Apple retouch tool gone after update to Sequioa 15.1

This is an absolutely crazy move by Apple. That brush is one of the most useful and important tools in Photos. If anything, it needed enhancing with clone options, not removing entirely. The Clean Up tab is cumbersome and not the same tool. If I need to remove a spec, I can't do that with Clean Up.

Apple, please bring back the brush!!!!

The problem is this new brush isnt nearly as good for skin retouching as the former retouch brush> Not even close! I used it for years doing quick retouches on hundreds of pix. I tried using this clean up brush on wrinkles and it leaves a mess in most uses. PLEASE APPLE BRING BACK THE RETOUCH BRUSH!!!!!!!

The Clean Up tool is not an upgrade. It's a terrible, dumbed-down version of the Retouch tool. I called Apple Support and spoke with a sympathetic customer service person. She said she'd pass on my complaint but also urged me to submit feedback to Apple (Feedback - Photos - Apple ). I did that and let them know I'm an unhappy and angry customer, and I want them to reinstall the Retouch tool. I have no idea how responsive they'll be, but if they receive a lot of complaints there's a chance they might take action.

It is truly a colossal blunder. The workaround for me is that I have Luminar Neo installed which has a Photos plugin. Neo does lots of great stuff and it includes an erase brush which is very good. A bit more hassle than just grabbing the old Photos brush, but it's what I will do for now.

Thought about migrating fully to Lightroom as it does have a lot of great features, but it's not cheap and I like the way Photos works within the whole ecosystem.

The clean-up tool makes it easy to remove large objects, because it will now fill in a fitting background, but is not so useful for removing dust and scratches.

And what is now completely missing is the clone tool - I have use it a lot to copy parts of the photo to other places and to multiply flowers or candles or similar. We can now only remove items, but no longer clone items.

Completely agree with the fine folks here.

CLEAN UP creates large pixelated "blobs" on the image, thus rendering the function useless. Retouch allowed a lot more finesse and without it I'm forced to look for alternatives.

I'm actually very disappointed that Apple removed it without some kind of roll back feature.

Oh brother. I downloaded Sequoia 15.1 yesterday. This morning I opened Photos all set to remove some bits of dust from my B&W neg and..... NOTHING ! I clicked on Clean Up and almost immediately wanted to get rid of it. Apparently that's not possible. It would seem that Clean Up will rid your negs of unwanted people but not dust spots or errant scratches. And Red Eye--- what use is that to me? I'm strictly a B&W photographer. Photos editing has always given me exactly what I needed ---- until now. I can't believe Apple is so short-sighted.

I've downloaded a free app called Moravi. We'll see. And, I've sent a feedback email to Apple just in case a human might actually read it. I even talked to AppleCare to ask if it were possible to go back to Sonoma, where everything worked just the way it like it. Not really feasible without intercession at the Apple Store, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Bad Apple. Bad !

One of my friends said Apple is responsive and surely they will have a software update to restore retouch because the change makes no sense and Clean Up is an ineffective and inefficient mess. I hope he’s right. But how nobody stopped this from happening is mind-boggling. Retouch needs to be restored in Photos. Also, the fact they support people don’t seem to know it’s gone is also very telling.

Just updated Sequoia to 15.1.1 and the issue still remains. No retouch on Photos. Seems like Apple will keep acting like Apple again: knowing what users need more than them and insist on their own visionary fantasy.

I hope this is not the case, that Apple realizes the blunder that it has made and returns the Retouch feature to Photos in the next update. (How hard could that be?).

So far, the only workaround that I have been able to use with any success is to upload and edit my images in Photos on an older Mac, and then export them to my Studio. I am seriously considering buying a Mac Mini to use just for Photos running a pre-15.1 version of MacOS. I have warned every photographer I know who has not already done so not to upgrade to 15.1.

I tried Pixelmator but did not like it at all. I then saw that Apple just purchased Pixelmator! If Apple intends to incorporate some of Pixelmator's features into Photos it will be a complete disaster.

I will give Apple another month or so to restore Retouch but if this misstep is not rectified by then it seems my only option will be to abandon Photos entirely and switch to Lightroom. I have over 10,000 images in Photos so this will be a colossal undertaking. Unfortunately, unless you are OK with storing your pics on Adobe's server in the cloud, the only option is Lightroom Classic, which has the necessary feature set but its interface is outdated and a bit clunky.

Apple Intelligence, at least when it comes to Photos, appears to be an oxymoron. As a long-time (+30 years) Apple user, I am extremely disappointed.

Yep. Clean up is nothing like retouch. Retouch made smooth touch ups without disturbing the pixels (I am no tech expert, so my wording may be off). Clean up alters all around it - even at the smallest setting. It literally alters - and not in a good way. It does not retouch. If you only want to eliminate an item from a very simple background, clean up is fine for that. But it completely alters photos that you simply want to elegantly and smoothy touch up. There is absolutely nothing elegant or smooth about clean up. And they are two separate things - not a replacement or equivalency. Apple also did not even tell the Support staff it was eliminating Retouch. Bottom line = Apple can retain the incorrectly named “Clean up” if it wants. But Apple needs to restore “Retouch,” which works as intended and is much more useful than it’s apparent attempt to use Apple customers to beta test the poorly designed Clean Up.

I also left them unhappy feedback - what are they thinking... do they want to force us to use the App Store for just a retouch tool? Crazy.

Completely agree with the consensus: the new "clean up" function is awful. Might be OK as an add on, but in no way is it a viable replacement for retouch. Bad AI BS. I'm sure their tech guys think it's brilliant, but clearly none of them ever work with photographs.

DOES ANY ONE KNOW OF AN EXTENSION that is more or less equivalent to the old retouch function?

If I can't regain my "retouch," it will mean months of work relegated to "trash." Why is Apple so annoying in this way. Great tech. A lot of really lousy decisions like this.