Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sounds a lot like deleting files on a typical file system where only the pointer is removed (so you can't see it) but the actual file is still physically on the disk (until overwritten)
Yep, so you fill in quicker the storage of your device, and you are pushed to buy asap a new one with bigger storage... more money for a$$le...
 
Yep, so you fill in quicker the storage of your device, and you are pushed to buy asap a new one with bigger storage... more money for a$$le...
That’s seems like a stretch. Here, let’s randomly not delete a few photos on many people’s devices and then bring them back again later. Yea, that’s going to sell more phones. 🤨
 
people should not comment on matter if they have no clue or even basic knowledge.
there is no conspiracy - they explained the issue, so move on, nothing to see here.
if one gives credibility to random internet comments or reddit posts over some Apple official statement - well, indeed some serious issue, but elsewhere and of different kind.

all your computer stuff works like that since decades.
that's why its possible to rescue data deleted by mistake or after disaster.
that's why you delete a file, a folder, gigabytes of data in one go and just continue use your device after you clicked "empty trash".

no device, no OS, no file system for standard use does actually WIPE data on delete. that is done by procedures that take hours or even days depending on size of storage - because it actually writes a ZERO value, bit by bit, to be sure no one should be able to recover data for ever. actually this is even done multiple times for compliant data erasing.
default FORMATTING is not wiping your drive, your USB stick, your device, whatever, it does only create new structure. zeros and ones, bits, remain on disk until overwritten.

add new devices restored from backups, users confusing reset and erase and false claims to the mix and you get a story of hearsay where everyone feels obligated to add some comment.
 
Last edited:
The mistake you’re both making here is not understanding that the files were never deleted. The photos disappeared from the Photos app database due to whatever “database corruption” happened that Apple described, but the files were never deleted from the file system. This is exactly how they were able to persist across devices via backups, as explained in the article. Everyone talking about deleted files and undeleting dormant data from storage is getting to a level that isn’t relevant to this issue.

I fully understand hence my comment, the files were ‘marked to be overwritten’, the issue is people claiming they had photos they deleted several years ago cropping up, apparently, hence my disbelief the cloud wasn’t involved as to believe those photos were never overwritten in all that time is quite the claim.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Stratus Fear
You're assuming the storage blocks were truly marked as available for reuse rather than the photo just being removed from the index and the storage remaining marked as in-use.

Because that would be THE most inefficient way of handling storage, what you think the photo would stay in memory for ever along with any other deleted photos? This rendering that storage space totally unusable? That makes no sense. Remember some said the photos they had deleted years ago.
 
You assume the corrupted database was actually marked for deletion. Maybe the system still saw it as Photos data without a thumbnail, or “Other” storage.

Whatever was done didn’t “take” so it was likely never available for overwriting, making it very plausible that data could be carted around for years until 17.5.

Again, someone claiming all your deleted photos sit in your storage using it up never allowing it to be used for anything else. Rubbish.

The lengths some of you are going to defend Apple here is astounding, you are all literally claiming, when you deleted a photo it never was removed, and the storage space it used up was never allowed to be used for anything else.…
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: mjs916 and TiggrToo
That isn‘t their claim. Obviously the photos were not properly deleted. All they said was that the data was locally stored, and corrupted data could move from phone to phone when people upgraded.

Which would mean this flaw has existed for years if we be,I eve those who said they had photos deleted years ago reappear, taking up storage space you could never use for anything else. That is poor amateur programming. And a con on the customer as your device doesn’t have X amount of storage, because Apple have an issue where you permanently lose some of it.. until this week? If you have a lot of photos impacted that can be a noticeable amount of storage stolen by the bug.
 
Again, someone claiming all your deleted photos sit in your storage using it up never allowing it to be used for anything else.
Since you quoted me, please tell me where I claimed or implied this is the case for “all your deleted photos”?

Actually, please don’t. Nevermind. I don’t want to get into a back and forth here. I just never said that.
 
