fix?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, either way it sounds like there will be orphaned photos left on the disk. Either they are images that should have been recovered or ones that should have been deleted, in some cases more than a decade go. The 17.5.1 update doesn&rsquo;t fix this; it just returns us to the status quo ante.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2024\/05\/23\/apple-deleted-photos-resurfacing-explanation\/\">Chance Miller<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/05\/24\/apple-explains-resurfaced-deleted-photos-bug\/\">MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2024\/05\/23\/apple-deleted-photos-resurfacing-explanation\/\">\n<p>One question many people had is how images from dates as far back as 2010 resurfaced because of this problem. After all, most people aren&rsquo;t still using the same devices now as they were in 2010. Apple confirmed to me that iCloud Photos is not to be blamed for this. Instead, it all boils to the corrupt database entry that existed on the device&rsquo;s file system itself.<\/p>\n<p>According to Apple, the photos that did not fully delete from a user&rsquo;s device were not synced to iCloud Photos. Those files were only on the device itself. However, the files could have persisted from one device to another when restoring from a backup, performing a device-to-device transfer, or when restoring from an iCloud Backup but not using iCloud Photos.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The company says that after a device has been completely erased using the steps below, all files and content are permanently deleted.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>iOS 17.5.1 doesn&rsquo;t automatically re-delete photos that reappeared after updating to iOS 17.5. If you were affected by this problem, you&rsquo;ll need to go to the Photos app and manually delete those images.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>I still <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@mjtsai\/112496211024910014\">think<\/a> it&rsquo;s unclear how tvOS was affected. How did the photos get on the Apple TV if not via iCloud Photos?<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/link\/2024\/05\/apple-explains-resurrected-photos-bug\/\">Dan Moren<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/sixcolors.com\/link\/2024\/05\/apple-explains-resurrected-photos-bug\/\">\n<p>While it&rsquo;s good that Apple has now (after several days of requests) clarified the issue, this does speak to a larger point: why is the company not more proactive in <em>talking<\/em> about these issues when they come up?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/512pixels.net\/2024\/05\/apple-says-database-corruption-was-to-blame-for-recent-oh-no-my-deleted-photos-are-back-bug\/\">Stephen Hackett<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/512pixels.net\/2024\/05\/apple-says-database-corruption-was-to-blame-for-recent-oh-no-my-deleted-photos-are-back-bug\/\">\n<p>Now the company should address the recent issue with folks having their Apple IDs locked.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/26\/janky-apple-id-security\/\">Janky Apple ID Security<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2024-05-28\">Update (2024-05-28): <a href=\"https:\/\/hachyderm.io\/@ezekiel\/112499481877346739\">Ezekiel Elin<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/hachyderm.io\/@ezekiel\/112499481877346739\">\n<p>It&rsquo;s possible that the database repair process was also present on tvOS and they removed it out of caution.<\/p>\n<p>This whole thing seems relatively simple and I haven&rsquo;t seen any concrete evidence it&rsquo;s more complex than:<\/p>\n<ul><li>Database\/file management bug in the past (maybe ongoing)<\/li>\n<li>Repair process (probably implemented alongside fix to original bug) bringing back undeleted photos<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2024-07-16\">Update (2024-07-16): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/07\/15\/ios-18-recovered-album-photos\/\">Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/07\/15\/ios-18-recovered-album-photos\/\"><p>There is a &ldquo;Recovered&rdquo; album in the Utilities section of  Photos [in iOS 18], and it shows up if there are pictures or videos on a user&rsquo;s device that are not part of their  Photos  Library. If you see the Recovered album in your  Photos  app, tapping into it will provide an option to permanently delete or restore any pictures or video stored in the album.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p id=\"ios-17-5-resurfacing-deleted-photos-update-2025-02-25\">Update (2025-02-25): <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ridogi\/114039307775460903\">Eric deRuiter<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ridogi\/114039307775460903\"><p>Seems the deleted photos reappearing bug is back. I deleted some older photos on macOS 14.7.4 iCloud Photo Library and about 2 days later noticed 2 of them as the most recent photos on my iPad running 18.3.1<\/p><p>I don&rsquo;t know which device un-deleted them, just that I noticed on iPad and then they synced. My devices are 2 Mac&rsquo;s on 14.7.4 and the iPad and iPhone on 18.3.1<\/p><p>They didn&rsquo;t appear in a &ldquo;recovered&rdquo; album, just straight into the photo library which synced. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/11\/macos-14-7-4-and-macos-13-7-4\/\">macOS 14.7.4 and macOS 13.7.4<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/11\/ios-18-3-1-and-ipados-18-3-1\/\">iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juli Clover: A Reddit user wiped an iPad following Apple&rsquo;s guidelines in September of 2023 before selling it off to a friend. That friend updated the iPad to iPadOS 17.5 this week, and began seeing the Reddit user&rsquo;s old photos reappearing in the Photos app. That would be very concerning because it would imply that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-05-20T18:45:24Z","apple_news_api_id":"6b47074b-7191-4e1e-a7b5-d54569ed3261","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-02-25T14:37:51Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aa0cHS3GRTh6ntdVFae0yYQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[131,1582,1142,31,2321,927,355,1558,2406],"class_list":["post-43325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-bug","tag-files-app","tag-icloud-photo-library","tag-ios","tag-ios-17","tag-photos-app","tag-privacy","tag-tvos","tag-tvos-17"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43325"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46834,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43325\/revisions\/46834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}