Apple needs to explain the bug that brought back lost photos.

Apple put out a fix for iOS and iPadOS 17.5.1 earlier today. It’s normal and good to fix software that isn’t working right. That’s not the point though. As Apple puts it, the fix “handles a rare issue where photos that shared database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.” That’s all they gave us.

On iOS, removed pictures stay in the Recently removed folder for 30 days before they are permanently erased, but the intention to erase a photo is still there. Anyone would think that a deleted file would stay deleted. That’s why it makes sense that people were freaked out last week when photos they had deleted years ago showed up again in their iPhone picture files.

There is a privacy issue here. It makes people wonder how Apple stores photo data and whether iPhone owners can be sure that the data they delete is gone for good. The Verge has asked Apple several times to say something about this in public, but they have not yet replied. At the very least, that would explain why this bug happened, how it was fixed, and what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But Apple hasn’t replied yet.

The scary thing is that we have no idea how far this bug goes as long as Apple doesn’t say anything. Voicemails that were removed on some iPhones have been known to do the same thing. Did the bug only affect people who back up their photos to iCloud? It was said in another post that old pictures showed up on an iPad that was sold to someone else. The fix that was made today proves that this bug did exist, it was a problem, and it had something to do with database damage. And not responding to public requests for opinion on the issue doesn’t give people faith that this won’t happen again.

You could certainly raise your glasses and say, “Well, actually, a file isn’t gone until it’s overwritten…” That is true, but a smart customer would think that when Apple says a file is deleted for good, something like this shouldn’t even be possible.

By accident, things go wrong. Every day, people who study cybersecurity find bugs and weak spots. Most of the time, they tell the companies concerned about the problems before they can be used against them, and they only tell others about the gaps after they’ve been fixed. It makes sense for Apple to want to wait until the bug is fixed so that bad people don’t take advantage of the situation. But that doesn’t mean they can never say anything about it again.

Only because Apple presents itself as a company that cares about your privacy should it say something. Apple has spent a lot of time at WWDC keynotes talking about how to keep your data protected so that not even Apple can see what’s going on with your phone. You can trust its services because privacy is one of the most important things to it. A company that cares about protecting your privacy will be open and honest about what they are doing. Putting things down under the rug? Not really.