Apple retouch tool gone after update to Sequioa 15.1

My posts have been censored, and probably this one too. My posts contained no violations cited in their terms and conditions.

PLEASE BRING RETOUCH BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just updated to Sequoia 15.3 and now it's confirmed that Apple really turned their back to us. The retouch tool is not back on Photos and CleanUp continues as an irritating impostor. Sad but true.

What marbles has Apple lost?; the retouch tool is my primary go to.....

I think Apple has lost touch with reality. Listen to your users !!!!!!!!!!!!

BRING IT BACK IMMEDIATELY !!!!

Apple, PLEASE bring back the retouch tool! I used it all the time to delete dust specks and stray marks on backgrounds items that I was photographing to sell!

horrible. when i use clean up it pixelates everything it touches. Why, Apple?

iPapa wrote:

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.

...

This is a new security feature. It makes it easy to blur faces, when we share photos with people in them. Just click on a face and it will be blurry and pixellated.

I found that I can avoid to trigger the pixellation by zooming in on the face as far as possible. Then I can remove freckles or other blemishes. But this has previously been much easier with the cloning tool, that is gone now.

I tried Movavi a couple of weeks ago, hoping to lessen my initial despair at the loss of the retouch brush. It didn't work for me at all and, as I couldn't figure out why, I just decided not to bother with it. Next I tried PicMonkey. The retouch brush seemed similar to that of Apple but, again, when I tried it, nothing happened, (i.e.., centered the circle over a speck of dust on my photo, clicked, and... nothing happened.) So I emailed a request for help. Two days later I received a reply which was not helpful. A conversation began with them. A day later, a different person responded basically repeating the same info that hadn't worked the first time. And a day after that, a third person contacted me asking if I had "separated my layers". Huh? Okay, but I made it clear that I'm strictly a black and white photographer. Nobody listened. So that's another option down.

I don't have faith that Apple will replace the retouch brush any time soon. I will clean certain of my negs and rescan, hopeful to rid them of dust.

lincoophedley wrote:

actually, the clean up brush does work. you can zoom in and draw a circle with your finger and it's fills in the background very nicely. I stand corrected:-)

It should work on a Mac as well, but there are two problems. I cannot zoom in far enough when I am using clean up, the brush is too coarse. And it does not work when trying to clean up blemishes on a face. when I try to remove freckles, they will be replaced by other freckles. We need the cloning brush of the old Retouche tool to be able to clone from a clear area without freckles.

Yes, CleanUp is not as intuitive as the retouch brush but, as stated in my post of Dec.1, I've managed to make it work. Stopping down the CleanUp size bar to 5.25 or so, you can move the arrow cursor with your finger (if on a MacBook trackpad) or your mouse (if on a desktop), hover over the imperfection and click. For a speck of dust, I move my fingertip a mere fraction (more like a rolling) and click. You'll see the familiar white line or blob. Dust speck gone! For a scratch, drag your fingertip along the distance.

Large objects will pixelate but not be removed unless you click on them. I can't say what happens with color as my negs are all B & W, scanned to positives. And don't discount 'revert to original' when needed. Actually, I did mess up one time and deleted a large object (a car) from a photo but, guess what, it was an unexpected improvement so I kept it that way. Good luck everybody.

Yes, Apple has made our editing lives less easy, but as it doesn't seem like they're in any hurry to 'revert to original'

we might as well learn to live with it for the time being.

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]

Minimalist2, thank you for your post. It appears Apple took it down. No surprise there unfortunately. They are being completely opaque about their elimination of retouch. But I really appreciate your information and suggestion and I’m going to send an email. Thanks again.

AnnaEscondido - Go to original post,below that, on my screen, is a post highlighted in grey, called top-ranking post. Below it there is a line. Under that line, in tiny font, on the right hand side it offers you 'Sort by' - and you can click on 'Newest', or other options.

Shawheel - your most recent post about Apple arrived in my inbox a couple minutes ago. When I clicked on the 'helpful' button, it took me to this:

Looking for something in Apple Support Communities?

The page you tried was not found. You may have used an outdated link or may have typed the address (URL) incorrectly.

☹️🙄I guess they've got your number!

I did not contact Apple Support about Retouch until November 11, 2024 - ten days after -Alex D.- began this incredibly helpful thread. I still think it is most telling that all of the Apple Support personnel with whom I interacted - and who interacted with each other in working to help me - literally had no clue Apple had removed Retouch. They were certain my being unable to access it was simply an issue specific to my computer and they could walk me through restoring ReTouch to my Photos. And they continued working to do that even after I told them I was pretty sure it was gone.

As noted, Apple Support assured me multiple times that ReTouch had not been removed. My main Support repo also had me hold several times while he consulted several of his Support co-workers - returning in between to assure me ReTouch wasn't gone. The last time I held while he and other Support co-workers researched the issue further, he returned and reported they had learned that ReTouch had indeed been eliminated. That is when I asked him to walk me through how to downgrade from Sequoia. He immediately knew that was now impossible, informing me once you upgrade to Sequoia you can never return to a previous operating system version.

The Apple Support staffer I spent a lengthy amount of time talking with - as well as his Support co-workers who also tried to help me - were super helpful and most genuine. They really wanted to help and were sincerely disappointed when they learned that they could not restore ReTouch to Photos for me. At the time, the fact Apple had not informed Apple Support personnel of the elimination of ReTouch -- and I had been the one to tell them - really surprised me. That was a first in my Apple Support experiences Later, after posting in the Support Community on this issue, it also raised red flags for me. Why all the secrecy, silence, etc. etc.? 

And thanks for the idea to screenshot, document comments, NaturesPagan. I wasn't doing that to begin with, but I have been lately.