Thank you for the hint, Vlad! Could you give me an idea on how to overcome the issue? I want the images to stay accessible and consistent between app launches

Thank you for the detailed explanation, darkpaw! The reason I want the files to stay consistent between builds is to ensure the user is able to access their saved images after an app update. I understand why the data is wiped after you delete the app, but this is not the case here. What holds me from understanding the problem even more is that I also use the same documentsDirectory method to save some encoded model data, and the latter persists between app builds just fine. What am I missing?