Spot Removal tool in L4 isn't working. Need Help!

The spot removal tool on my lightroom 4 is, all of the sudden, not working. The tool opens as it always has and everything looks normal, but it won't heal or clone. It used to work fine, but as of just recent;y it doesn't. I've closed lightroom and have restarted my computer many times and still nothing. The rest of lightrrom works as it always has. Please advice, and many thanks!

Don't feel too bad. You aren't the only one who has gotten bit by that one lately. Rikk has had the solution both times.

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Spot remover tool / healing brush. How do I get the brush to show up and work??

It seems I can only get the spot remover tool to work on certain photos and in certain areas of said photos . On the one picture I really need this for--where the problem started--I had used it once without much success (it was working then, but I didn't do it right). So I left the picture and worked on another. When I came back to the first picture, I brought up an earlier version of it, before the initial spot removal, to work on. Now I can't get the brush to even show up on the frame, although other tools are working fine. I've checked on other pictures and it seems that many times the spot remover brush won't show up. WhY???

Great. There are other keyboard shortcuts when using this tool like the forward slash key and holding down shift if cloning an area that is a straight line. And don’t forget you can click on the word reset. Take a look at this short video tutorial from Adobe TV.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/lightroom-5-advanced-healing-br ush-and-visualization-tool/

I can not get my spot removal tool to work at all!!

I have tried numerous times to get my spot removal tool to work; without success. I have read tons about it and nothing works. What is going on?? Neither clone nor heal does anything!
I am very frustrated with Lightroom 3!
tc

Two things to check.

Lightroom 5.5 spot removal tool not working

Hi all.
I've just updated to lightroom 5.5 and discovered my spot removal tool isnt working as before. The opacity is set to 100 and the brush size is set in the middle. It won't work for any of my images event after restarting lightroom. Any ideas anyone?
Thanks
Neil

Hi Hal
The cursor doesn't change to the circle. There is just no response at all. It appears to be an issue with all the images in one folder and doesn't seem to affect other folders.
Also I have noticed when in library mode, it has 1:1 size selected and when I click in to develop, it resets back to Fit and won't let me select the 1:1 size unless I click 3:1 then back to 1:1. Sounds odd I know but I will keep trying. I cant help but wonder if its something I have selected by mistake somewhere.
Thanks
Neil

Spot removal tool doesn't work

Hello
I am a new user of Lightroom 5 and everything is going smoothly apart from what happened this morning.
When under the Spot Removal Tool - you have the Clone and Heal mode options. They used to work perfectly up to yesterday and today when I click on either of them as I go to the picture to be developed - under Develop, it paints a white mark and when you fining it does nothing.
It used to create a circle that you can move around to choose the texture and colour that suits you. Now this doesn't appear anymore. I must have pressed a button on the keyboard that caused this!
I have tried resetting everything since this morning and nothing works...please let me know how to solve this.
Much appreciated in advance...I will be providing more details if needed.
Regards
Anthony

Sounds like more than one issue.
To show the source area that you want the healing to come from again, try pressing "H" whilst the heal tool is selected. You may have to press it more than once.
If no healing is occurring it sounds like you may have the Opacity on the too,tunred right down. Increase the Opacity slider to 100.....or to whatever setting you find works.

Spot Removal tool should be an extension of the Adjustment Brush

I am glad that LR is taking steps in the right direction to improve the Spot Removal tool with the new Healing Brush feature. However, I agree with others that the interface needs improvement. Though I am probably not the first, I feel I have the solution:
Integrate the Spot Removal tool into the Ajustment Brush tool. Here's why.
I think an improved interface for the Spot Removal brush tool (Q) already mostly exists in the in the form of the Adjustment Brush (K), and indeed the two tools should share the best of their respective features and controls. The current Adjustment Brush has most of the features we are looking for in the Healing Brush:
Pre-brushing Size of brush (already implemented in the Spot Removal tool)
Pre-brushing Feathering control
Pre-brushing Flow/Density control (already implemented in the Spot Removal tool as Opacity)
Partial erasure of selected brush stroke masks, while maintaining the above brush controls (by holding the ALT key in Windows, aided by making the Mask Overlay visible (O))
Pre- and Post-brushing adjustments of each Spot Removal brushstroke for White Balance, Tone (Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, etc), Sharpness, etc.
Adding the above features would be an incredibly useful approach to the Spot Healing tool, and would be a natural extension of the interface we already are familiar with. Both the Adjustment Brush and Spot Removal tools could be further improved by these additional features:
Post-brushing Size of circular brush (already implemented in the classic Spot Removal tool)
Post-brushing Size of painted brushstroke (supposedly already newly implemented in the LR5 Beta Spot Removal tool, though I haven't been able to get it to work on mine)
Post-brushing Feathering control
Post-brushing repositiong of painted brushstroke (already implemented in the classic Spot Removal tool)
In summary, the Spot Removal tool should really be an extension of the Adjustment Brush. They should live in the same control panel (with a Clone or Heal ON/OFF toggle switch). The Adjustment Brush could benefit a bit from the addition of a couple of the existing post-brushing features of the Spot Removal tool.
The two tools are really one tool, they just don't know it yet. Let's introduce them to itself.

