Apple releases iOS 17.5.1 with a fix for a bug that causes deleted photos to reappear

Apple released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to the public just a week ago but the company has now also released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1. The unusually quick turnaround comes because Apple needed to fix a particularly troubling bug that has been reported for the last few days and has proven to be a real source of concern for some.

That bug saw iPhone and iPad owners report that they sometimes encountered the return of previously deleted photos in the Photos app. Users reported that photos, sometimes as old as 10 years old, had made an appearance despite having previously been deleted. The photos popped up as if they had only just been taken and could potentially have been problematic for a number of reasons depending on their content. The bug could also resurface photos of people that the user did not want to see for various obvious reasons, too.

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Now, Apple has released iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1 to address the issue, saying that the update provides important bug fixes to address a rare issue where photos could reappear in the Photos app. The release notes say that this happened when photos had experienced a database corruption, but it isn't clear why that might happen or indeed what it actually means.

We would suggest that everyone who has an iPhone or iPad make sure that they download iOS 17.5.1 or iPadOS 17.5.1 respectively as soon as possible to make sure that they cannot fall foul of this bug. Hopefully this fix does actually address the issue and it won't rear its head again further down the line.

These new software updates are likely to be among the last before Apple announces the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 software updates at WWDC. Set to kick off on June 10, the WWDC event is likely to see Apple announce those updates along with others for the Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. New AI features are expected to be the order of the day, but the update won't be available for download for some time yet. Apple normally puts these updates through months of beta testing before they are rolled out to the world. If the company sticks to its previous release pattern we expect that iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will be released to the public no sooner than September, likely alongside the release of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices.