Apple’s iOS 18.4 is allegedly installing apps users deleted before, or never bought
Since the release of iOS 18.4, an unknown number of users are reporting the appearance of apps on their iPhones that they either previously deleted — or have never installed.
Apple released iOS 18.4 on March 31, 2025, and alongside bringing Apple Intelligence to the EU, it also included important security updates. But an unusual issue is now being reported by users who say they are seeing apps they shouldn’t.
As first spotted by MacRumors, the reports all concern the appearance of unwanted apps. In some cases, they are apps that were previously installed but deleted by the user, while others seem to be entirely new installs of random apps.
“My phone automatically started installing Squid Game,” says one user in a thread on Reddit. “Today I feel like I’m using some cheap… mobile where after software update, some random application installed in my phone for no reason.”
Most of the unwanted apps appear to be games, though that is most likely to be simply because of the volume of games on the App Store. One user says Dropbox was installed on the iPhone, while another reported getting the game and recipe app, “Cooking Mama.”
In at least most of the reported cases, users have been able to rule out typical reasons for unexpected apps appearing. It doesn’t appear, for instance, to be that they installed an app on a different device and have iOS’s automatic app installation feature turned on.
Users are also saying that their iPhones have not been jailbroken. Nor have they ever used third-party app stores.
Consequently, the issue appears to be a genuine bug, although it’s impossible to know how widespread it is. This type of issue, though, would seem more likely to be a problem with the backend database of the App Store rather than an iOS update.
So far, there have been no similar reports of unwanted apps appearing from users on older versions of iOS. Apple has yet to comment on the issue. We have not been able to reproduce the issue, across any of the devices we own, or on devices owned by any of the people we spoke to this morning.
If you are seeing the issue, we recommend contacting Apple support about the matter, so it can be logged and assessed by the company directly. The company does not pay attention to media reports, nor anecdotes on social media.
