Apple retouch tool gone after update to Sequioa 15.1

Totally crazy I agree! I use it for removing small specks or big areas, and remove wrinkles, etc. They could have added the new one and leave retouch alone. Who do they talk to when making this big changes!? wow!

Brilliant point, ROAlmeida! AI should be employed to learn from actual human users in order to augment our capabilities and give us greater freedom of expression, not force-fed to Apple's millions of customers in an attempt to squeeze us all into its robotic, digitized, pixilated prison. Apple has brilliant engineers, but they need more artists (in this case photographers) making creative decisions like this.

According to your description, you're using Clean Up on your iPhone (iOS) and we're all complaining the retouch tool is gone from macOS after Sequoia 15.1 update. Although the objetive is similar, the approach is quite different as well as the expected results.

Same here I can't believe that they removes the retouch feature from photos app on MacBook Pro. I used to use this feature all the time and it's quite handy. Apple must me out of their minds to remove this feature that many use.

This is HORRIBLE... the new "tool" does NOT replace the Retouch tool in any way whatsoever. It was the BEST tool ever and I used it frequently. The CLEAN UP "tool" does not work the way I assume you thought it would. i.e. get rid of an area.

PLEASE PLEASE bring it back.!!

You're right Anna, you can always click on the "revert to original' ... but I noticed last night that you can no longer "remove last change". :0( ....So if you're working on something and want to just remove the very last thing you did, there's no longer the option of removing just the last change. You have to start all over. How on earth did anyone ever approve this new version?

p.s.... I tried to give you a thumb's up, but this site says I gave my quota of thumb's up yesterday and have to "wait till later". (later when!?!?) Good grief...

Apple "YOU GUYS MUST BE STUPID". YOU TAKE AWAY RETOUCH THE BEST PART OF MAC PHOTO. "YOU TAKE AWAY SLIDE SHOW SHUFFLE". DO YOU GUYS SIT IN A ROOM AND IDEATE HOW TO UPSET YOUR CUSTOMER BASE. YOU HAVE GREAT PRODUCTS, YET YOU ARE BOUND AND DETERMINED TO SCREW IT UP. WTF!!!

BEEN A MAC GUY EVER SINCE YOU STARTED, BUT YOU ARE SLOWLY BUT SHURELY CHANGING MY MIND.

I can't understand what's in it for Apple to remove Retouch. Don't think it cost them money. Do they want us to go to PC and away from Apple. That doesn't make sense. Are they wanting us to buy an app that has Retouch? It's just like when they took away shuffle on Photo Slideshow. There is awork around buts painful at best. This just makes no sense. I DON'T EVEN THINK APPLE READS THESE POSTS OR IF THEY DO THEY JUST DON'T CARE WHAT LOYAL CUSTOMERS THINK!

Now that Apple has screwed us all & they don't respond to anything on this sight, has anyone found a reasonable non subscription option to retouch. IF you do, would you be so kind as to post it so I can get on with it. THANKS!

I think Apple's silence on the subject is very aligned with their engineering visionary philosophy. After using their products for over a decade and from previous experiences with them, they will say nothing about the missing retouch tool for a long, long while. Why? I bet they boldly believe they know what they're doing and our complaints about the missing retouch tool will be a thing of the past very soon. They truly believe we'll all swallow the clean up tool and complain a lot about it until it delivers similar results we used to get from retouch. Then they will put a lot of effort to improve clean up to make it behave like the retouch tool (eventually coping its code), to reach the point where they will all say "they were right all the time" and "our retouch mourning is just a normal part of the transition process they planned". Stay tuned.

Force us to adapt to clean up is like forcing a woman to retouch her face makeup by using a vacuum cleaner.. It's eventually useful to quickly remove big objects in the background like cars, houses, people or animals, but awful when all you need in most cases - as the name says - is a series of little retouches. After this ridiculous downgrade in the Photos application from a bold silly engineer learning AI, we better start looking for alternative plugins - if not moving our entire photography workflow to another platform. Hey competition! Save us!

THANK YOU so much for sharing that link!

I really hope more people on here see it... That one question they have on the form that pops up is "What tool do you like best on Photos?" ... I said "You took away the favorite tool that I used!!"

Thanks ~~~ xoxo

It’s hard for me to understand why Apple would replace the retouch brush with that hideous clean-up option! That, to me, was the most important tool in Photos! I will now have to downgrade from Sequoia back to Sonoma because I edit ALL MY PHOTOS and will not settle for just a “clean-up!” Thanks for making life much harder Apple! I’ll keep that in mind when I need to upgrade my software.

Shawheel~ Thank you for sharing your journey as you tried to get to the bottom of what happened, as well as what happened when you contacted Apple directly. I started to reply to another one of your posts (the one where the guy insisted Retouch was still there, put you on hold, then eventually told you said nope, "it's gone").. but there's so many posts here that when I backed up for a second to look for something, I couldn't locate that post.. In my defense, I worked all night @ the 911 dispatch and should be sleeping. LOL..

Again~~ THANK YOU for sharing your experience after speaking with them! xoxo

[Edited by Moderator]

I think Apple is underestimating its customers. Eliminating one of the easiest, best, and most used editing tool in Photos in an opaque attempt to develop its limited AI at our expense is a bad move. The outrage should not soon pass. I also haven’t heard anything from Apple in response to my feedback. I’ll call Apple Support in the next couple of days, too.