Just a couple of hours ago, Apple released iOS 17.5.1 which fixes a rare but important bug that can make your deleted and even wiped photos reappear later on the device.

This issue was brought into the spotlight a few days ago when a redditor posted that a device they sold to a friend and wiped per Apple’s protocol suddenly started showing the previous owner’s photos in the photo gallery again.

Following that post, multiple other reports of similar encounters with deleted files have been posted, including some cases where photos deleted years ago resurfaced after updating to iOS 17.5.

I’ve talked in-depth about this bug in my previous post about the iOS 17.5 photo resurface issue.

What was fixed in iOS 17.5.1?

It appears that iOS 17.5.1 is an emergency fix for this new bug. As the changelog available in the Software Update settings simply says:

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.

This is a weird bug. For a long time, the consensus was that Apple devices have robust user data encryption thanks to SEP (Secure Enclave Processor).

It is a known fact that iOS encrypts the user data, including photos with very beefy keys, making this even worse of a bug as supposedly wiped photos for which the encryption key should have been obliterated still managed to come back to the device.

It’s unknown how deep the issue goes, as Apple likely doesn’t want to blow this out of proportion, but bugs like this slowly erode user’s trust, and for good reason.

Imagine wiping your device, selling it, and then the new owner just randomly starts getting your years-old photos on their device.

If you don’t care about jailbreaking, please update to iOS 17.5.1 as fast as possible as iOS 17.5.1 fixes the issue addressing a major safety and privacy risk.

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