How to Remove Unwanted Objects from Photos on iPhone Using the Clean Up Tool

Snapping a memorable holiday portrait, scenic landscape, or architectural photograph often suffers from unavoidable real-world distractions. A stray pedestrian strolling through your background, trash on a sidewalk, an unsightly electrical wire, or a glaring glare reflection on a window pane can ruin an otherwise perfect composition. Historically, erasing these blemishes required specialized photo editing apps or desktop software.

In iOS 18 (with Apple Intelligence enabled on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and newer devices), Apple introduced an advanced generative AI feature inside the native Photos app called Clean Up. With a simple tap, circle, or brush stroke, Clean Up detects distracting elements, erases them cleanly, and intelligently synthesizes realistic background textures—such as grass, sky, brickwork, or wood grain—to fill the void. This guide details how to use Clean Up.

How Clean Up Evaluates and Erases Distractions

Clean Up operates on-device using advanced computer vision and generative diffusion models:

• Smart Object Detection: The tool automatically scans your photo upon opening and highlights potential photobombers or distracting items with an iridescent glow.
• One-Tap Removal: When an identified distraction is highlighted, tapping it once erases the subject instantly.
• Precision Brush and Circle: For complex shapes or non-standard objects, you can draw a circle around the perimeter or gently brush across the area.
• Pixel-Level Inpainting: Generative models reconstruct shadows, background lines, and depth-of-field blur so the edited area blends seamlessly.

Accessing the Clean Up Tool in the Photos App

Opening the editor takes only a couple of taps on any compatible iPhone:

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Select the picture you want to retouch.
3. Tap the Edit button (the slider adjustments icon located in the bottom toolbar).
4. In the editing toolbar at the bottom, tap Clean Up (represented by an eraser icon).
5. The first time you launch the tool, your iPhone will take a few seconds to download and cache the local AI machine learning models.

Removing Distractions with Tap, Circle, or Brush

You can approach object removal using three versatile interaction techniques:

1. Automatic One-Tap: Look closely at the image; iOS will automatically illuminate detected background people or objects with a shimmering outline. Simply tap the highlighted object, and it will vanish immediately.
2. Circling an Object: If an object is not automatically highlighted (such as a discarded water bottle or power cord), use your finger to draw a loose circle around the entire item. Clean Up will snap to its edges and replace it with matching background texture.
3. Brushing Over an Area: For blemishes, stains, or reflections, gently brush back and forth over the area like a digital eraser. You can pinch with two fingers to zoom in for fine detail work.

Refining and Undoing Edits

If the generative fill does not match your expectations on the first pass:

1. Tap the curved Undo arrow at the top of the screen to reverse the last erasure.
2. Try zooming in closer with a pinch gesture and using smaller, precise brush strokes instead of circling.
3. To compare the edited image with the original: Touch and hold anywhere on the photo to see the original; release your finger to return to your retouched preview.
4. When you are satisfied with the result, tap Done in the top-right corner to save your changes.

All Clean Up edits remain non-destructive; you can reopen the image at any point in the future and select Revert to restore the original unedited picture.