P: Gen Remove now changes elements outside the painted mask

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

The update to the Generative Remove AI model in Lightroom Classic 14.5 has ruined it, as it now changes elements outside the painted mask, making it more or less unusable in many situations.

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

I reverted back to Lightroom Classic 14.3.1, and now it's working again. It's so sad to see Adobe ruin a feature that was working so well.

[johnrellis]

Please attach here a full-resolution JPEG of the original, unedited image, and also include a screenshot showing the Remove selection you've made (in red).   A sample image is much more likely to influence Adobe, and it will help others learn how to use the new tool.

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

Here are the original unedited JPG and a screenshot showing the remove selection. Before 14.5, it was possible to define which area of the photo was allowed to be changed and which should be excluded by Generative Remove AI by accurately defining the selection.

[JohanElzenga]

I'm not sure I understand your problem, but I get the impression that you used a brush set to 'Auto Masking' before, and this time 'Auto Masking' was turned off. Or you used Object detection (with the brush option) before and now you used the normal brush (without 'Auto Masking').

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

I'm using the Remove Tool with Generative AI. That tool doesn’t have “Auto Masking” — it has “Detect Objects,” which I’m not using. I make a precise manual selection, but when I click “Remove,” the tool changes pixels outside that selection. Please see the screenshot of the tool.
This is a change in the behavior of the Remove Tool that occurred in Lightroom Classic 14.5.
I hope what I experience is clearer now.

[daleducatte]

I've been noticing the same thing that Thomas reported since I updated to 14.5 this morning, so I put together the attached three screenshots to show what's happening.

In this example, I've zoomed to 400% because it's easier to see the problem at higher zoom levels. I used the Remove tool with "Use generative AI" checked and "Detect objects" unchecked.

Image 1 shows the spot I'm going to remove, in the center of the screen. Note the grain around the spot I'll be targeting.

Image 2 shows the selection I made, a simple circular selection.

Image 3 shows how it looks after I hit "Remove" where Lightroom has replaced pixels well outside the selection. Compare the grain around the selection to the grain in Image 1 or Image 2 and you should see what I mean. While Remove often smooths out grain within its selection, I've never seen it do this to parts of the image adjacent to the selection. And depending on what I try to remove, I've seen Lightroom 14.5 add textures or colors around my selections, distorting parts of the image I'm not even trying to change. The previous versions didn't do this; any changes Remove did occured only within the selections. 

[johnrellis]

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Unfortunately, I see the same thing with that sample photo.

In LR 14.4, I carefully selected around the chimneys and roofs, overlapping them with just a few pixels of margin:

resulting in this pretty good variant:

Remove has added a bit to the chimneys and roofs inside the selection but made just small changes outside the selection (e.g. the top of the first chimney from the left and the tops of the second and third chimneys from the right).

But when I use the exact same selection in LR 14.5 (by re-opening the catalog in 14.5, copying the Remove to a virtual copy, and regenerating), Remove makes much more noticeable changes to the chimneys and roofs outside the selection:

I hope this is an unusual outlier (which all AI algorithms have) and doesn't occur on many photos -- otherwise, it would be most unfortunate.  

If anyone else has examples of this in 14.5, it would be great to post them here (attach full-resolution JPEGs of the undedited photo and screenshots of the Remove selection).

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

Thank you very much for your great effort in reproducing the problem. This is exactly the issue I discovered in 14.5. Unfortunately, it happens with every image where the Remove Tool with AI is used.
I skipped 14.4 because of another major bug and waited two months for 14.5, only to realize that I had to revert to 14.3.1, which is the latest stable release – at least for me.

[johnrellis]

Some more examples would be good to help all understand the extent of the problem.  In the Removes I'm doing (which are generally simpler), I'm not noticing any visually bad replacements.

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

I will upload more examples soon.

[Chris Leustean]

It's so frustrating, just noticed it today as soon as Adobe CC has updated my system's version of Lightroom. Hope Adobe will fix it soon, otherwise AI is unusable.

[Dazzling_Melody8494]

Same here! Gen Remove is unusable now. Adobe revert this change!!! Working on portraits is horrible now, I select a patch of skin and AI now jumps on the eyes, making monsters, my god...

