Google+ Photos editing functionality restored after multiday absense

Users who rely on touching up their photos using the "Edit" function in the Google+ Photos lightbox will be pleased to know that the function has been brought back online after a multiday period of downtime.

Reports started flooding in from users in our Google+ Updates community as early as the 1st of September that the editing tool had disappeared from the photo lightbox without any warning. For a few days at least, we had no official confirmation from Google that they were aware of the issue, leaving users confused about the situation, and wherever or not the feature has been discontinued.

The photo editing tool. Did you miss it?

After continued rumblings in the Google+ Discuss community, +Brian Matiash, a Googler working as part of the Google+ Photos team confirmed that the issue is a bug that they're aware of, and working quickly to resolve and bring the feature back online. Shortly after, +Google+ Photos made a public post further clarifying the situation:

"We've received reports about our desktop photo editing tools, in which the edit button may not be available to customize your images. Our team is aware of the issue, and we're working to bring back this capability as soon as possible. Rich photo editing remains available in the Google+ apps for both Android and iOS."

As of yesterday, the issue has been fixed, after just under a week of downtime, and the Photos team updated their post with the following quote:

"everything's back to normal. To edit your Google+ photos in the browser, just open them in the lightbox, and click the "Edit" button. Thanks again for your patience and feedback throughout."

Crisis averted!

Fortunately, it never effected users who let Auto Awesome do the work for them, touching up photos automagically.

Do you use the photo editing tool, or do you let Auto Awesome work its magic? Let us know!