Most photos missing after 18.4.1 update

Hi,

Yesterday I updated to iOS 18.4.1 and this morning I noticed most of my Photos are missing.

I was struggling with storage in my SE 2020, so I offloaded most almost every app I use to make temporary space, and only left those which cannot be offloaded (for example Photos, Outlook), and those which I thought were critical (for example, banking). This is why I had been monitoring storage space, and know that yesterday Phots was taking up 3.85 gb right before the update.

The updated when through without problems, and after I transferred some new photos via airdrop to my phone. This must have pushed Photos to something like 4.85 gb when I added the new ones. This morning, I checked on my phone and my Photos app has reduced to 1.35 gb. I was surprised and so I went back to the Photos app and found that it begins in 2015, although I had previous photos. A closer inspection shows that Phots are missing for most years, with the exception of the most recent ones (the ones I transferred yesterday for example are all there).

I checked on iCloud and the Photos available there are the same (i.e., perfectly synced). I checked recently deleted photos and it's empty - there are only a few there and none related to this issue. I checked hidden albums but that is also empty.

I can only imagine that this has to do with the iOS update. What can I do to get things back to how they were? I have an iCloud back up from right before the update but I think it will not include Photos since those are backed up separately.

Thanks,

Brian