A few weeks ago, I posted the silly graphic above. It is a Venn diagram of my interpretation of Lightroom 5 Beta's three main local adjustment tools' strengths, weaknessess, and overlapping powers. Each tool - the Adjustment Brush, the Spot Repair & Advanced Healing Brush, and the Graduated & Radial Filter - has one or more discreete powers or traits. The three tools each overlap a neighboring tool in an important aspect (e.g. the Adjustment Brush and the Advanced Healing Brush can each be used to paint any freehand shape to be adjusted). By default, the descreet "Super Power" of one tool is a "Super Weakness" of each of the other two, which lacks that power (e.g. the user can make additions or partial erasures to any mask overlay with the Adjustment Brush, but neither the Advanced Healing Brush nor The Radial Filter has this power).
In the very center of the diagram is the overlap of all three of the local adjustment tools. In this triple-overlapped zone, there is currently no existing tool. I theorize that there could be a special sort of new local adjustment tool, which combines all of the powers (and none of the weaknesses) of the individual tools of which it is composed. Inspired by the notion of cartoon supeheroes teaming up to combine their powers, I gave it the tongue-in-cheek name "Super Friends Awesomesauce Brush". However, my vision for such a tool is completely serious. Basically, I envision it as an "Advanced Adjustment Brush"
For example:
Paint a shape on the image with a feathered brush. (A transparent colored mask overlay guides the user in the same way that the traditional Adjustment Brush does, as lollololli correctly suggests above as an easier way to paint a selection.)
Pick up that brushstroke with the mosue and place it in another part of the image.
Enlarge or reduce the overall size of the brushstroke with the Size slider.
Increase or decrease the overall feathering of that brushstroke's edges with the Feather slider.
Erase with the freehand erasure brush the portions of the mask that you don't wish to interact with the image.
Convert that brushstroke into a healing repair.
Resize that repair shape larger or smaller, and/or change its aspect and rotation as needed. (Transformations to the shape of the target brushstroke, not necessarily transformations of the shape of the healed or cloned sample pixels)
Increase or decrease the exposure or color temperature of the repair.
Or,
Create a new Radial Filter on the image.
Adjust the exposure, white balance, Gaussian blur, etc. of the filter.
Subtract from that Radial Filter by erasing with a second erasing Radial Filter at the same pin-level
Add back to the Radial Filter with a freehand feathered brush as desired
Or,
Maximise the brush size and minimize the feather setting and paint a solid mask overlay over the entire image.
Convert the mask overlay to a Clone repair - you have now created a second duplicate layer of the entire image on top of the original (BTW you can already do this step with the Advanced Healing Brush set to Clone and size 100 in LR5 Beta).
Subtract from that clone repair with a Radial Filter erasure to create a "hole" that shows the base image underneath.
Make independent exposure, white balance, and sharpening adjustments for both the base image (seen through the Radial Filter subtraction "hole") as well as the cloned top layer.
Reposition and resize the Radial Filter erasure as needed.
Add to and/or erase from either the Radial Filter erasure or the cloned top layer with radial filter shapes or freehand brushstrokes as desired.
I see this proposed Advanced Adjustment Brush as a very powerful localized adjustment tool. Although It really isn't a new tool at all, because it is almost completely based on the existing local adjustment tools. Additional enhancements (more geometric shapes such as polygons) could take its flexibility even further.

