MacBook Air: Cleanup missing in Photos/Preview

It may depend on the country where you are currently in and where your device has been manufactured, see: Requirements to use Clean Up in Photos - Apple Support

You can't use Clean Up while in China mainland or on a device manufactured in China mainland.

The Clean Up Tool is available in the Photos.app but not Preview. You will find it in Photos in a separate tab in the toolbar in Edit Mode on your Mac.

It helps to use clean up before doing any other edits. Using Clean Up on a cropped photo may give unexpected results. Using clean up on some media kinds will disable the special effects. Live Photos will no longer be animated, 3D photos will be flat.

Lady Britlinglsea wrote: MacBook Air, Tahoe: Cannot find Cleanup in Photos or Preview. Do I have to use Apple Intelligence to get to it? Anyone know a way at all?

Yes, you need Apple Intelligence. Does your MacAir use Apple Silicon, like M1, M2… ? Earlier MacAirs can't run Cleanup in Photos.

There may be other apps. I see one at the Apple Store that costs $50/year. I doubt that they work with Photos, and I'm not sure I'd trust them if they claimed to do so.

Lady Britlinglsea wrote:

Do not know about silicon but the chip is M4. Thanks for your help.

The M4 chip is an Apple Silicon chip, so your Mac can run Apple Intelligence, if you choose to turn it on.

Use Apple Intelligence on your Mac - Apple Support

You're welcome, Lady Britlinglsea 😊