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Apple retouch tool gone after update to Sequioa 15.1

I updated my OS on 10/31/24 to the lates update (Sequoia 15.1) and now the photos app on my Mac no longer contains the retouch tool. WTH!! Does anyone else have this issue? Apple, what gives??

iMac 24″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 1, 2024 1:44 PM

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Posted on Nov 3, 2024 10:09 PM

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!!!!

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Nov 3, 2024 10:09 PM in response to -Alex D-

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!!!!

Nov 1, 2024 2:02 PM in response to -Alex D-

Well I found it ... Apple removed it from the side bar tool menu to make it extra-inconvenient and created a new tab on the top next to the CROP tab called CLEAN UP. WHY oh WHY doesn't Apple focus on things that make workflow EASIER rather than HARDER ??????? THis is another useless change that makes workflow in Apple Photos harder and more inconvenient.

Nov 5, 2024 12:52 PM in response to JimH21111

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.

Nov 3, 2024 10:27 AM in response to -Alex D-

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.




Nov 5, 2024 6:48 PM in response to -Alex D-

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 !

Nov 6, 2024 4:49 AM in response to -Alex D-

I waited until 15.1 was released to avoid the initial bugs and complaints, but unfortunately I discovered the same only after I upgraded last weekend. I tried Clean Up many, many times, but it's really really awful. Such a weird move from Apple looks so crazy because many photography communities buy Apple hardware exactly to enjoy native apps like Photos (including me). Unless I'm getting too old in digital photography, I can't think of any serious photographer or expert advising Apple on this. At least at this point, AI should be welcomed as an additional help for beginners, but never as a replacement of a very important tool to all enthusiasts and professionals. One of the possible ways to have AI getting along is to learn the patterns of how we individually use each tool and try to repeat it when asked, but never cutting our "natural arm" by replacing it with a "cyber alternative" without any way back. Let's wait and hope they fix it on 15.2.

Nov 5, 2024 12:23 PM in response to -Alex D-

I can confirm that the retouch tool has been deleted with the 15.1 update. I stupidly updated my Studio without waiting for news of problems like this. The Clean Up feature (a completely useless gimmick that no serious photographer would ever use) is no substitute for the retouch feature. I am in the middle of scanning old slides and the retouch feature is needed to eliminate dust artifacts. As a work-around, I have fired up an old Mac running Catalina but it doesn't have the processing power to really do the job. I find this move by Apple completely inexplicable. If this is not fixed in the next few weeks, I will have to switch to Lightroom. The Mac community needs to spread the word about this colossal blunder by Apple.

Apple retouch tool gone after update to Sequioa 15.1

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