Spot Removal Tool in Lightroom 5

My spot removal tool in Lightroom 5 does not appear to be working correctly. When using the tool, it does not show the second circle indicating where it is sampling from and, therefore, I cannot manually move to sample from another place. Do I need to reset something?

No, it is just a potrait. Trying to get rid of a blemish. It seems to get rid of it but the second circle doesn't appear and so I can't change if I don't like what it replaces it with.

Lightroom 5 Spot Removal Tool Lags and is not usable (Temp Workaround?)

Lightroom 5 Spot Removal Tool Lags and is not usable. The Spot Removal Tool really is pretty essential to the usability and workflow of Lightroom 5. Checking the other tools alongside the Spot Removal Tool, it appears that the Red Eye Correction Tool is also affected. Might it have something to do with the Process Version? I noticed when working with some older image files (using the 2010 Process Version), the Spot Removal Tool worked as previously experienced. Current images that have been "upgraded" to the New Process Version (2012) are now incapable of utilizing the Spot Removal Tool due to its very laggy and sporadic response. I've never experienced an issue like this with Lightroom (LR user since LR2). Mac OSX 10.7.5, 3.4GHz i7, 8GB 1333MHz DDR3
I've also noticed that reprocessing an image can revert the Spot Removal Tool to "useful" again (reverting from 2012 to 2010, then back to 2012). Doesn't always work and doesn't always "stick", as closing and reopenling LR usually reinitiates the laggy Spot Removal Tool.
I haven't seen anyone mention the Process Version as a potential culprit, nor have I seen any reliable workarounds. Reprocessing an image (or set of images) at least works for me for a while, though it would sure be nice to not have continue reprocessing images every time I open/use Lightroom 5.
LR5 is great and is all I need for the majority of my images. Unfortunately for me, though, that usability also necessitates the Spot Removal Tool's unhindered functionality.

For some reason, it's clear that not everyone is experiencing such a massive slowdown / bottleneck when it comes to the Spot Removal Tool. If all users experienced this issue to this degree, they would have been clamoring for Adobe to address and rectify it immediately.
With all due respect, Sean, to make a suggestion like that proves you do not experience / have not experienced this issue / don't understand the severity to which this issue can affect workflow; simply "turning off noise reduction and lens correction" is definitely not a fix. If 16GB of RAM doesn't fix the issue, do you really think simply turning off noise reduction will? And as Bert Nase points out, to do that to large volumes of images increases workflow in a program designed to streamline workflow for large volumes of images.
1- One option is to change the process version in your first photo (2003/2010), then copy-paste that develop setting to the rest of your images. This will get all of your images to the point in your workflow where you can use the Spot Removal Tool on each image. Once spot removal is done, reconvert each image back to the current process version (2012) then re-accomplish the spots that reconverting lost.
2- Configuring presets is one work-around option, though you will need at least couple of them tailored to your workflow.
3- Changing your import settings to an earlier Process Version is an option, then accomplishing Spot Removal on each photo, then updating the Process Version on one and copy/paste to the rest, then re-accomplishing for each photo the spots lost in the conversion and continuing your workflow from there.
Readers of this thread can use the link above, but it can introduce its own issues, too. As noted, switching back-and-forth between Process Versions can delete some of your already-corrected spots and you'll have to re-correct them. Worse, a window prompt asking to create a virtual copy or proof will occasionally begin popping up.. closing the window, clicking "cancel", or choosing any other option in that pop-up window won't be "remembered" and the window pops back up with any further "click" on the image. Lightroom has to be shut down and the computer restarted for the issue to reset.
Yes, it's very frustrating and time consuming to say the least. So, unfortunately there is no fix, still only work-arounds. Hopefully this issue will be addressed and remedied in either the coming release of 5.2 (doubtful) or the Cloud version of Photoshop + Lightroom.

The spot removal tool in Lightroom 5 has suddenly started running REALLY slowly, to the point of being unusable. What should I do?!

My spot removal tool was working absolutely fine and then suddenly started running really slowly. I now can't adjust easily as there's a lag of about 5 seconds between moving the mouse and the icon moving on screen. I've tried splitting my catalog (which is not actually that big - less than 3000 photos) but that doesn't work. Help! I really need to do some photo editing and I'm running really far behind work-wise!

