Apple ’s latest mid - sizing iPhone software system update , iOS 18.4 , bringsdozens of betterment . But as is often the casing when an operating system of rules variety in a important fashion , it land problems too . include a freshly report and annoying - sounding germ that reinstall users ’ deleted apps .

In athreadposted Tuesday on the Apple Community discussion site ( via9to5Mac ) , a user complains about an unwanted app reappearing inexplicably on their sound . There seems to be no possible lawsuit for this other than the iOS 18.4 update .

“ After advance to iOS 18.4 , my iPhone arbitrarily installed Last War : Survival , ” the substance abuser publish . ( This looks to be one of those dubious free game heavily advertised online . ) “ This app was antecedently establish on my iPhone a few months ago but uninstalled after a few time of day . Now it appeared back on my Home Screen . ”

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give that the author of the thread uses the assumed name “ Someandroiduser ” one might surmise the veracity of this account , despite their reassurances that the iPhone in interrogative was never jailbroken , had never work any alternate app depot , and did not have automatize app installs or syncs enabled . But for certification they station link tofourseparateRedditthreadsin which other users complain of the same issue . I have n’t noticed the problem myself , but it would be folly to dismiss this as a false alarm clock .

In fact , many of the Reddit posters hint at a worse job than the already annoying issue of reinstalling cancel apps . Several , including a answerer to Someandroiduser ’s Apple Community post ( “ I had NBA 2k25 randomly download , and yet I ’m sure that I ’ve never put in the app previously ” ) , kick that apps they hadnever installedhave been bestow to their devices . That has the potential to cause far more trouble , because you would n’t have had the chance to vet such apps before they appeared . One would hope there would n’t be many out - and - out scam apps on Apple ’s store , but they do crop up from time to time . And just having your kid ’s iPhone install something with aggressive advertising or in - app purchases could lead to other trouble down the blood line .

This is n’t the firstbug to hit iOS 18.4 , which had previously beenimplicatedin users ’ AirPods Max headphones not reach lossless audio over USB - C. But this is a potentially far more serious reverting , mainly because it has the potential to feign far more mass . ( 9to5Mac insists that we ’re not catch enough report “ to indicate that it ’s touch on more than a small minority of users , ” and I suppose that is technically true – but the 53 ailment I matter across those four Reddit threads and one Apple Community station paint a picture a major job to me . ) It could also do major damage to Apple ’s image : those who see apps reappearing after being delete will be annoyed ; those who see alone Modern apps popping up randomly are nonresistant to recede their faith in Apple ’s certificate .

A localization demand to be rolled out , and soon . For this grounds we ’d apprise keeping an eye out for future update and establish them in a seasonable fashion .