Mobile users baffled after old deleted apps randomly start appearing on their phone due to ‘extremely weird’ glitch

A NUMBER of iPhone owners are having to fend off their storage space from zombie apps after updating their devices.

Long-deleted have mysteriously reappeared on home screens due to a bug in the latest 18.4 update.

Several posts on and Community Support forum over the past 24 hours have been flooded with reports from affected users.

They say third-party apps and games have cropped up on their handsets without actively downloading them.

According to reports, these apps appeared suddenly after installing the iOS 18.4 update that was released on Monday.

In most cases, it appears these resurrected apps are ones that had been deleted by the users months or even years ago.

“I just updated my phone to iOS 18.4 and this game [Ingress] installed with OS,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“I do not play games on my phone except chess… How is this possible.”

Another replied, saying: “I also had the issue. For me it was the game Last War.

“This behaviour is extremely weird... I can’t imagine Apple purposefully installing games after an iOS update.”

While a third person added: “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.”

The behavior doesn't seem to be related to Apple's Automatic Downloads option, MacRumors reported.

This is the setting that automatically downloads apps purchased on other Apple devices.

However, many affected users say they only own one Apple device – making a glitch in the Automatic Downloads feature unlikely.

The glitch also does not appear to be a result of a jailbroken iPhone or using a third-party app store.

It's unclear how many users are affected.

Though most affected users have deleted the reappearing apps again – they could become a nuisance by eating into storage space.