Erase something from a photo on iPhone — built-in first, then the alternative

Last updated: 22 July 2026

A stranger walked into the shot. A trash can ruined the composition. A tiled "CONFIDENTIAL" watermark is stamped across a leaked document you want to reference. Removing something from a photo used to be a Photoshop-on-a-Mac job. iOS 18 changed that by shipping Clean Up inside the Photos app — but with an important asterisk that most articles skip: it requires an Apple Intelligence eligible iPhone, which as of writing means iPhone 15 Pro or newer. If your iPhone is a 11, 12, 13, 14, or the non-Pro 15, the button won't be there. This guide covers both the built-in path (when it works) and a third-party path that works on every iPhone Scrollie runs on.

Scrollie's Cleanup brush paints over an object and auto-fills the background. Works on iOS 16+ on any supported device.

The honest starting point: what iOS 18 Clean Up can and can't do

Apple introduced Clean Up in the Photos app with iOS 18 and it's a big deal. But the fine print matters, because it decides whether the built-in path is available to you at all.

• Requires Apple Intelligence hardware. Only iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max (and newer), plus M-series iPads and Macs. iPhone 11, 12, 13, 14, and the non-Pro 15 do not get Clean Up, even on iOS 18. Updating iOS does not add the hardware capability.
• Requires enabling Apple Intelligence. On eligible devices, you also need to turn Apple Intelligence on in Settings and let iOS download the model — usually a few gigabytes.
• Regional availability. Apple Intelligence, and Clean Up with it, has rolled out region by region. If your region hasn't received it yet, the button may not appear even on eligible hardware.
• Photos app only. Clean Up lives inside the Edit flow of the Photos app. It works on library photos and screenshots stored there. Bring an image in from another app that doesn't hand off to Photos and you can't reach it.

When it's available, Clean Up is very good — it's Apple's model, it's integrated with iCloud Photos, and it does what most people need it to do without leaving the Photos app. Try it first. This page will tell you what to do if it's not available or not enough.

Method 1 · iOS 18 Clean Up (built-in, eligible iPhones)

1. Make sure you're on an eligible device (iPhone 15 Pro or newer) running iOS 18 or later, and that Apple Intelligence is turned on in Settings.
2. Open Photos and pick the photo you want to edit.
3. Tap Edit at the top-right.
4. Tap the Clean Up tool in the toolbar. The first time you use it, iOS may pause to prepare the model.
5. Brush over, circle, or tap the object you want to remove. iOS detects the shape and erases it, filling the background.
6. Use undo/redo to iterate. Multiple passes help when the background has detail — leave a bit of overlap between strokes.
7. Tap Done. The edit is non-destructive; the original is preserved.

Honest limits: uniform backgrounds (walls, sky, grass) get replaced convincingly. Fine, unique detail — a specific tile pattern, a face in a crowd, a page of text — can leave visible traces on any inpainting model, Clean Up included. When it doesn't get the fill right, another app with a different brush shape or a different model may do better.

Method 2 · Scrollie's Cleanup brush (any iPhone on iOS 16+)

The main reason to reach for a third-party app is straightforward: your iPhone isn't eligible for Apple Intelligence. Scrollie's Cleanup brush works on iOS 16 or later, on any iPhone or iPad supporting the app — including iPhone 11, 12, 13, 14 and the non-Pro 15. Everything runs on-device, so no images are uploaded.

Erase an object

1. Open Scrollie and pick the photo (or long screenshot, or collage cell) you want to clean up.
2. Tap the Cleanup brush tool. Adjust the brush size at the bottom of the screen.
3. Paint over the object you want to remove. Cover it fully, and paint a small margin of the background around it so the fill has context.
4. Release. Scrollie fills the area with a match of the surrounding background.
5. If the result isn't perfect on the first pass, paint again over the leftover pixels. Multiple passes clean up detailed backgrounds — this is normal for any inpainting workflow, not a Scrollie quirk.
6. Export the edited image as JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or PDF.

Bonus: auto-remove tiled text watermarks

The kind of watermark that stamps "CONFIDENTIAL" or a company name diagonally across a document, repeated many times — Scrollie has a dedicated feature for those. One tap detects the pattern and erases only the watermark strokes, leaving the underlying content intact. It's introduced in v1.5 and refined in v2.0 to only touch the watermark's pixels, not the text or image beneath.

1. Open the image with the tiled watermark in Scrollie.
2. Tap the Auto watermark removal entry.
3. Scrollie detects the repeating tile pattern and erases the watermark strokes across the whole image.
4. If any faint traces remain, paint over them with the manual Cleanup brush.

This is aimed at tiled text watermarks specifically — signage, logos and other one-off marks are still best removed with the manual brush. Please only remove watermarks you have the right to remove.

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