[johnrellis]

@Chris Leustean and @Dazzling_Melody8494, please attach here full-resolution JPEGs of the original, unedited images, and also include screenshots showing the Remove selection you've made (in red).   A sample image is much more likely to influence Adobe, and it will help others learn how to use the new tool.  For my own removes, which are usually much simpler, I'm not seeing this misbehavior (except in the example provided above).

[MichZi]

Working with Generative AI is realy dissaster in LR CC 14.5:nauseated_face: It makes really creepy things. I loved previous versions, but now this function is really useless and I am stopping using it, because it makes mess instead of cleaning and helping. It is a nonsense how it affectes much bigger area of image outside the selection. It makes me use photoshop, slow down my workflow and complicates retouching.

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

Here’s another example.

This is the selction made in the Remove Tool.:

This is after applying the Remove Tool with AI in 14.4, which produces a satisfactory result:

This is after applying the Remove Tool with AI in 14.5. It is very clear that the AI has altered pixels outside the selection, causing the car’s bumper to look significantly worse compared to the 14.4 version.

[johnrellis]

@MichZi, please attach here full-resolution JPEGs of the original, unedited images, and also include screenshots showing the Remove selection you've made (in red).   A sample image is more likely to influence Adobe, and it will help others learn how to use the new tool. 

[haley james]

Came here for the same reason. Attaching a shot of my settings. This has not been a problem for me until the 14.5 update. Carefully masking only to have it automatically change things outside of the mask (making for weird arm shapes and wacky eyeballs). Thanks for looking into this!

[Thomas Steen Petersen]

Here’s yet another example.

This is the selction made in the Remove Tool.

This is after applying the Remove Tool with AI in 14.4, which produces a satisfactory result:

This is after applying the Remove Tool with AI in 14.5, where the result is unsatisfactory.

[MichZi]

Based on all comments around this "update" 14.5 I do not see it as necessary, just try to use it by yourself and you will see results immediately and it will be really obvious for you to see it. This version 14.5 is not an upgrade but very significant downgrade back to many years ago... 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

We are looking into this report and other similar reports. Thank you for the additional information. 

[johnrellis]

"I do not see it as necessary, just try to use it by yourself and you will see results immediately and it will be really obvious for you to see it."

If this were as widespread as you imply, we'd have seen many more reports here by now. I use Remove every day and haven't seen such bad behavior in my photos. So far only a few people have bothered to post example photos (such as @Thomas Steen Petersen). 

It's very good that Adobe's Rikk Flohr has moved this into the Bugs section and alerted the team. But I know from many past issues that the more examples people post, the more likely Adobe will take quick action (or any action at all).  In addition, other users here can start learning about techniques to avoid or workaround the new bad behavior.

But if you don't care to help out, that's of course your right.

[NKPHOTO]

I guess my Lightroom mobile app updated overnight and now I'm having a hard time using the generative ai remove tool like normal. I used to be able to make smaller selections such as a under eye bags and it would seamlessly remove and blend using this tool. Now, it will not allow me to make smaller selections. The generative ai remove tool expands outside of my originally selected area which is turn ruins my photos. How do I fix this.

Examples below! It keeps cutting into her eye and nose area despite only selecting a small spot. I found that the last version's AI worked much better at seamlessly blending. I am scrambling with getting my clients back their photos on time, someone please help! 

1st Photo: Original w/o edit

2nd: Edited With Generative AI Remove tool a month ago. Very seamless and easy to use. 

3rd:  Updated Version of app as of 8/19/2025 where Generative AI tool selects an area larger than wanted plus ruins seamless blend and model's eyes 

4th: Another example of the 3rd phot where it selects an area larger than wanted 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[angela_1815]

I am having the same issue after 14.5 update. When using Generative Remove AI tool, the area outside of the selection is altered. Really bad when around facial features like eyes. It changes the entire eye (looks mutant) that was not in the selection. The previous version was perfect. Now it is an editing disaster. 

Also, having to constantly "update" masks. 

[NKPHOTO]

Is there anyway to revert back to a prior version of Lightroom Mobile if you already updated it? I luckily still have the version that works on my iPad and I'm not gonna update it until Adobe fixes this issue. But I use my phone a lot to edit and would love to know if there's a way to revert it back to the good version. 

[NKPHOTO]

I second this about it making people look like mutant/ humanoid. The prior version did pretty well with blending human features & this one looks like the AI doesn't understand human features at all.