Apple just rolled out iOS 18 public beta 1. You can finally test iOS 18 on your iPhone if that’s been what you’ve been dying to do. I’ve been on iOS 18 since the first developer beta, and I’ll tell you again that the experience has been much better than I expected. I have no reason to return to iOS 17, especially considering Apple will keep adding new features to iOS 18 until September.
The latest iOS 18 novelty is a new Recovered album in the Photos app that might help you recover lost or damaged photos and videos that might otherwise be lost. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use the feature. But if you find the new Recovered folder in the Photos app, it means there’s content in there that you need to inspect.
Photos received a major update in iOS 18, which is one reason I’m keeping the beta. I like the new design and the ability to remove all screenshots from the Photo Library when viewing photos.
But I can’t see a Recovered album in my Photos app despite being on the latest iOS 18 beta 3 release. There were two of them, that’s why I mention it. Therefore, it means my iPhone did not detect any images or videos that were somehow lost or damaged in the past.
That’s the only instance where you’ll find the Recovered files in the Utilities section of the Photos app. The handset must determine that photo and video files that were lost due to database corruption or other issues exist on your iPhone.
If this sort of functionality sounds familiar, that’s because we saw something similar in action happen with the iOS 17.5.1 update earlier this year. Some users discovered that old, deleted photos appeared out of nowhere on their iPhones and iPads. Apple investigated the matter and said database corruption caused the problem. That’s why the deleted content reappeared.
From the looks of it, Apple is turning this bug into a feature. Or maybe it was supposed to be a feature all along.
The Recovered album should not be confused with the password-protected Recently Deleted album, which also sits in the Utilities section. Photos and videos you delete will go into the Recently Deleted album. You have 30 days to rescue accidentally deleted content from there. After that, it’s gone for good.
The Recovered album isn’t likely to let you recover content that was permanently deleted. That’s why I say you’d better never see the album in your Photos app. If the Recovered album shows up, the iPhone must have determined that some sort of an error prompted the loss of photos and videos. While you get to recover some, you’ll never know what else might have been lost or deleted.
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