Why can't I not remobe backgrounds in photoshop 2026

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
November 6, 2025
3 replies
702 views

I just updated my Adobe Photoshop to Adobe Photoshop 2026 on my HP Envy x360 2 in 1 labtop 14. I realized quickly I can't remove backgrounds or select a subject. For when I select subject the text comes up saying: " Couldn't find a a subject to select, there might not be prominent objects in the image", even though clearly there is a subject. For the when I want to use remove background it says: "Couldn't find background when there is clearly a background.

Windows

K

Kerry Abshire

Participant

Same issue with me. Even removing the smart object and just having it as a layer....it still won't select either the subject or the background...and then sometimes when you remove the background it generates a new one...I'm getting frustrated and I keep trying to research this but can't find a definitive answer. I've tried seting image processing to Cloud and to Device....nothing is working correctly.

Claire H.

Community Manager

Hi @Fearless_Light1855, welcome to the Adobe Photoshop Community Forums! Are you still experiencing this issue? If so, have you tried manually resetting your Photoshop preferences as suggested by chance? https://adobe.ly/4r4Coet

Remember to back up your settings before doing the preference reset!

https://adobe.ly/4p0EYAs

If you're still experiencing the issue, we can continue to troubleshoot. Let me know how things are going. ^CH

D

Divine_difference6012

Participant

Estou tendo o mesmo problema.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

I haven't tested, however, I can see that you're working on a smart object layer.

Try double-clicking to edit the smart object, then remove the background from within the edited image and close/save to return to the parent layered document.

P.S. Although you could rasterize the smart object layer at it's placed size and then remove background, my preference would be to do so on the original pixels.

F

Fearless_Light1855Author

Participant

Sadly Stephen, it didn't work, Double clicked and everything. I tried on the previous version of photoshop and it worked so maybe it's a bug or something on my end

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Sadly Stephen, it didn't work, Double clicked and everything. I tried on the previous version of photoshop and it worked

By @Fearless_Light1855

I'm confused. So editing the smart object file worked, when editing the smart object layer didn't?

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