Help needed. How do you delete the safety filter on Clean Up?

After the new iPhone iOS update when I try to clean up an area of a filter it now says “Safety Filter Applied” and it pixelates the photo instead of making whatever you need to disappear. It makes the photo look strange. Not sure why a perfect feature was changed. Can the safety filter be deleted so it can work like the prior iOS update.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Posted on Aug 23, 2025 10:29 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 23, 2025 11:17 AM

Tadow06 wrote:

After the new iPhone iOS update when I try to clean up an area of a filter it now says “Safety Filter Applied” and it pixelates the photo instead of making whatever you need to disappear. It makes the photo look strange. Not sure why a perfect feature was changed. Can the safety filter be deleted so it can work like the prior iOS update.

You can't remove the Safety Filter (which is actually Identity Protection). It is designed to pixelate a face if that is the area you are trying to edit in a photo. I've been playing with it a bit since you asked your question. And the simple answer is you can remove an entire person from a photo, by running your finger around the outline of the person and they will be removed. But if you are running your finger around a face, it will enable the Safety Filter and pixelate the face. If you wanted to remove for example a blemish from a face, you can expand the photo and touch the blemish to remove it.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 23, 2025 11:17 AM in response to Tadow06

Tadow06 wrote:

After the new iPhone iOS update when I try to clean up an area of a filter it now says “Safety Filter Applied” and it pixelates the photo instead of making whatever you need to disappear. It makes the photo look strange. Not sure why a perfect feature was changed. Can the safety filter be deleted so it can work like the prior iOS update.

You can't remove the Safety Filter (which is actually Identity Protection). It is designed to pixelate a face if that is the area you are trying to edit in a photo. I've been playing with it a bit since you asked your question. And the simple answer is you can remove an entire person from a photo, by running your finger around the outline of the person and they will be removed. But if you are running your finger around a face, it will enable the Safety Filter and pixelate the face. If you wanted to remove for example a blemish from a face, you can expand the photo and touch the blemish to remove it.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Help needed. How do you delete the safety filter on Clean Up?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.