iCloud for Windows Users Complain of Corrupted Videos, Photos From Strangers – iCloud for Windows has some serious problems, according to reports. Some users claim that the app shows photos taken by strangers in their library.
iCloud for Windows displays images from random individuals
MacRumors reports that an iPhone 14 Pro Max user discovered they could not play the videos after downloading them to their computer. The media could be accessed on the user’s Mac, other Apple devices, or via iCloud.com. However, when they attempted to sync it to their computer using iCloud for Windows the media was not playable. It ended up with a black screen and scan lines.
The video displayed an image, most likely a thumbnail, from unknown sources. This is a bizarre twist on an otherwise common problem. The issue was only with videos recorded using the HDR or HEVC settings enabled on their iPhone 14 Pro Max’s cameras. Other iPhone 13 Pro users reported similar issues.
The larger issue is that the iCloud for Windows app appears to be picking up images taken by strangers. Imagine what it would look like if photos taken by strangers were randomly added to your library. What about photos you take with your iPhone? It is possible for your photos to be shared with someone else, which can be quite creepy.
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One user suggested that someone could have downloaded a video belonging to another person. They may have downloaded encrypted media, and they were unable to play it because they didn’t have the key. The person was able to access the media because the thumbnail in the folder might not have been encrypted. This makes sense, doesn’t it? This could indicate that thumbnails of videos and images uploaded to the cloud may not be encrypted at all. This could pose a serious privacy problem.
This problem could be related to the recent iCloud Photos integration within the Windows 11 Photos App. This seems unlikely as the user claims that they were able replicate the problem on Windows 10 and Windows 11. This is likely a problem with Apple, as photos taken by other iPhone users show up in the iCloud Library. This could be related to Apple’s authentication, which can affect the syncing process on Windows computers. 9to5Mac suggests this bug could be caused by a rendering problem in the iCloud App for certain file types.
Apple Insider received similar reports. These issues have not been experienced with media on my iPad and Macbook. It can be scary and it is not only concerning privacy. You could lose your original videos if they are lost or synced to cloud. It is best to have backups locally.
This announcement comes after Apple has been accused of using telemetry (analytics) to determine what apps users access on its App Store.
Are you having the same problem with your iPhone or Windows PC?
