Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Like many other smart devices, iPhones do not immediately delete deleted photos. Instead, they hide them locally in an inaccessible location.
- The iOS 17.5 Photos bug did not involve any Apple or iCloud servers; this occurred exclusively on the local storage of affected users’ iPhones.
- Claims of deleted photos reappearing on wiped iPhones/iPads after reselling them to strangers have been debunked.
For the past few weeks, iPhone users have (understandably) been voicing their concerns about the iOS 17.5 Photos bug and its implications. It didn’t help when well-known publications joined in the fear mongering by spreading an unsubstantiated anonymous report about these deleted photos reappearing on the devices after they were deleted and sold to strangers. Conspiracy theories and superstitions aside, let’s see what actually caused some deleted photos to reappear on select iDevices running iOS and iPadOS 17.5.
What happens when you delete a photo on iPhone
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Before we look at why iOS 17.5 restored some old photos, let’s first shed some light on what happens behind the scenes when you “permanently” delete a photo.
iPhones contain a NAND storage system. So when you delete a photo or file, it simply hides it from the UI and marks the storage it’s taking up locally as available for use. Until another file overwrites the storage it occupies, it will remain there in the digital void. By doing so, Apple extends the storage life, increases read/write speed, and makes deleted files easier to recover—if you have the encryption keys.
In particular, erasing the device resets the encryption keys and completely destroys these files, making it impossible for a future device owner to recover them. So when you switch to a new iPhone, you don’t have to worry about the old one’s data reappearing if you’ve reset it properly.
iOS 17.5 Photos Bug and iOS 17.5.1 Fix
For specific answers, Synactive (over 9 to 5 Mac) analyzed iOS 17.5 and iOS 17.5.1 IPSW (iPhone software) files. According to the report, the undeleted photos were recovered from the local file system through a new migration routine added in iOS 17.5.
So the newly added strings caused the operating system to scan and re-index deleted photos that were in the inaccessible digital void. No data was retrieved from the online server anywhere. This is confirmed by Apple’s statement 9 to 5 Macwhich assures users that the error occurred solely on the device and was not related to iCloud.
Mahmoud Itani / Android Authority
With iOS 17.5.1, Apple fixed this bug by simply removing the new scanning mechanism they originally added in iOS 17.5. The company hasn’t implemented a feature to detect and automatically re-delete accidentally restored photos, so those affected by the bug still have to do it manually. Fortunately, a bug in iOS 17.5 put all of these shots at the bottom of the Recents folder and didn’t scatter them around the library based on their original timestamps. So affected users won’t have to carefully go through their entire libraries to recheck and delete them.
Bottom Line
Based on the above facts, we can come to several conclusions:
- A now-deleted baseless Reddit post about recovering photos on an iPad after they wiped it and resold it was a blatant lie irresponsibly amplified by some outlets. iPadOS 17.5 bug can’t restore old owner’s photos because erasing the device resets the encryption keys.
- Undeleted photos never left your iDevice and never got leaked. If you are affected by the error, then simply find them at the bottom of the Recents folder in the Photos app and that’s it.