Mortifying iPhone 'glitch' causes internet history to flash up on screen at random times
Be careful about what you're searching for
While Apple is pretty good at keeping our iPhones ticking along, its phones aren't without their problems.
It seems that as soon as a new iPhone is released, your current model will start falling apart.
While some think it's a conspiracy theory from Apple to keep you buying the latest iPhone, it's just an unfortunate coincidence.
Still, iPhones aren't quite as reliable as our old Nokia's of yesteryear - they felt like they could survive a nuclear attack.
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When it's not your iPhone screen shattering easily, the inner workings of them can be struck by glitches.
Now, an awkward iPhone glitch is exposing your internet history at random times.
Not that we're necessarily hiding something on our phones, but chances are, you don't want everyone on your morning commute to see what you've been searching.
Over on Reddit, there are reports that Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are randomly flashing NSFW sites and pornographic images and inopportune moments. Well, where are there ever opportune moments?
Although the original post comes from two years ago, there's been activity as recent as two months ago, suggesting that it's a recurring issue.
Saying that their phone has started showing pornographic images, one person said: "I’m scared to have other people look at or hold my phone or iPad."
Another added: "Twice now people have been looking over my shoulder as I am showing them something and this has happened… My mom was one of them."
Someone recently concluded: "IDK why Apple can't fix this, ios is clearly caching the image for landscape mode. This has happened to me over several phones, over years. It's a problem that has potential to lead to very inappropriate things. Imagine kid using your phone or showing them something on your phone...."
Apparently, the issue only happens at certain times.
Notably, your iPhone has to be in landscape mode and your browser has to be open as well as other apps. When you swipe up to switch apps, old websites are popping up. Although your browsing window will revert to your last-viewed site rather than a potentially NSFW one when you open it, it's an embarrassing problem.
It's likely that these are just cached images from sites you've previously visited, but it's frustrating that there's no permanent fix. The easiest way to get rid of cached images is to keep your deleting your internet history, although that's a bit of an annoyance.
To deleted cached images, go to Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data and then selecting 'Cached Images and Files.' You should keep your cache cleared every now and then to keep space free and stop loading issues, while others have suggested redownloading your web browser. That frustratingly only works with Chrome and Firefox but not an iPhone's in-built Safari.
The moral of the story is not to go searching for things you wouldn't want other people to see, but at the same time, we're all entitled to our privacy. With this being a recurring issue that Apple shows no sign of fixing, we'd suggest you're careful with what you're searching.