Apple releases emergency update iOS 17.5.1 to fix puzzling Photos app bug on iPhones

Apple has released iOS 17.5.1, an emergency update to fix a bug that caused deleted photos to reappear on iPhones. This issue was due to database corruption, which made deleted photos visible again in the Photos library.

Apple's brief update note stated, "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."

The release of iOS 17.5.1 is unusual because it comes just a week after iOS 17.5. The previous update, iOS 17.5, was important as it fixed several serious security flaws in the iPhone Kernel, the core of the iOS operating system. However, it also introduced several issues, making it one of the most problematic updates in the iOS 17 series. The photo bug was a significant privacy concern, which is why Apple acted quickly to fix it with iOS 17.5.1.

Initially, Reddit users claimed that they were in shock when they saw deleted photos back in the gallery.  On Reddit's r/iOS subreddit one user said they were "thoroughly freaked out" to find photos from 2021 that they thought were permanently deleted. They mentioned, "I went to send a picture and saw that the latest pictures were NSFW material we'd made years ago."

Another user reported having four pictures from 2010 that kept reappearing in iCloud despite multiple attempts to delete them. Another person shared that a photo they took two years ago suddenly appeared at the top of their photos app.