A number of people are reporting that previously deleted iPhone apps are reappearing on their devices after upgrading to iOS 18.4.
Some Reddit users are also claiming apps they have never installed have appeared on their iPhones …
iOS 18.4
iOS 18.4 dropped on Monday, bringing new Apple Intelligence features and countries, a Vision Pro app, culinary upgrades to Apple News+, new Photos app features, and more.
As usual, AI features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro models and all iPhone 16 models:
- Priority notifications appear at the top of your notifications, highlighting important notifications that may require your immediate attention
- Sketch is now available as an additional style option in Image Playground, allowing you to create gorgeous sketch drawings
- Apple Intelligence features support 8 additional languages and 2 additional English locales
Previously deleted iPhone apps reappearing
An Apple Support Communities thread reports the issue:
After upgrading to iOS 18.4, my iPhone randomly installed “Last war survival”. This app was previously installed on my iPhone a few months ago but uninstalled after a few hours. Now it appeared back on my Home Screen. A lot of users are reporting the same with different apps.
This links to four separate Reddit threads describing an apparent bug. Examples include:
“I got Squid Game, I think it’s an issue with Apple.”
“The same thing happened to me: Dropbox was suddenly installed on my iPhone.”
“I’ve got a GarageBand that I uninstalled before.”
“Yeah Call of Duty installed on mine”
“When I updated the game Infinite Lagrange was reinstalled even though I had uninstalled it”
A few are reporting downloads of apps they say they have never installed. It’s possible this is simply not remembering an app briefly trialled before deletion, though one user says the App Store indicates they haven’t ever installed it.
“This happened to me. I got Cooking Mama added to my home screen. What’s weird is that looking at the App Store, Cooking Mama shows Get instead of the redownload button. So according to the App Store, I’ve never owned it but it appeared on my device.”
“Mine too! I’ve never had that app installed before!”
There are enough reports to suggest the issue is real, but not enough to indicate that it’s affecting more than a small minority of users. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update with any response.
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