Apple Photos app corrupts images • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#211

Post by aakkaakk » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

loeg wrote: post #194

deviation wrote: post #12

It seems to be an import pipeline bug. Photos does a lot of extra work on import (merging RAW+JPEG pairs, generating previews, database indexing, optional deletion), so my guess is a concurrency bug where a buffer gets reused or a file handle is closed before the copy finishes. Rare, nondeterministic corruption fits the profile.

Maybe bad RAM flipping bits? Edit: Nevermind, the contents are vastly changed. This is like a different stream of input got used, or a buffer was written over with contents from another image.

This bug has happened on multiple, perhaps all, iphones I ever owned, I clearly remember at least 3 where I spent hours on trying to save (extract) photos from my iphone with different tools.

”Glad” to see it was an actual bug.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#212

Post by ImPrajyoth » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

It feels less of security related and and more of ecosystem lock-in related to be honest

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#213

Post by WD-42 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

myshkin5 wrote: post #117

I’m a fan of the whole Apple ecosystem but I have to say that there’s a pattern here. Apple does a decent job of keeping my data safe from others but a terrible job of keeping it intact. From music libraries with song titles that got switched to long integers to this (and I’m sure more that I’m not remembering atm) they need to do a better job here. Sure security is important but integrity is too.

This is a company that is trying to design away the concept of the file completely. Which leaves very little recourse in the way of workarounds or recovery when bad things happen.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#214

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

rhgraysonii wrote: post #42

crazygringo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's brilliant about it? What's the reference, for those of us unfamiliar?

It is simply hilarious to make grown adults visit a website called tender love making dot com (a sexual reference) to read a very specific and niche blog about technology.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#215

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

tenderlove wrote: post #24

deviation wrote: post #12

It seems to be an import pipeline bug. Photos does a lot of extra work on import (merging RAW+JPEG pairs, generating previews, database indexing, optional deletion), so my guess is a concurrency bug where a buffer gets reused or a file handle is closed before the copy finishes. Rare, nondeterministic corruption fits the profile.

This is also my guess. It's really a bummer, and I'd report it to Apple but since it's nondeterministic I have no idea how to provide repro steps.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#216

Post by ryandrake » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

devmor wrote: post #204

ryandrake wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless one's title is going to be "VP" or "SVP", the chance that someone joins BigTech and gets to "improve the process" is usually miniscule. You're being hired as cog #21 on team #54 and there is a large backlog of JIRA (well, in this case, Radar) tickets to grind through. There will be people who tell you what the processes are, and to not deviate from them. And you shouldn't get mad at those people, either--they'…

[flagged]

It’s not a matter of ambition or lack-of. Nobody is going into a 100k+ company and just changing the entire corporate culture around something as broad as bug fixing. These companies have hundreds of teams, and decades of entrenched culture. Sure, go in and improve what you can in your own lane, but be realistic about your scope and reach.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#217

Post by United857 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

ChrisRR wrote: post #16

I feel like this is a URL that I don't want in my history

I’m old enough to remember arXiv being hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory under the domain xxx.lanl.gov.

It’s understandable why they changed their name.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#218

Post by ValentineC » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

thewebguyd wrote: post #171

ValentineC wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's worse about the Apple ecosystem is that because of how tightly coupled it is, a bug fix for Photos would only come as part of a macOS update. Which means that if that bug has been present since the (now unsupported) Mavericks, tough luck!

I still don't under stand why Apple limits updates to their first party apps to OS updates. They could really benefit from how Google does it on Android and decouple it. Push updates to their first party apps via the app store like everyone else, and let the OS update on its own separate schedule.

They somehow separate out certain apps, like Safari (on occasion), the iWork suite, and the Pro apps, but I have no idea why they insist on coupling apps like Photos and Music to OS updates.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#219

Post by skylurk » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

montebicyclelo wrote: post #130

myshkin5 wrote: post #117

I’m a fan of the whole Apple ecosystem but I have to say that there’s a pattern here. Apple does a decent job of keeping my data safe from others but a terrible job of keeping it intact. From music libraries with song titles that got switched to long integers to this (and I’m sure more that I’m not remembering atm) they need to do a better job here. Sure security is important but integrity is too.

I stopped using apple's notes app with an ipad pen after it lost 20 minutes of my handwritten notes when trying to sync them. (Which fits the theme of apple losing people's stuff.)

I'd love to know how they CRDT hand-written notes.

Re: Apple Photos app corrupts images

#220

Post by xmddmx » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

myshkin5 wrote: post #117

I’m a fan of the whole Apple ecosystem but I have to say that there’s a pattern here. Apple does a decent job of keeping my data safe from others but a terrible job of keeping it intact. From music libraries with song titles that got switched to long integers to this (and I’m sure more that I’m not remembering atm) they need to do a better job here. Sure security is important but integrity is too.

I am baffled by Apple's incompetence here. In the past years I've seen:

* iTunes/Music app randomly reassign my Album artwork, with different (incorrect) art showing up on different devices!

* Reminders app: shared reminder lists can end up with the name of a different list

* Ghost photos that are deleted from my phone, and come back later.

* Maps, when I say "navigate to $friend" set a route that ended in my own driveway.

To me, these bugs suggest a fundamental design flaw, perhaps they are using a simple Integer as an index rather than a UUID?

Or maybe the database schema are solid, but there's some sort of race condition in their synchronization frameworks and the data is getting scrambled in RAM?

Whatever it is, it's absolutely insane that in 2025 these kinds of bugs are happening.