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Why are you making things up to try and defend a trillion dollar corporation?

This has happened in the past when people using iCloud Photo sync with Windows' new Photos app, a system implemented by Apple in the wake of all the anti-competitive publicity, only to find that they were getting entirely different users photos in their gallery.

Apple has a history of this, and people like yourself just make the situation worse.

Please put down the Tim Apple-Aid.
Did you even read the comment you were replying to? TheyDidn’t make anything up, they were talking about possible explanations.
Did you even read the article?
 
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How is this physically possible? If you erase the device it erases the encryption key for the storage meaning nothing can be read, then it's resurfacing photos from where?
Because Apple's so called privacy is just marketing. It is time for people to wake up. You're paying a lot more for just a bit of shiny and glitter.
 
It would probably help if Apple were to pass comment on the more widely reported problem of long gone photos reappearing on one's own device. But it won't be a surprise if they pretend that never happened so meanwhile people are left to speculate. At the same time, some users are still being booted out of their Apple ID and getting repeated password reset prompts. It's all very concerning in a time where it's a matter of public record that governments are seeking to strong-arm Silicon Valley into creating encryption back doors and the like. Little wonder people are getting agitated and paranoid about their data.
 
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The same FBI that paid $1 million to unlock an iPhone 5C?


Using a technique that is likely patched now.

iPhones are some of the securest devices around.

Really, Have you see any new news articles about the FBI wanting to get into iPhones? Nope, neither have I.

You really think the FBI does not want to get into iPhones these days? Nope, they want it plenty.

Anyone with any common sense would conclude that the FBI fixed their need to access iPhones some other way. So no, iPhones are not the securest devices around.
 
Anyone with any common sense would conclude that the FBI fixed their need to access iPhones some other way.

And what is that irremovable lock screen camera all about that Apple steadfastly refuses to give us the option to remove? With the advent of Face ID it's not even necessary so what gives? I've long been speculating that it's an entry vector for law enforcement or anyone else with the correct tools. Restart the device and the camera is inaccessible which implies the shortcut has ordinarily already bypassed at least one security layer. Just saying...
 
I think the problem here is that Apple devices are slow as a turtle, which causes Apple software, in order to be performant, to have to cache everything.

I know Apple claims otherwise with benchmarks, but there claims are just marketing. Fast computers generate heat, and Apple designs do not handle heat well.

But Apple software is so buggy these days that caches just barely work. As a developer, I have to manually delete my Xcode, LLVM, and other caches multiple times per day because they get corrupted. Currently with Xcode every other build corrupts the cache. I have found years old caches that were never deleted during updates. Apple cache management is just sloppy. Couple that with terrible API designs for iCloud (as evidenced by the at least 3 total rewrites) and it is very easy to see this happening.
 
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I think the problem here is that Apple devices are slow as a turtle, which causes Apple software, in order to be performant, to have to cache everything.

I know Apple claims otherwise with benchmarks, but there claims are just marketing. Fast computers generate heat, and Apple designs do not handle heat well.

But Apple software is so buggy these days that caches just barely work. As a developer, I have to manually delete my Xcode, LLVM, and other caches multiple times per day because they get corrupted. Currently with Xcode every other build corrupts the cache. I have found years old caches that were never deleted during updates. Apple cache management is just sloppy. Couple that with terrible API designs for iCloud (as evidenced by the at least 3 total rewrites) and it is very easy to see this happening.
 
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I’m not going to get all technical with an explanation of what might be going on here with the resurfacing of the deleted files.

What I will explain is the vectors or scenarios in which this can happen are quite easily to realize. 2 examples…

Assume the user is using iCloud to sync their photos on their iOS device. Assume the user is taking several photos of any kind, connected to WiFi, and the photos start syncing to iCloud. Then the user decides to delete the photos before the sync is finished.

Or sync starts on WiFi, user leaves residence, device is now on cellular where the sync is not allowed to perform. Then user decides to delete the photos.

Being a developer I can see such clean-up tasks not accounting for every edge-case scenario an end user might trigger. Especially where the sync routine is interrupted leading to corruption.

So iOS 17.5 is released and these photos that were *hidden* due to the scenarios not accounted for are discovered & maybe the flags that leave these photos orphaned are adjusted and now the photos are “fixed.”

Just my $.02
 
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I’m not going to get all technical with an explanation of what might be going on here with the resurfacing of the deleted files.

What I will explain is the vectors or scenarios in which this can happen are quite easily to realize. 2 examples
Edge cases should be tested by any developer worth their salt before promotion to QA, and QA should be testing said edge cases also. If this is not an SOP at Apple then it damn well should be.
 
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Being a developer I can see such clean-up tasks not accounting for every edge-case scenario an end user might trigger. Especially where the sync routine is interrupted leading to corruption.
Like I said above, sloppy code and sloppy APIs. Attention to edge cases are what makes security tight. If a sync is interrupted it should be deleted. Not doing so is bad code and Apple's OS code is riddled with this kind of sloppiness.
 
About a week ago, I uploaded a 4K video of about 30 seconds from iPhone 15 Pro Max to Dropbox. The phone stated that I could do something else as the upload would continue in the background. I just left it alone. However, after a few seconds in the middle of the upload, the phone seemed to have gone to sleep (even I set it to Never) as the screen was black. The upload did not continue even I was told that it would continue to do so in the background. Tried several times on different videos. Same thing. So what is wrong here?
 
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I wiped the iPad using official Apple guides before selling. I never logged into that iPad with my Apple ID after erasing the iPad. I sold my iPad to a friend in September 2023, they called me today after updating to iPad OS 17.5 and said my old pictures appeared in their Photos app... HUGE PRIVACY VIOLATION. I see other reports of this. How many people will get other people's photos on the devices they bought from other people?
It is one thing to delete something and it comes back on your own phone but when you sell a device and you followed all the steps that Apple recommends then it reappears then what makes this whole thing worse is that this bug was reported to Apple before it shipped - they could have held back the shipping of the update to investigate further but it appears that hitting arbitrary deadlines is more important than delivering stable and secure software.

Edit: Yes, I understand the post on Reddit has been deleted but people delete their posts for all manner of reasons including not wanting to deal with abusive people sending DMs. That being said, it is interesting how he suddenly disappeared after stirring up the Apple subreddit.
 
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Just another reason I believe Apple’s software team should all get the boot. They can’t do updates right, they can’t seem to put in features folks actually find useful, and now this great debacle…seriously. Clean house and bring in a team that knows what it is they’re doing.
 
It does not delete files and caches, it just deletes the encryption key for the data volume. If somehow the key is not deleted from the local keychain the data would remain readable.

You can not (or really, should not) delete files from a solid state device. It takes time and just wastes limited write cycles since you have to rewrite every bit. Rewriting over the decryption key is instant and costs nothing.
True that, hadn’t thought about it.
In that case, maybe offer the option? If it is a “personal use case” data wipe to start from scratch, could very well go with the instant encryption key deletion… but if it is to change hands, it could allow for the “secure data wipe”?

I get that SSDs go through clever tricks to use the full size by staggered writes to extend the lifetime to potentially decades of use, but a full disk rewrite to zero (or at least corrupting every few bits) for these doesn’t sound like a big hit? Not like we wipe and change devices weekly.

But fair point, didn’t know about it.
 
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