Apple has now confirmed details which caused some users to see images they’d deleted long ago reappear. The company had already put it down to “database corruption”, as it described it in the release notes for the recent iOS 17.5.1 update. And now, the company had gone further to explain what happened.
If you’ve seen photos reappear on your iPhone that you deleted years ago, or even on a previous iPhone, then you’re not alone, though Apple says the issue was rare.
Now, in comments made to 9to5Mac, Apple has answers for questions such as how images that dated as far back as 2010 could reappear or, from previous iPhones, which had suggested that iCloud Photos was part of the problem.
Apple says it’s actually down to a corrupt database entry in the device’s file system itself. The report says, “According to Apple, the photos that did not fully delete from a user’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.”
This makes sense—though there’s still a slightly creepy feeling knowing that images you deleted decades ago may have been hanging around all this time.
Apple also went on to challenge one of the most concerning reports made about the issue. This was when a Reddit user (in a post that’s now been deleted) said that they had erased the content of an iPad, sold it to a friend and when the friend updated to iOS 17.5, the images reappeared.
Apple says that this claim was false, though there are no more details available as to why. Apple says that providing a device is erased properly (by going to Settings, then General, then Transfer or Reset and choosing Erase All Content and Settings) then all files and all content are permanently deleted.
Perhaps the Reddit user did not follow those steps correctly? Apple hasn’t commented on this, but it seems possible.
YouTuber Brandon Butch has been at pains to stress is not a privacy issue as the photos and videos that reappeared were only on-device, not in iCloud. Which means that if a device is properly erased, content cannot reappear.
