Unwanted tool in photo markup

Reply to TedTheGlove

Hello Ted ,

Here's some troubleshooting information for you to try out :

The unwanted tool shown in your photo markup on the iPad is the "Smart Annotation" or "Markup shape recognition" overlay, which appears when you use the Markup feature in Photos or other apps. These lines and shapes show up to help users align drawings or shapes like straight lines, rectangles, or circles automatically. Apple introduced a "snap to shape" feature, making hand-drawn lines auto-straighten or morph into geometric shapes, which can interrupt freeform markup and sometimes lock your markup progress as you described.​

What Is It

• The circled icons in your screenshot indicate the shape recognition overlay and toolset.
• The tool tries to assist by creating straight lines or shapes from your drawings, resulting in visible guides or overlays.​

How to Disable It

• Currently, on iPadOS/iOS, there is no system-wide toggle to completely disable shape recognition or snap in Markup. Users have expressed frustration and requested this feature from Apple, but as of the latest updates, there is no built-in setting to turn it off.​
• As a workaround, try using a different Markup tool (such as the pen or highlighter instead of the shape/line tool) if you want freehand drawing without snap assistance.​
• If you're using the shape tool and overlays appear, tap away from the shape before confirming the markup to dismiss the overlay, or use the Undo button to remove unwanted lines and revert to manual edits.

Additional Notes

• You can also tap the "+" sign in the Markup toolbar to add regular shapes instead of drawing them freehand, which bypasses automatic snap overlays.​
• If these overlays are impacting your workflow, consider submitting feedback to Apple via their Feedback Assistant since many users have requested more customizable Markup features.​

In summary, the lines and icons are part of the iPad's Markup helper tools, and as of now, cannot be fully disabled through settings—using other tools in the Markup bar offers limited workarounds.

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Perplexity a.i. .