iOS 17.5 Bug May Also Resurface Deleted Photos on Wiped, Sold Devices [Updated]

[cigz]

Apple’s software lately at its finest.
This is unacceptable for a company that’s „privacy focused”.
This is actually unacceptable for ANY company.

 

[Delgibbons]

A bug in iOS 17.5 is apparently causing photos that have been deleted to reappear, and the issue seems to impact even iPhones and iPads that have been erased and sold off to other people.

A Reddit user wiped an iPad following Apple's guidelines in September of 2023 before selling it off to a friend. That friend updated the iPad to iPadOS 17.5 this week, and began seeing the Reddit user's old photos reappearing in the Photos app. From Reddit:The impacted iPad was a fourth-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro that had been updated to the latest operating system update, and before it was sold, it was erased per Apple's instructions. The Reddit user says they did not log back in to the iPad at any point after erasing it, so it is entirely unclear how their old photos ended up reappearing on the device.

Earlier this week, we shared several other reports of users who saw deleted photos resurfacing on their devices after updating, but those reports were from users who still owned their devices and were logged into their own iCloud Photo Libraries and Apple IDs.

The latest report suggests that the erased and sold iPad is somehow restoring old photos from an Apple ID that is no longer signed in to it. The Reddit user says the photos that are reappearing are from 2017, which is in line with similar reports. The images were initially taken on an iPhone, and so had been synced to the iPad via iCloud Photo Library before the iPad was wiped and sold.

Other users have seen photos from years ago (as late as 2010) reappearing suddenly, with no explanation for why. Not all users are seeing this problem, nor does it appear to be impacting all deleted images.

Apple devices are supposed to retain photos for 30 days in the Recently Deleted section of the Photos app, and images should be deleted automatically if a second delete procedure is carried out from the Recently Deleted interface. Apple has not yet provided any information on why some users may be seeing photos reappearing, and it is concerning to hear of a report of old photos showing up on a device that was wiped and sold.

Article Link: iOS 17.5 Bug May Also Resurface Deleted Photos on Wiped, Sold Devices

As an apple user that doesn’t drink the kool aid I still find this hard to believe to be honest. Need Evidence.

 

[discofuel]

I had a deleted voicemail from 6 years ago randomly reappear on my iPhone. Guess "deleted" isn't what we think it is.

 

[scrapesleon]

Still haven’t fired anyone yet incompetent company

 

[Havalo]

Remember folks, delete is an illusion.

 

[A7ibaba]

My wife is gonna kill me

 

[Maclver]

Instant lawsuit.

Oh 100%.... Lawyers will be millions and we will get $5.42

 

[Broken Hope]

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?

 

[MrGimper]

Oh this is bad, this is very bad.

 

[dannyyankou]

It makes me wonder if this will happen with refurbished devices.

 

[mystery hill]

Users were seeing photos from strangers when using iCloud for Windows.

iCloud for Windows Users Complain of Corrupted Videos, Photos From Strangers

Apple's iCloud for Windows software appears to experiencing serious issues for some users, with complaints on the MacRumors forums about...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Awimoway]

Especially disturbing to know that some—perhaps all—deleted photos are not truly deleted.

 

[Queues]

Knowing nothing more than what is presented in this report, I would recommend everyone enable Advanced Data Protection immediately. If the data is end-to-end encrypted then you should be safe from whatever major bug is allowing old devices to pull these photos.

I would think advanced data protection wouldn’t apply retroactively to photos now attached to a device on a new Apple ID…

 

[n-evo]

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?

My question exactly.

 

[MilaM]

Yeah, always hated it, that we users can't see the file system of our iPhones and poke around the OS.

 

[macjoshua]

This is bizarre. After wiping a device, how is there anything to restore?

 

[yustas]

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?

This *assumes* that the erase works properly.

 

[ninecows]

Awesome feature! My kid accidentially wiped my phone back in 2017 by typing in the wrong password. Now there’s a chance I can get those photos back 😂

 

[roar08]

If this really is true and not some sort of *extreme* edge case ... it's really bad. Really bad.

 

[MilaM]

Could be pulling them from iCloud Photos or Backups.

 

[Pandyone]

As an apple user that doesn’t drink the kool aid I still find this hard to believe to be honest. Need Evidence.

Yep. Not sure about this one after only one user on Reddit writing about it.

 

[hajime]

This is unacceptable. I guess whoever got the sold/trade-in/returned devices can also retrieve locations and other personal information from the photo files. Some users also took photos of finance related documents.

 

[mapsdotapp]

I would think advanced data protection wouldn’t apply retroactively to photos now attached to a device on a new Apple ID…

It wouldn't, but we don't know if that's what happening. If the device identity is what's allowing it to pull photos from the original owner's Apple ID, then encrypting those photos would protect them because the old device would not possess the end-to-end keys. Better to attempt to reduce the "attack surface" than sit around and hope for the best while Apple Legal does damage control.

 

[yustas]

This is bizarre. After wiping a device, how is there anything to restore?

Very simple. It didn't erase it, it just removed it from the screen, made it not visible, but the data is still there on the device.

 

[n-evo]

This *assumes* that the erase works properly.

Maybe old iCloud information is floating around the Secure Enclave? It seems unlikely iOS is still able to recover photos from the internal memory once the old encryption key is trashed. If that doesn’t actually happen it’s really bad news.

Very simple. It didn't erase it, it just removed it from the screen, made it not visible, but the data is still there on the device.

Restoring a device doesn’t actually delete your files. That shouldn’t be an issue though because they’re encrypted and the old encryption key is trashed, rendering all old files an incoherent jumble of random data. At least, that’s how it *should* work.

To me this feels like some iCloud issue where a link between the previous account and device is wrongfully made.