iPhone users are causing some much-dreaded déjà vu.
The latest Apple update iOS 17.5 — which the company recently urged users to instantly download — is causing years-long deleted photos to reappear on phones.
One person was shocked to see erased, nude photos they had taken with their partner three years ago suddenly pop up in their camera roll.
“I went to send a picture and saw that the latest pictures were [not safe for work] material we’d made years ago when we were living apart,” the shocked and “uncomfortable” user lamented on Reddit.
“But WTF. It was permanently deleted. Years ago but magically it’s back?? I checked my iPad and it also has pictures (some art work I did years ago). I feel so uncomfortable.”
The Post reached out to Apple for comment.
The update, which included security upgrades, new features, and some cosmetic changes, had a similar effect on another user who commented on the post.
“Same here. I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly,” they wrote.
Others on X, one who screengrabbed their unwantedly returned photos, called it “the worst software experience ever.
“These just came out of nowhere,” they added.
Another X user wrote that they “can see multiple photos that i had deleted back again in photos.”
One person posted that 25 voicemails suddenly reappeared on their phone, too.
Tech blog MacRumors chalked up a few possible explanations for the exploitative glitch that has users feeling vulnerable.
“The reports could be down to an indexing bug, photo library corruption, or a syncing issue between local devices and iCloud Photos,” according to the site.
“Another possibility is that in attempting to fix a photo syncing bug that occurred in iOS 17.3, Apple has inadvertently caused a new syncing issue to occur that may involve iCloud backups.”
The shocking defect comes a month after Apple warned many users worldwide that their phones were targeted in a “mercenary” cyber attack.
