Apple explains why deleted photos were being restored on some iPhones

A nightmare scenario seemingly came true last week when a number of iPhone users took to Reddit to share horror stories about old long-deleted photos – including sensitive pics like nudes – had suddenly reappeared on their device.

Apple confirmed the issue, rolling out a fix to the reappearing deleted photo bug in the iOS 15.5.1 update that came out earlier this week.

Now, Apple is sharing more information about what happened.

Why your deleted iPhone photos mysteriously returned

In a statement first provided to 9to5Mac, Apple shared that the issue was caused by a corrupt database entry locally stored on the specific iPhone device itself. The company says the bug did not involve iCloud Photos. 

This should come as a relief to users who were affected by the reappearing deleted photo bug as Apple says these pictures were not being stored on the cloud. Apple says the affected photos were not synced to iCloud Photos at all.

Some photos who had since upgraded their iPhone to the latest model had reported seeing deleted photos from as far back as 2010 show up on their new device. Apple says this is possible but only if the new iPhone was restored using that old iPhone's local or iCloud backup or a device-to-device transfer.

For users who had sold their previous device, Apple says that as long as the iPhone was completely erased and reset before being handed off to its new owner, they should not see these photos.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple reiterated that the company never had access to these deleted photos and that the issue only affected a small number of users and their photos.

While the latest iOS update fixes this bug and future deleted photos should not be able to be restored, the update does not deal with the photos that were previously deleted and restored. Users who found old deleted photos on their phone still need to locate the pics in the Photos app and delete them.