An iOS 18.4 bug seems to be resurrecting zombie apps for some users

Numerous reports online talk about an 18.4 bug that resurrects long-deleted apps.

Apr 2, 2025 - 10:19

An iOS 18.4 bug seems to be resurrecting zombie apps for some users

If old, long-deleted apps are showing up on your iPhone after you've upgraded to iOS 18.4, you're not alone.

Several reports on Reddit, as well as on Apple's Community hub, talk about apps being installed on user's iPhones after the update. In many cases, these are apps that were once installed on the phone, but were since deleted. Some users, however, report that completely unknown apps are showing up on their phones.

"After updating to ios 18.4 successfully, I went to the app store to update apps. And to my surprise this Chinese game install itself automatically. How is it possible," wrote one user.

SEE ALSO: Apple iOS 18.4: See every new emoji

"I didn’t recognize the game. It’s possible that I downloaded it at one time to try it out, but that would have been quite a while ago. Very strange," wrote another.

Nearly all of the reports say that this started happening after updating to iOS 18.4. The reports indicate that this is happening on a variety of devices, including the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max. I've also updated my iPhone 16e to iOS 18.4, but haven't noticed any new apps, and there are other users on Reddit saying they haven't noticed any weird behavior.

So far, the prudent thing to do is probably to delete the zombie apps that showed up on your phone, though we'll have to wait for official word from Apple to find out more about the issue.

Apple's iOS 18.4 started rolling out to users earlier this week, bringing Apple Intelligence support to several new markets, as well as Apple News upgrades, CarPlay improvements, and new emoji.