Last edited:
Since you quoted me, please tell me where I claimed or implied this is the case for “all your deleted photos”?

Actually, please don’t. Nevermind. I don’t want to get into a back and forth here. I just never said that.

Ok, you didn’t say ‘all’ but your comment was still ridiculous.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: mjs916
I fully understand hence my comment, the files were ‘marked to be overwritten’, the issue is people claiming they had photos they deleted several years ago cropping up, apparently, hence my disbelief the cloud wasn’t involved as to believe those photos were never overwritten in all that time is quite the claim.
That’s because the files in the file system were never deleted. They were untouched. Where the error happened was in the Photo app. It has a feature where you can “delete” a photo and it is moved to the Recently Deleted list which acts like the trash can on the desktop. With photos, the file is supposed to be tagged with a date after which the Photos app really will tell the OS to delete the files. That last part didn’t happen because some corrupted data was written when the file was “deleted” in Photos. it caused the photo to dissappear from Photos but the actual files were never deleted. They just sat there, potentially for years, until another update came in, noticed some photos in the Photos directory that were not index and added them back to the photos index. This was all local and no cloud involved.
 
Because that would be THE most inefficient way of handling storage, what you think the photo would stay in memory for ever along with any other deleted photos? This rendering that storage space totally unusable? That makes no sense. Remember some said the photos they had deleted years ago.
Bugs usually don't make sense. Else they wouldn’t be bugs.

Tell us you’ve never been a coder without saying so. 🤣
 
They did not say how they fixed this. Are they deleting corrupted files? Is there some kind of garbage collection periodically delete files with no reference? Will iCloud backups only copy files that are known to the file system?

How do we know this will not happen again? I agree with some posters there needs to be more information beyond what Apple said. Their whole cost proposition is that they are a security and privacy first company. This was a bad thing to happen and we need to know how Apple is fixing it and that we can trust them. If something like this happens again. People should be outraged this ever happened in the first place. What other dodgy code practices are being used? Will deleted iCloud messages appear some day? Deleted emails? Deleted app data?
While I may not be a grandmaster data expert per se, my academic, professional and personal hobbyist background is in IT/computer science and I hate to break it to you but serious bugs and unintended vulnerabilities like this one are abundant in anything and everything that runs on silicon. The scariest ones are those that exist which are much worse even than this deleted photos issue but that no one has discovered yet, not even Apple’s own engineers or well-intentioned security researchers working in good faith to find this stuff. They’re just..there..lying in wait for whomever it is that uncovers them, be they good guys or not... Which is why cybersec careers are among the most lucrative in what is generally already a high-paying field.

It’s all too easy and common for even the most brilliant and well-seasoned technologists - including those working for the richest and most sophisticated companies - to make tiny little mistakes that can pose enormous risks. I’ve personally experienced moments in my career like the time when HIGHLY sensitive information about every member of our company’s C-suite was found to be technically accessible by all employees in the company for no other reason than our network admin missed a random software toggle switch buried deep in the most advanced settings of our backup software‘s automated scheduler that was a part of our overall policy group. Or the time when a single character on a single line of code in which a ‘1’ value should’ve been ‘0’ (so it was incorrectly set to TRUE instead of FALSE) causing our end users to download large amounts of useless test data in what was always expected by them to be small files (<1 MB) based on data in production.

You get the idea but that’s just me as one person and only two examples out of many, and I’ve only been in the industry less than a decade. I try not to think about it too much or I would never sleep at night.
 
Apple should be writing full 0’s to the disk where deleted files were stored, rather than just modifying the file index on the partition. Considering Apple is all about privacy, this type of coding baffles me.

If they’re saving the images in BLOB’s, this is clearly a bug that needs to be fixed in the DB. Still baffles me for a company with billions of dollars.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Jetson and Radeon85
So using the "Erase All Content and Settings" doesn't do a good enough job at wiping the device then if iOS was able to recover them. If the SSD was wiped properly then this shouldn't have been possible. Really not happy with Apples response on this, if I use the erase everything option then iOS needs to do a significantly more thorough job at wiping the device.

