Apple releases fix for ‘Zombie’ photos on iPhones

Apple has had a “pretty bad” issue with its iPhones, though it’s hoping the fix it just released will remedy the situation. The problem, according to 9to5Mac: Users say that photos they deleted, years ago, have unexpectedly resurfaced. Users say snapshots started appearing in their phones’ photo libraries after they updated to iOS 17.5 last week, and they’re not the photos that iPhones temporarily keep in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days after a user taps Delete. “. (at least One user said That the old photos even showed up on the iPad they sold, though 9to5Mac says there’s reason to believe “this claim is not true.”)

Apple on Monday released a fix for “the rare issue where photos that have been corrupted in the database can reappear in the Photos library even if they have been deleted” — but the tech giant isn’t saying much beyond that. “This is clearly a privacy concern,” he points out edge. “It raises valid questions about how Apple stores photo data and whether iPhone owners can truly trust that their deleted data is actually deleted.” Apple has so far remained mum on the cause and what has been done to fix the bug.

Forbes He tries to guess what the problem might be, noting that perhaps “when you click Delete, the data that makes up the image is not overwritten, it is just disconnected. These data files are only overwritten when that part of the image has space needed.” storage, so it would have remained hidden until then, and something in iOS 17.5 brought it back to life.”

The outlet adds that it’s normal for such errors to occur, but is concerned about Apple’s relative silence on “zombie” photos, noting that it has reached out “several times” for comment, but to no avail. “What is worrying is that as long as Apple remains silent, we have no idea how far this error may go,” the letter said. He added: “Ignoring requests to comment publicly on this matter does not give confidence that this will not happen again.” (More iPhone stories.)