yet there are countless updates hiding just beneath it. Notifications are revamped, the Focus feature helps minimize distractions, FaceTime is better than ever, etc.
As great as iOS 15 is, the rollout for the update has been pretty bumpy. There was an issue with Apple Music not working on certain iPhones, audio for Instagram Stories was being inadvertently silenced, and the option to unlock an iPhone with the Apple Watch is busted. Major software updates are often plagued with bugs like this, and as it's quickly proven, iOS 15 is no exception to that rule.
In addition to the things mentioned above, it's now reported that there's yet another issue — specifically, some unexpected behavior with the Messages and Photos apps. Essentially, a quirk with iCloud's automatic backup process is causing photos to be deleted when they shouldn't. The issue stems from receiving a photo via the Messages app, saving it to the Photos app, and then deleting the message that the photo came from. Normally, this is fine. The message can be deleted to save storage space, the photo is safe in Apple/iCloud Photos, and all is well. Unfortunately, if that original message is deleted, the saved photo is wiped from the iPhone the next time an iCloud Backup is performed. MacRumors originally reported the bug, with other s on Twitter and Reddit further confirming its existence.
How To Avoid This Latest iOS 15 Bug
For people who regularly delete conversations/threads in the Messages app, this is obviously concerning. Even if someone doesn't manually delete messages, there's a good chance their iPhone is configured to automatically delete ones that are 30 days or a year old. Until an official patch is released, there are a couple of ways to avoid this bug — the easiest of which is not to delete any messages right now. If someone's dead set on deleting messages like normal, the other option is to temporarily disable the iCloud Backup feature. To do this, open the Settings app, tap your name at the top of the screen, tap 'iCloud,' tap 'iCloud Backup,' and tap the toggle at the top to disable it. It's important to to turn this back on once the bug is fixed, but pausing those backups should keep all photos where they should be.
Unfortunately, it's unclear when Apple will get around to fixing all of this. It's persistent with the iOS 15 version available to everyone right now, with Twitter @superezfe claiming it's also present in iOS 15.1 beta 2. There's a good chance Apple will implement a fix once iOS 15.1 rolls out to the public, so here's to hoping that actually happens.
Source: MacRumors, @superezfe