- A possible bug in iOS 17.5 has left some iPhone owners seeming freaked out.
- Users said deleted pictures were restored to their Photos app after the latest software update.
- The alleged issue sparked debates about Apple's privacy.
Photos that were thought to be long gone are popping back up for some iPhone owners.
Apple's iOS 17.5 update is here, but some users are saying that the update brought back deleted pictures from years ago.
In a Tuesday post to the r/ios subreddit, one user said they were "thoroughly freaked out" to find photos from 2021 that they'd believed had already been permanently deleted.
"I went to send a picture and saw that the latest pictures were nsfw material we'd made years ago," the poster said. "WTF."
"Same here. I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly," another user responded.
A different poster reported a similar issue, saying, "A photo I took two years ago has suddenly reappeared at the top of my photos app. I regularly delete photos from my photo library to export them to my PC, which makes this even stranger."
MacRumors was the first to spot the concerns about Apple's Photos app.
Users also expressed privacy concerns.
"Apple is a privacy advocate," one person wrote in reply to the first Reddit post, but said if deleted files are not really deleted after so many years, "how can we trust it?
The iOS 17.5 update includes updates to the Lock Screen, "bug fixes," and security updates. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.