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Answered

Lost "remove background bar"

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 16, 2023
6 replies
17667 views

HI All,

I've just updated photoshop to include the new Generative function (AI) and seem to have los the "remove background" option bar that used to appear below a picture. Anyone know how to get it back or how [cursing removed] do you do remove background now?

Cheers

Nick

Windows

Correct answer Conrad_C

Like many features in many apps, Remove Background is available when the document is in a state where it makes sense for it to appear. When it should appear, you will see Remove Background in not just one place in Photoshop, but three, as shown in the demo below.

If you don’t see Remove Background, check what’s selected and what panels are displayed. In the demo below, it starts with nothing selected, so there is no Contextual Task Bar and no options that require a selection. When I select a Curves layer, the Contextual Task Bar appears and the Properties panel fills with Curves properties, but there is no Remove Background. Why? Because a fill layer type (such as Curves) has no background to remove.

Next I select the image layer. This type of layer can have background content, so now you see Remove Background appear, both in the Contextual Task Bar and in the Quick Actions group at the bottom of the Properties panel. Click whichever one you want.

You also see from this that even if someone hid the Contextual Task Bar, if the layer is selected the Remove Background button should still be available in the Properties panel, although you might have to scroll the Properties panel all the way down to see it.

OK, what if everything is hidden? In the demo below, you cannot see any Remove Background buttons because all panels were hidden by pressing the Tab key. Here, you can take advantage of the Edit > Search/Discover feature or its keyboard shortcut, because not only can you look up a feature, you can also apply it from there even without using any panels or menu commands.

So there you have it, three different ways to apply Remove Background, one of which you can do even if no panels are visible.

(Although I do think it would be nice if Remove Background was available as a menu command, as other AI features are.)

D

davideweed

Participant

reset photoshop on Mac - turn Ps off, before restarting press and hold (option + command + shift) when restarting.

D

DoodlePoodle

Participant

I’ve been using Photoshop for years, and the recent addition of the AI-powered “Remove Background” button in the Contextual Task Bar was one of the best improvements. It allowed me to remove a background with one click and then immediately type what I wanted to replace it with no selection needed.

Now that option is gone, and the new workflow is slower and more frustrating. Having to manually select the subject every time defeats the simplicity the feature used to offer. In fact, I will not be using the generative fill any more since the remove background bar is gone.

Please restore this button. This change made the experience worse, not better.

Adobe Photoshop Version: 26.7.0 20250513.r.15 e861f5e x64, Windows 10

Jeff Arola

Community Expert

The Remove Background button in the Contextual Task Bar is present here with Photoshop 2025 (ps ver 26.8.1) running on Windows 10

Try updating your Photoshop from 26.7 to 26.8.1 using Help>Updates from within Photoshop.

D

dhanushka_9417

Participant

even if the Contextual Task Bar is hidden, the Remove Background button

D

dhanushka_9417

Participant

I've just updated photoshop to include the new Generative function (AI) and seem to have los the "remove background" option bar that used to appear below a picture. Anyone know how to get it back or how [cursing removed] do you do remove background now?

Conrad_C

Correct answer

Community Expert

Like many features in many apps, Remove Background is available when the document is in a state where it makes sense for it to appear. When it should appear, you will see Remove Background in not just one place in Photoshop, but three, as shown in the demo below.

If you don’t see Remove Background, check what’s selected and what panels are displayed. In the demo below, it starts with nothing selected, so there is no Contextual Task Bar and no options that require a selection. When I select a Curves layer, the Contextual Task Bar appears and the Properties panel fills with Curves properties, but there is no Remove Background. Why? Because a fill layer type (such as Curves) has no background to remove.

Next I select the image layer. This type of layer can have background content, so now you see Remove Background appear, both in the Contextual Task Bar and in the Quick Actions group at the bottom of the Properties panel. Click whichever one you want.

You also see from this that even if someone hid the Contextual Task Bar, if the layer is selected the Remove Background button should still be available in the Properties panel, although you might have to scroll the Properties panel all the way down to see it.

OK, what if everything is hidden? In the demo below, you cannot see any Remove Background buttons because all panels were hidden by pressing the Tab key. Here, you can take advantage of the Edit > Search/Discover feature or its keyboard shortcut, because not only can you look up a feature, you can also apply it from there even without using any panels or menu commands.

So there you have it, three different ways to apply Remove Background, one of which you can do even if no panels are visible.

(Although I do think it would be nice if Remove Background was available as a menu command, as other AI features are.)

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

(Although I do think it would be nice if Remove Background was available as a menu command, as other AI features are.)

By @Conrad_C

The following script can be installed in the Presets/Scripts folder and then it will appear as an item under the File > Scripts* menu, then an optional custom keyboard shortcut could also be applied.

*Scripts can also be coded to be accessed from a small list of other locations, such as Automate, Filter, and Help.

/*
Remove Background.jsx
Stephen Marsh
v1.0 - 25th July 2025
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/lost-quot-remove-background-bar-quot/m-p/15428717
*/

if (hasActiveLayer()) {
    s2t = stringIDToTypeID;
(r = new ActionReference()).putProperty(s2t('property'), p = s2t('layerKind'));
r.putEnumerated(s2t('layer'), s2t('ordinal'), s2t('targetEnum'));
var layerKind = executeActionGet(r).getInteger(p);
if (layerKind == 1 || layerKind == 12) {
    executeAction( stringIDToTypeID( "removeBackground" ), undefined, DialogModes.NO );
} else {
    alert("The active layer needs to be a standard pixel layer!");
}
} else {
    alert("A layer must be selected.");
}

function hasActiveLayer() {
    try {
        // selected layer check by jazz-y
        var s2t = stringIDToTypeID;
        var r = new ActionReference();
        r.putProperty(s2t('property'), s2t('targetLayers'));
        r.putEnumerated(s2t("document"), s2t("ordinal"), s2t("targetEnum"));

        var desc = executeActionGet(r);
        var targetLayers = desc.getList(s2t('targetLayers'));

        return targetLayers.count > 0;
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }
}

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

Ares Hovhannesyan

Community Expert

Did you try to reset preferences?

W

Wim.Tosh

Known Participant

Where's that?

Ged_Traynor

Community Expert

@Wim.Tosh to manually reset your Photoshop preferences
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually
Remember to back up your settings before doing the preference reset
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preset-migration.html

Conrad_C

Community Expert

You don’t need the bar to remove the background. Many features in Photoshop are provided in multiple places, and you can show or hide any panel using the Window menu.

So, if you mean the new floating Contextual Task Bar, if it’s hidden you can choose Window > Contextual Task Bar.

Also, even if the Contextual Task Bar is hidden, the Remove Background button is also available on the Properties panel when an eligible layer is selected.

@Nick Hall wrote:

…or how the hell do you do remove background now?

The Remove Background button isn’t the only way to do it. It’s an easy one-click shortcut that was recently added. In the three decades before the Remove Background button existed, Photoshop users routinely removed the background using different multi-step manual techniques. Today, the Remove Background button is super convenient, but even though we have it, some people still prefer to use the manual techniques to remove trickier backgrounds. So if the Remove Background button didn’t exist, there would still be many ways to remove a background. For example, choose Select > Subject and invert the selection, or go into Select > Select and Mask and use the advanced selection tools to manually remove the background.