iOS 18 could let you recover corrupt, accidentally deleted media files

Reportedly, iOS 18 will scan for damaged media files on the iPhone's internal storage and show them under a new "Recovered" album in the Photos app

Apple is reportedly adding a new "Recovered" Photo album to the iPhone’s Photos app with the iOS 18 update. According to 9To5Mac, Apple has started rolling out the new feature to the beta version of iOS 18. This feature will enable users to see and recover previously damaged or lost images that are still stored on the device’s internal storage.

The report stated that the new “Recovered” album will be available on the Photos app for select iPhones, iPads, and Macs that are eligible for the iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia updates.

For devices that have already received the new Photos album, the feature can identify and locate previously lost or damaged media, including both pictures and videos. These media files will then be available in the new “Recovered” album, which exists alongside the existing "Recently Deleted" section.

Reportedly, once a device is updated to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia, the feature will automatically scan for recoverable files. Additionally, the “Recovered” album will only appear if there are any lost or damaged media files on the device. According to the report, Apple introduced this new feature to address a bug in iOS 17.5 that caused deleted pictures and videos on iPhones to resurface.

Earlier this year, multiple iPhone users reported that after updating their iPhones to iOS 17.5, deleted pictures started to reappear in their device’s gallery. Apple later released the iOS 17.5.1 software update to officially address the issue. Apple stated that the "rare issue" was caused by a few deleted pictures experiencing database corruption, making them reappear in the Photos library.