This has nothing to do with catalog size. Splitting the catalog won't help.
This is a common issue with the spot removal tool, if you remove LOTS of spots in a single photo, it will begin to run slowly; the more spots you remove, the slower it will get. If you have a photo which requires huge amounts of spot removal, it would be better to do this in a "desctructive editor" like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Why is my lightroom cursor freezing and jumping when using spot removal tool?

I have just swapped from PC to Mac and in the process upgraded from LR 3 to LR 4. I have always had some minor issues with the spot removal tool occassionally jamming up or not working smoothly and taking a long time in LR3 on PC, but so far using the tool in LR 4 on Mac has been painful. It is like it is slow to load, and then the cursor/spot removal circle just dissapears or freezes???
This is driving me mental - I want to be able to fix minor blemishes etc quickly in LR instead of having to go to PS.
Can anyone give me any advice???
Thanks,
Melanie

What kind of mouse or graphics tablet are you using? That sounds like a driver issue. And what are the specs of your machine? There was a graphics driver problem a while back which were causing brush/spot cursors to disappear.

Lightroom 4.1 Incredibly Slow Spot Removal Tool, Delays in using Sliders and Selecting Tools.

Hi there,
I upgraded to Lightroom 4.1 a few months ago and since then have been battling with incredibly slow spot removal tool, slow changes between tools and modules, and a big time lag in using the slider adjustments. I use Lightroom for Portrait photography work and it is incredibly frustrating. I feel like my workflow is half the speed it used to be because of all the wait time. Once I select an area for the spot removal, for example, I can wait about 2-4 seconds for it to work. I find that this lag is shorted when I first open Lightroom and begin using it, but the lag time quickly increases as the hours literally drag by. Are other people having these issues after upgrading to Lightroom 4? Has anyone found a fix for this? And does anyone know if Adobe is going to get cracking and get this fixed for 4.2? Lightroom is supposed to speed up our workflows not slow it down!!!

kazcoul wrote:
Are other people having these issues after upgrading to Lightroom 4?
Have you done a forum search for an answer to that question?

Inconsistent functioning of spot removal tool on 2 computers - how do I correct the problem?

I have LR 5 loaded on my HP Pavillion desktop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit version. I am able to use the spot removal tool as advertised (i.e I get the second like shape bubble on a different part of the image from where it will take the sample). I have a bcakup version of LR 5 running on my Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit version. When I use the spot removal tool on the laptop all that appears after I have selected the spot to be removed is a bubble that has the sample. If the sample is from the incorrect location I am unable to move it and change it (i.e. you do not get the two like shaped images like I get on the desktop). I have to delete teh selecton and start again and hope that it gives me a good sample - clearly not the way it is advertised to work.
I checked the version of LR 5 and they are identical on both machines - Lightroom 5.3 [938183]
Can anyone explain why this is happening and how to correct the problem on the laptop?
DavidsFITS

1. Try trashing or resetting the preference file on the Laptop
2. If that doesn't work, try an uninstall and the reintall of your version of Lightroom.

Cursor disappears when using spot removal tool in Develope module

I'm not sure what else to say about this other than, the cursor is present everywhere in the develope mod, except when I move it over the picture. It disappears right at the edge of it. It still shows when you click to remove a spot, but you cant tell where it is before you click, rendering it useless. The only thing I've dont recently is try to update Adobe Reader 9.2.0, and it says it can't install correctly because some plug-ins have been disabled, and I haven't been able to figure out what the deal is with that either. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. Also, I'm running an older iMac 24" 2.16 Core 2 Duo Ver. 10.4.11 with 4 MB memory.
Thanks,
Jeff

Actually, I just figured it out. The Size slider for the spot removal tool was at zero, which caused it not to show up. Don't remember ever setting it that low, but hey, whatever works right? Thanks for your response

Only circles for the spot removal tool

Hey all!
I'm running into what seems a simple issue but there's no information about this on line, or at least not something that can help me.
When I choose the spot removal tool and click and drag in order to get a linear edit (not a circle) instead of the desired effect, the circle gets bigger. I can't seem to be able to just correct a non-circular smudge.
I've checked on line, even some tutorials, but everybody seems to just click and drag and it works.
Any ideas?

Which camera raw version are you using. Spot removal was only circles ("spots") in CS6 and earlier. CC added an enhanced spot removal tool that works like photoshop's healing brush tool.

Spot Removal tool in L4 isn't working. Need Help!

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