How PhotoRepair's Editing Tools Work 100% Offline: What Stays on Your iPhone

TL;DR

The enhance, restore, erase, cutout and blur models are bundled in the app and run on-device, so photos aren't uploaded. The app is large because of those models. Edits are stored in the app library on the phone until you delete them. Only Edit with words, which you choose to use, runs in the cloud.

The problem

Photo-editing AI is usually “free” because your photo goes to a server. Old family pictures, ID scans and private shots shouldn’t have to travel to a stranger’s computer to have an object removed. And a tool that needs internet is useless on a plane or abroad.

How PhotoRepair keeps it local

Erase, Enhance, Restore, Cutout, backgrounds, filters and adjustments:

  • The models are in the app. Upscaling (Real-ESRGAN and OmniSR), face restore, the eraser (LaMa), subject selection (MobileSAM) and hair matting are all bundled, which is why the app is large.
  • No account, no sign-in.
  • No upload. Nothing these tools touch goes to a server.
  • Local storage. Your edits live in the app’s library on the phone, and you can delete them.

Check it yourself

  1. Turn on airplane mode.
  2. Run an Enhance or Erase.
  3. Save.

It all works.

What this doesn’t cover

  • Edit with words (AI). Describing an edit, or asking for a new image, sends that photo and prompt to cloud AI models — the app asks before the first upload, and the result is kept in My Works for 90 days. See the privacy policy.
  • Anything you share afterwards, including to Discover.
  • iCloud backups of your Photos library.
  • Purchases, which go through Apple.

Memory and speed

On-device models use a lot of memory, so PhotoRepair runs one heavy job at a time, and large images are processed in tiles. Older phones are slower, and very large photos are scaled for the job.

FAQ

Does any tool need internet? The editing tools don’t: their models are bundled, so they work offline. Edit with words (AI) is the exception — it runs in the cloud.

Why is the app big? The AI models are inside it: roughly 400 MB of them. Nothing extra has to be downloaded.

What does the app store? Your edits, in the app’s library on your phone, until you delete them.

The app PhotoRepair →