Apple Intelligence introduces a powerful new image-editing feature called Clean Up in iOS 18. Much like Google’s Magic Eraser, Clean Up allows you to instantly remove unwanted background objects, photobombers, and blemishes from your photos using on-device machine learning.
While this tool is undeniably impressive, it is not universally appreciated. Professional photographers, privacy-conscious users, and those who simply prefer to keep their original photos untouched may find the ever-present AI eraser prompts intrusive. If you want to ensure your device does not process your images through the Apple Intelligence engine, you can completely disable the Clean Up feature globally across your iPhone.
Why Disable the Clean Up Feature?
There are several legitimate reasons why you might want to turn off the Clean Up tool on your iPhone:
- Preserving Originality: Photojournalists and purists often require untouched images. Removing the Clean Up tool prevents accidental AI manipulation.
- Storage and Processing: Although Apple Intelligence runs locally on the Neural Engine, disabling unnecessary AI features can subtly improve battery life and reduce background processing overhead.
- Privacy Concerns: While Apple emphasises on-device processing, disabling the feature ensures no generative AI models are actively scanning your Photos library.
How to Turn Off ‘Clean Up’ on iOS 18
Because Clean Up is deeply integrated into the Photos app and driven by Apple Intelligence, you cannot simply toggle it off within the Photos settings. Instead, you must restrict the feature via Screen Time.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Screen Time.
- Select Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- If the toggle at the top of the screen is off, switch Content & Privacy Restrictions to the On position.
- Scroll down to the Apple Intelligence & Siri section.
- Locate the option for Clean Up in Photos and toggle it to the Off position.
Once you disable this setting, the Clean Up eraser icon will immediately vanish from the edit menu in your Photos app. Your iPhone will no longer prompt you to erase background objects, and the underlying AI models associated with this specific feature will be suspended.