Apple releases urgent fix for iPhone bug that resurrects deleted nudes
Apple has released a fix for a weird bug that resurfaced deleted photos – including NSFW content – but still hasn’t explained why it happened.
The company released its latest operating system, iOS 17.5, for iPhone and iPad last week, but some users quickly noticed something odd happening in their photo albums.
Deleted pictures, many from years ago and some that were highly private or intimate, reappeared in their Photos library.
The issue not only left users at risk of their pictures inadvertently being seen by others, but raised the issue of why images they think are deleted aren’t really gone for good.
In the era of the cloud, deleting data is not as simple as it once was – and even in the early days of PCs, something you thought was deleted may not have been. Instead, the link to it was deleted, and the data remained on the disc until it was written over.
When deleting a photo from an iPhone or iPad, the image remains in the ‘Recently Deleted’ album for 30 days before being permanently purged. This should remove it from both the device and the cloud, but the image is continuing to exist in some form – and users are asking why Apple has not explained how.
Releasing the patch, it said: ‘This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.’
As with all updates, users should download the new software as soon as possible to protect their phone, but even if this stops the issue of nudes surfacing where they shouldn’t, it doesn’t answer the question of where else they may be found.
On Reddit, where the bug was first widely reported, one user said: ‘I’ve never heard of a database corruption being able to go back in time and reload photos that were deleted over a decade ago. Apple really needs to elaborate on this.’
However, another Redditor who said they ‘may or may not know somebody who is a private contractor at Apple’ – which could not be confirmed – said the issue was due to duplicates of images not being deleted from the Files app, which holds copies of screenshots and photos stored on iCloud.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Apple for comment.
How to update your iPhone
- Open the settings app
- Scroll down to ‘General’
- Tap on ‘About’
- If your iOS is up to date, the iOS version will be 17.5.1
- If your operating system is still 17.5 or older, go back to ‘General’ and tap ‘Software Update’
- Underneath details about 17.5.1, tap ‘Download and Install’
- You’ll need Wi-Fi and at least 50% battery life, unless the device is on charge
- Users can also switch on automatic updates, so the operating system upgrades itself, usually overnight while the device is on charge