P: PS 27.9.1 & Later Content Aware Fill – "Crop Expand Image"

Hey, @patrikl. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll help you figure this out. Please share the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy & paste into a text document > upload & attach here. 

Does the problem exist if you use Photoshop (beta)? Get Photoshop (beta) from the Apps section > Beta Apps in the Creative Cloud desktop app. Please ensure there are no stale preferences in your Photoshop. You can go to the location of the preference folder below and rename it to back it up. (https://adobe.ly/3u7u84j)

This method is more effective compared to the in-app Reset Preferences at quit method. 

macOS: Hold down the Option key in the Finder when using the Go menu. The library will appear below the current user's home directory.

Library > Preferences > Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

Rename the Adobe Photoshop folder by adding a .old at the end. (Adobe Photoshop 2026 > Rename > Adobe Photoshop 2026.old)

This will give Photoshop a fresh start as a new installation.

Let me know if it helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

Hi,

Expanding the image while using the Crop Tool (the color in this case, about a solid gray) using Content Aware Fill - makes wrong color, in my case after expanding a lighter frame at the previous image edge borders and a lighter gray color is used for the expanded areas. 

Is this a known bug? I’ve downgraded to 27.8, no issues there.

Thank you,

Patrik

Expected: Content-Aware Crop should use pixels from the original image as sampling material, but only generate/fill pixels in the newly expanded canvas area.

Actual: In Photoshop 27.9.1, Content-Aware Crop also modifies and blends pixels inside the original image bounds. This can distort products/models near the crop boundary. In professional retouching this is destructive because original product pixels must remain unchanged.

This behavior appears to have changed after a recent Photoshop update. Previous versions did not modify the original image area in the same workflow.