The next iteration of iOS will let you recover lost or damaged photos or videos.
If you simply can't find that old photo you swear used to be on your iPhone, Apple may have a fix for that when iOS 18 officially drops later this year.
According to MacRumors, the next big software update for iPhones will have a new feature in the Photos app that will let you recover lost or damaged photos and videos that may not properly appear in your other albums like they should. You can find these photos by opening the Photos app, going to Albums, and scrolling down until you see Utilities.
Of course, that feature won't work for anyone who is not currently using the iOS 18 public beta, so don't bother trying if you're working with iOS 17 or older. You'll also need to actually have some damaged photos or videos lying around on your device, otherwise the options to recover (or destroy) them won't show up at all.
These kinds of images or videos can be lost or damaged for many reasons. As MacRumors pointed out, some third-party apps don't save things to the photo library properly — or databases get corrupted. In these instances, if iOS 18 can intelligently identify photos with problems (and give users a way to restore or destroy them), it could arguably be one of the most impactful features for the Photos app in quite some time.
We'll find out together later this year when iOS 18 drops.
