Uh oh: The latest iOS update is bringing back deleted photos from years ago

iOS 17.5 launched earlier this week, bringing a slew of exciting new features to the latest iPhones. These include a fresh puzzle game, offline Apple News access, and a bug that could end your relationship. Indeed, multiple iPhone users have complained about photos they deleted years ago reappearing in their libraries after installing the update. So, what’s going on?

The issue was first highlighted on Reddit when user Specialist-Fix8528 shared that NSFW photos they took and deleted years ago reappeared after updating their iPhone to iOS 17.5. The user also faced a similar issue on their iPad, stating that deleted artwork from years earlier resurfaced, too.

The Reddit thread gained traction, with hundreds of commenters sharing similar experiences — indicating that the bug is relatively widespread. Based on these various reports, we were able to derive some plausible conclusions:

• The bug seemingly affects the local storage, as some impacted users don’t use iCloud at all.
• Photos from previous iPhones you’ve owned may still appear on your current one if you’ve restored full-device backups when upgrading your hardware.
• Photo deletion typically breaks the link between stored data and the accessible user interface. As long as you’re not out of storage, the data could remain there in an unreadable state. So, the bug may be reestablishing these broken links and reindexing deleted photos on the user-facing side.

Right now, there’s seemingly no way to avoid this bug. After updating your iPhone to iOS 17.5, you will have to manually check your Photos app to see if any deleted content has reemerged. Do note, though, that not all users are impacted by this issue, as I personally didn’t encounter it on any of my updated devices.

Are you affected by this serious iOS 17.5 bug? Let us know in the comments.