Where did Magic Want tool go in latest Photoshop CC update?

[Roger Nordin]

I saw in another discussion that Magic Wand tool had been removed from Photoshop Web - is it missing in Photoshop CC now with the recent update as well? Running version 26.8.1.

Please explain to me how to quickly selected the transparent outer edges of an image that has had rotation a few degrees applied in Lightroom and I need to fill the edges outside the original image with content aware fill (a situation quite common when doing small corrections to perspective or rotations when there is not enough cropping margins in the original image). 

Lightroom is still in 2025 for all its AI magic tools still lacking the ability to automatically fill the edges itself, even though mobile tools like Google SnapSeed has had this for years, so I need to spend time in Photoshop with this.

The Magic Wand was an instant one-click in Photoshop to select the transparent outer edges. It's now been replaced by an Object selection tool, that doesn't recognize the transparent outer edges as an object at all. Quick selection doesn't select the transparent outer edges at all either. Please advise!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

When you look at the Object Selection tool in the Tools panel, in the bottom right corner of the tool slot do you see the traditional little triangle indicating that it’s a pop-out menu? If so, click and hold the tool to pop out the menu, and the Magic Wand tool should be there. After you select it, it should become the top tool in the group.

If you don’t see the Magic Wand tool there, check which workspace is active (under Window > Workspace). The Magic Wand tool is definitely still part of the Photoshop default workspaces such as Essentials. If the workspace has been customized to rearrange or hide tools, that might explain the Magic Wand tool not being seen anywhere, but to fix that all you have to do is choose any workspace that does use the Magic Wand tool.

If you’re wondering why the Magic Wand tool is no longer on top in that tool group because the Object Selection tool is, that’s because the relatively new Object Selection tool is far more powerful and versatile. The Magic Wand tool only selects by finding tone/color values that are similar to the one you clicked. That’s still useful, but not nearly as useful as the Object Selection tool is now. The Quick Selection tool is sort of in the middle…it was added many years after the Magic Wand tool, and many years before the even more advanced Object Selection tool.

[Roger Nordin]

Excellent reply, thanks! I've now customized the toolbar so that Magic Wand is there for these occations, in addition to the otherwise (but not in this particular case) more powerful Object selection tool. Thanks for quick response!