Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iOS 15 Messages Bug Causes Saved Photos to Be Deleted
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Users should at least receive a warning that deleting a message thread will also delete any saved photo’s and videos from your photo library - OR - should be an option to disable this feature all together. This is a big miss on Apple’s part.
Another issue that seems to prove my opinion of recent iOS releases...
iOS 10 - good
iOS 11 - bad
iOS 12 - good
iOS 13 - bad
iOS 14 - good
iOS 15 - bad
I'm initially unsure whether iOS 15 is good or bad but as more and more of these articles describing the issues surface, I guess the pattern holds true...
iOS 10 - good
iOS 11 - bad
iOS 12 - good
iOS 13 - bad
iOS 14 - good
iOS 15 - bad
I'm initially unsure whether iOS 15 is good or bad but as more and more of these articles describing the issues surface, I guess the pattern holds true...
APFS was introduced with iOS 10.3 and has been used for all iOS versions since then...Ahhhh don’t you just love that new APFS with all that linkage.
Sorry... Can you please let me know what you mean in your comment?
Here's my question: some of us auto-delete Messages that are more than 30 days or 1 year old under the Message History setting - what happens to the photos saved from Messages that are auto-deleted after a year? Are people also losing these photos from their iCloud Library after the phone performs an iCloud Backup? It'd be really ****** if iOS auto-deleted 1-year old messages yesterday and then deleted any photos I saved from those messages from my library.
Just to be safe, I'm setting Keep Messages - Forever until this bug is fixed.
Just to be safe, I'm setting Keep Messages - Forever until this bug is fixed.
Workaround to protect saved photos for the moment:
If you have saved photos from Messages in your library, you can duplicate them. The duplicates won't have the Messages metadata and will be immune to this deletion. I just tested this.
This is probably the most serious bug I've ever seen from Apple. I can't think of any reason why initiating a *BACKUP* would ever cause data to be deleted. I really want to know the mechanism behind this; sadly Apple is probably just going to fix it and not say much about it.
If you have saved photos from Messages in your library, you can duplicate them. The duplicates won't have the Messages metadata and will be immune to this deletion. I just tested this.
This is probably the most serious bug I've ever seen from Apple. I can't think of any reason why initiating a *BACKUP* would ever cause data to be deleted. I really want to know the mechanism behind this; sadly Apple is probably just going to fix it and not say much about it.
I didn’t think downgrading is an option since Apple quit signing iOS 14.8 and below. Am I wrong on that?
Selection bias is at play here, we don't hear from the Samsung owners whose phones combusted and killed them or who are still waiting for a 10 fps animation to finish
For-profit companies policing private citizens by rifling through their possessions seems like a really bad idea, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Apple
Even botching a minor release now. I know every .0 version will have bugs, it's a simple truth but this is getting out of hand. iOS 11, 13, 15, Catalina, Big Sur (to a lesser extent) all launching with major bugs for many in a 2 year span. I agree that this has always been an issue with Apple but it's becoming more consistent than ever before.
Very glad I never considered updating due to the new iPad home screen not appealing to me one bit as a non widget user. Too bad Apple remains draconian on software downgrades. Even on their unsupported devices. It's so scary that someone with an iPhone 5S would want to downgrade to iOS 10 for any reason what so ever...
Very glad I never considered updating due to the new iPad home screen not appealing to me one bit as a non widget user. Too bad Apple remains draconian on software downgrades. Even on their unsupported devices. It's so scary that someone with an iPhone 5S would want to downgrade to iOS 10 for any reason what so ever...
Glad I don't delete my messages, but dang...this has to be the worst bug so far. I wonder if this also occurs if the user just deletes the photo from messages after saving it, but still keeps the rest of the conversation. I could see that being the more likely workflow rather than deleting the entire conversation.
Last edited:
Yup, I confirmed deleting the photo from the conversation makes it go away in the Photos app when an iCloud backup is performed.
I have temporarily turned off iCloud Backup since this bug is connected to it. Who knows what else might be going on.
Lost for words 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Can’t they get the software right and then announce it….rather than rush to release it whether it is ready or not? And will 15.0.1 or 15.1 fix one set of bugs and but bring a whole batch of new bugs? “The iPhone storage bug is now fixed but all your Contacts have been deleted. But you can still seem them if you log into iCloud. Probably. Have you tried wiping all your data and restoring your iPhone from back up? We can’t help you if you haven’t done that. It’s not our fault……”
Can’t they get the software right and then announce it….rather than rush to release it whether it is ready or not? And will 15.0.1 or 15.1 fix one set of bugs and but bring a whole batch of new bugs? “The iPhone storage bug is now fixed but all your Contacts have been deleted. But you can still seem them if you log into iCloud. Probably. Have you tried wiping all your data and restoring your iPhone from back up? We can’t help you if you haven’t done that. It’s not our fault……”
Not to mention, Catalina on macOS was a MASSIVE issue for me - kernel panics that Apple confirmed was OS related and I have never experienced a kernel panic on a mac before. When did that release again? iOS 13 was also a massive issue for me. When did that come out again?
I'm hoping so - tho I plan on Resetting to Factory and then Restoring from my last 12 backup. Ideally, that works. But I'm not expecting that to be the case. If not, only having ~25 GB available on my 5-day-new 13 Pro when I was expecting closer to ~130 GB available is not remotely acceptable. Had I known, I would have just preordered the 512 for another $100. If this restore from backup doesn't work, I'll be headed to my local Apple Store to see what it's like to exchange the 13 Pro 256 for a 512, via iUP. Ugh... Anticipating a nightmare. As I stated earlier - I'll update what I learn tomorrow. 🤞😬
Clearly, you were not around (or have forgotten) what iOS 8 was like. *shudder*
But iOS 15 is pretty scuffed, indeed.
It’s really telling that Apple is trying to maintain this annual cycle of a new iOS (with corresponding hardware) but the ecosystem (iCloud, syncing, continuity, watch-phone pairing, etc) is way more complex than it used to be. Prime example, the once-delightful Music app which has moved from playing on-device song to streaming, radio n social media integration missteps … the cognitive load of the UI just to play/navigate music is really bad when the tool should be getting out of the way for you to enjoy the primary experience.
It’s understandable that Apple needs to innovate each year, but things are not always hanging together very well. New .0 releases (despite the beta testing) seem to be incomplete with promised functionality introduced at a later time. Maybe I’m misremembering but I don’t recall the earlier iOS releases 4 - 6 being so problematic.
Apple really needs to prioritize better testing (QA) over new features. That nice piece of new hardware loses its appeal quickly when flaky software has the potential to trash years worth of memories so easily.
It’s understandable that Apple needs to innovate each year, but things are not always hanging together very well. New .0 releases (despite the beta testing) seem to be incomplete with promised functionality introduced at a later time. Maybe I’m misremembering but I don’t recall the earlier iOS releases 4 - 6 being so problematic.
Apple really needs to prioritize better testing (QA) over new features. That nice piece of new hardware loses its appeal quickly when flaky software has the potential to trash years worth of memories so easily.