How to remove your ex from photos on iPhone

On an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, you can remove your ex from a photo with Clean Up: open the photo in Photos, tap Edit, then Tools, then Clean Up, and tap, brush, or circle them. On older iPhones, or when your ex is right next to you, upload the photos to Remove Your Ex in Safari, describe who should go, and save the edits back to Photos.

Remove your ex with Clean Up in Photos

Clean Up is Apple’s built-in eraser. These steps are from Apple’s iPhone User Guide:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Open the photo, then tap the Edit button.
3. Tap Tools, then tap Clean Up.
4. Tap, brush, or circle your ex. Photos may highlight some people or objects automatically so you can tap to remove them, and you can use two fingers to pinch, zoom, or pan around the edges. Tap the Undo button to restore something you removed.
5. If you’re using High Quality processing, tap Clean Up.
6. Tap Done, then tap Done again to close the photo.

Clean Up can use Auto, Fast, or High Quality processing. To choose, tap Auto while you’re cleaning up the photo, then pick an option. To undo it after saving, open the photo, tap Edit, then Tools, then Clean Up, and tap Reset. Apple also notes that usage limits may apply.

Which iPhones have Clean Up

Apple’s iPhone User Guide says Apple Intelligence on iOS 27 or later is available on an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 model or later. According to Apple’s Clean Up requirements, Clean Up needs iOS 18.1 or later, and in the European Union Apple Intelligence on iPhone needs iOS 18.4 or later. Clean Up isn’t available in all languages or regions, and Apple says it doesn’t currently work on devices bought in China mainland.

Older iPhones without Apple Intelligence

If your iPhone isn’t an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 model or later, you won’t see Clean Up in Photos, and updating iOS won’t add it. You still have options:

• Google Photos. The free Google Photos app for iPhone includes Magic Eraser. You mark your ex and it fills in the background.
• Remove Your Ex in Safari. Nothing to install. Sign up, upload the photos, and describe who should go.

Clean Up also works the same way as other free erasers: you mark the person yourself, one photo at a time. When your ex fills a big part of the photo or is touching you, the fill can smear or warp. Describing them instead of tracing them is where Remove Your Ex helps.

Before

After AI-edited

Clean Up or Remove Your Ex?

Both can remove a person. They suit different photos:

• Use Clean Up when your iPhone supports it and your ex is small, in the background, or standing apart from you. It’s free and already in Photos.
• Use Remove Your Ex when your ex is right beside you or touching you, when your iPhone doesn’t have Clean Up, or when you have more than a few photos. You describe who to remove instead of brushing, and you can do up to 10 photos per batch.

You can use both: Clean Up for the easy ones, Remove Your Ex for the close-ups. Remove Your Ex costs 1 credit per photo, including a free second edit, and failed edits return the credit.

HEIC photos upload directly

iPhones usually save photos as HEIC. You don’t need to convert them first: Remove Your Ex accepts HEIC, along with JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF, up to 20 MB each. Pick photos straight from your library.

Choose up to 10 photos from your camera roll

1. Open Remove Your Ex in Safari and sign in.
2. Tap Choose photos, then pick them from your photo library.
3. Select up to 10 photos. One description covers the whole batch, so put photos together where your ex is in the same spot, or wearing the same thing.
4. Under “Who should disappear?”, describe your ex in your own words, like “the man on the right in the black jacket”.

Each photo uses 1 credit, and that includes one free second edit. If an edit fails, the credit goes back to your account automatically.

Save the edit back to Photos

When an edit is ready, tap Download. On iPhone this opens the share sheet. Choose Save Image to put the edit in your Photos library, next to the rest of your camera roll. The original stays where it was, so you can delete it, hide it, or keep it.

Your originals and edits are stored privately for 90 days, then deleted.

Just want to see your ex less?

You don’t have to edit or delete anything to stop your ex popping up in Memories. In Photos, open a photo of them, tap the More button, then tap Don’t Feature a Person and choose Feature This Person Less or Never Feature This Person. The full steps, plus how to hide them in Google Photos and archive Instagram posts, are in should you delete photos of your ex?

On Android or Samsung instead?

Google Photos has Magic Eraser on Android too, and Samsung Galaxy phones have Object Eraser in the Gallery app. The steps for both, plus where they struggle, are in how to remove your ex from a photo.