iOS 18.4 bug is bringing old deleted apps back from the dead

By Willow Roberts Published April 2, 2025

If you’ve seen an old app floating around on your phone that you could have sworn you got rid of months ago — it’s not just you. Users on Reddit and Apple’s Community Support forum have been reporting ghost apps trying to reinstall on their phones after updating to iOS 18.4.

Spotted by MacRumors, it appears this bug has started causing old deleted apps to resurface over the past 24 hours. Most of the reports on Reddit seem to be focused on gaming apps such as Call of Duty, Squid Game, Asphalt Legends, and Cooking Mama, though there are a few other app types mentioned as well.

Most users experiencing the problem say they owned the app at some point but deleted it a long time ago, but there are also a few who claim they’ve never seen the apps appearing on their home screen before.

There’s no information yet on what might be causing this bug — affected users appear to be popping up in various regions with various phone models. Plenty have also clarified that their phones have not been jailbroken, they don’t use an alternative app marketplace, and they don’t have another Apple device that could be using Automatic Downloads.

The various Reddit threads and Apple forum posts include more than 30 users reporting random apps appearing on their home screens after updating, but it’s unclear how prevalent the bug is. I realized I hadn’t updated my phone yet so I did it while writing this, but I don’t see anything odd so it looks like I might be safe from the ghost apps.

For now, if you see any strange apps on your own phone, the best thing to do is to just grab a quick screenshot for proof and then re-delete it. Hopefully, Apple will clear up the issue soon.