I'd like to see Apple add an extra option when it comes to wiping the device, a quick erase as it is now which is fine if your still using it, but add a second option to do a very thorough erase if your giving the device to someone else or selling it. This option will take longer to run but at least I have confidence knowing my data should be irretrievable.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Jetson
Why is Apple not addressing other long term bugs such as German Language Bug that affects FCP/Motion/Compressor..The command editor thinks the keyboard is German, I don't speak German, never been to Germany, a re-install, complete wipe of hard drive, nothing fixed the problem...It makes using FCP impossible as the Z key is in the wrong place...
Screenshot 2024-03-02 at 11.44.12 AM.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjs916
You are worried

I am just wondering

How nice of you to always update to the latest iOS version and for sure you purchase a new iPhone yearly
My point is, if you’re worried about security of losing stuff / getting hacked or whatever you should be on the latest software because you know…..security patches / bugfixes
 
So using the "Erase All Content and Settings" doesn't do a good enough job at wiping the device then if iOS was able to recover them. If the SSD was wiped properly then this shouldn't have been possible. Really not happy with Apples response on this, if I use the erase everything option then iOS needs to do a significantly more thorough job at wiping the device.
It changes the encryption key. Once that’s changed, there’s no way whatsoever that data can be restored.

The person who claimed that photos reappeared after selling their device is either telling porkies or didn’t actually prepare the device for sale correctly.

Considering the ONE person who claimed this has now deleted their post, it could be either option.
 
Apple should be writing full 0’s to the disk where deleted files were stored, rather than just modifying the file index on the partition. Considering Apple is all about privacy, this type of coding baffles me.

If they’re saving the images in BLOB’s, this is clearly a bug that needs to be fixed in the DB. Still baffles me for a company with billions of dollars.
No, and no one does this for several reasons. This is a good way to shorten the life you're hardware. It's also unnecessary and would not have prevented this bug.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatTribble
According this comment, Apple’s explanation is nonsense.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation surrounding this online, and Apple is not being entirely truthful here either. I have some information on this from some Apple insiders, but there are some gaps, so reverse-engineering might shed more light on it.

This has nothing to do with the Files app, nor does it have anything to do with re-indexing of the Photos library. This has to do with fighting CSAM. Apple has started (in this or a previous update), to scan your device (including deleted files) for anything containing nudity (search for "brasserie") and adding it to your photos library in a way that it is hidden. That way, anything that the models detect as nudity is stored in your iCloud database permanently. Apple is doing this because it allows them to screen for unknown CSAM material. Currently it can only recognize known fingerprints, but doing this allows them (and the other parties that have access to your iCloud data) to analyze unknown media.

The bug mentioned here accidentally made those visible to the user. The change visible updates the assets in the library in a way that removes the invisibility flag, hence people noticing that there are old nudes in their library that they cannot delete.

It's not something the user was supposed to see, and it is not something to be concerned about, because it is done for protection. There is a similar thing on macOS, where there is a separate, hidden iPhotos database for the same purpose (it's called Syndication, somewhere in the Library folder).

And speaking of deleting things, things are never really deleted. The iPhone keeps a record of messages you delete and media, inside the KnowledgeC database. This is often used for forensic purposes. Apple is migrating this to the Biome database, which has the benefit of being synchronized to iCloud. It is used to feed Siri with information, among other things. Anything you type into your devices, or fingerprints of anything you view are sent to Apple's servers and saved. Spooky, if you ask me. But the only way we can have useful digital assistants is when they have access to everything, that's just how it works.
 
I'm almost disappointed I never got any old deleted photos pop back up in my albums; I'd have hoped to see some deleted cat memes from years ago. 😩
 
  • Haha
Reactions: fatTribble
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.