Pixel 6’s magic eraser feature breaks after update

The Google Pixel 6’s magic eraser feature, which lets you remove unwanted people or objects from your photos, appears to have been broken by a recent update, PhoneArena reports. Multiple users across Reddit and Twitter are reporting that attempting to use it causes the Google Photos app to crash, leaving them unable to use a feature that’s been heavily marketed in the promotion of Google’s latest flagship smartphone.

The issue is the latest in a series of bugs to have hit the Pixel 6. Back in December, Google was forced to halt the rollout of an update after owners complained that it was causing network connection problems for their devices. Android 12 has been an unusually rocky update for many devices, but Google’s Pixel lineup seems to have been especially hard hit. This isn’t even the first bug affecting the magic eraser feature, after an earlier update magically erased it from phones.

Android Police reports that the issue appears related to Google Photos version 5.76.0.425427310, and for now there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix the problem. Google’s support accounts have responded to a couple of complaints, and are advising affected users to contact support and follow the troubleshooting steps on this support page. In the meantime, if you depend on access to the magic eraser tool then you might want to disable automatic updates on the Google Photos app.