P: People Masking fails on Mac (Intel)

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

Have you recently updated Lightroom or the device operating system (macOS/Windows/iOS/Android)? Try using Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/40Dz11t) temporarily to check if the remove tool works as expected. Some other features won't be available on Lightroom Web. 

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Sameer K

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I am experiencing an issue with the “Remove People” feature in Adobe Lightroom. The option is available in my software, but it is not functioning as expected when I try to use it.

Despite multiple attempts, the feature either does not respond or fails to remove people from the image properly. This is affecting my workflow and productivity.

I have ensured that my software is updated to the latest version and have also tried restarting the application, but the issue still persists.

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​@SweetPeaPhotog I just got off the phone with Adobe, they tried to help remotely but failed, they said that its one of the highest priority items to work on and that it should be fixed by mid to late march

I sincerely hope that’s true. But beware that historically, Adobe phone and chat customer support have a history reported here of saying highly inaccurate things about difficult technical issues, seemingly with the intention to close out a support call.

The Lightroom family usually releases every 8 weeks. So we’d expect to see LR 15.3 the week of April 20.  While it’s certainly possible Adobe would release a patch release (LR 15.2.1) sooner, they typically only do that for issues that severely impact much larger numbers of users.

I just got off the phone with Adobe, they tried to help remotely but failed, they said that its one of the highest priority items to work on and that it should be fixed by mid to late march

Had this issue start two days ago. Never chose to update anything because this SAME EXACT THING happened last year and the year before. Somehow without me updating anything it occurred overnight. last time I couldnt use LR for MONTHS. 

 

Lightroom Classic version: 15.1.1 [ 202601141538-a543b18a ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 26
Version: 26.3.1 [25D2128]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 3.6GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Adobe GSDK Version: 1.4.0.171

Built-in memory: 65,536.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 9,792.5MB / 16,368.0MB (59%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 65,536.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 10,734.3 MB (16.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 59,460.3 MB
Memory cache size: 321.5MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 18.1 [ 2420 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 5706MB / 32767MB (17%)
Camera Raw real memory: 6048MB / 65536MB (9%)

Cache1: 
Final1- RAM:5,293.0MB, VRAM:8,816.0MB, _DSC8806.ARW
NT- RAM:5,293.0MB, VRAM:8,816.0MB, Combined:14,109.0MB

Cache2: 
m:321.5MB, n:492.7MB

U-main: 136.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 3440 pixels
Displays: 1) 3440x1440, 2) 1920x1080

Graphics Processor Info: 
Metal: AMD Radeon HD GFX10 Family Unknown Prototype
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: GPU for Export enabled
Enable HDR in Library: OFF
GPU for Preview Generation: On (S5_15)

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Volumes/Marvin/lightroom cat-v13-3-2.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/sweetpea/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) TourBox

Config.lua flags: 

It’s not a Mac problem.  I just imported three of the SAME images to Lightroom Classic on a PC to see if the problem persisted, and it absolutely did.  It’s a Lightroom problem that I did not have before now.

Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

Lightroom 15.2

I switched to my laptop in hopes that it would work there.  It does not.  People are found on about 1/3 of the images, so it does not fail every time but enough that it is breaking my editing work flow.  These photos are a set of portraits that are clearly lit with eyes pointing at the camera in each image.

MacBook Pro

Apple M1 Pro

Tahoe 26.3

Lightroom 15.2

Camera Raw 18.2

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​@AK_77 what happens now? Five people have gone to the trouble of registering here and reporting the error; there are surely hundreds out there who don't have the time and (like me, usually) are hoping that someone will fix it. The least Adobe could do would be to acknowledge and investigate the problem. 

Adobe is significantly more transparent about its ongoing bugs than many large companies (e.g. Apple or Nikon), but not as much as most of us would prefer.  In the Mac OS 14.4.1 issue, an Adobe employee replied to that thread after four weeks and a dozen people posting, announcing that Adobe had investigated the issue and determined it was an Apple/AMD problem:

In this thread, Adobe Community Manager ​@nikunj.m did some initial troubleshooting with you, so he/she is at least aware of this thread. Based on past history, we may not hear much more substance until/if Adobe definitively identifies this as an Adobe or Apple/AMD bug.

Again, based on past history. the more people who report a problem, the more likely Adobe will prioritize an investigation. They recognize that only a small fraction of people experiencing a problem or requesting a feature will post in this forum.

Also having the same issue - people masking no longer detects people and my workflow is completely broken as. result.  

3.3 GHz 6-core Intel Core I5

AMD Radeon Pro 5300 4 GB

64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 Memory

Tahoe 26.3

LR Classic 15.3

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​@AK_77 regarding the current problem, it's pure speculation. Above all, the change would have had to occur between macOS 26.2 and 26.3, a minor version, which I consider highly unlikely.

More facts:

There are currently five reports in this thread of similar symptoms. All are on LR 15.2, Mac OS 26.3, and Intel Macs with AMD GPUs:

AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (2)

AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (2)

AMD Radeon Pro Vega II (1)

Apple never discloses when they release new graphics drivers as part of a Mac OS release, though in the past with Intel Macs, they released them through the version cycle as Nvidia and then AMD made them available. As described in the previously linked thread, that problem started with Mac OS 14.4.1, a patch release, and was fixed for most people in Mac OS 15.0.   

Thus, it's not at all "highly unlikely" that Apple released new AMD drivers in Mac OS 26.3.

LR and the Camera Raw engine don't code for specific GPUs -- they rely on the generic operating system APIs. In the past many years on this forum, when there is a problem that is limited to a particular GPU or set of GPUs from a manufacturer that doesn't appear with other GPUs, more often than not, updating to a newer version of the graphics driver makes the problem go away.