How To Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin
If you are an Adobe Photoshop user using Photoshop 2015 or newer, plugins for our current suite of programs should automatically install when you install your Topaz Labs programs. In some cases, this may not happen. This article explains various ways to install the Adobe Photoshop plugin for Mask AI.
Host Program Support
Mask AI is only supported as a plugin in Adobe Photoshop 2015 and newer and is not supported in Photoshop CS6, Lightroom, or Photoshop Elements.
Some users have reported that it will function in Adobe Photoshop Elements when you create an additional layer, but this is not a supported use case.
How to Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin
Mask AI's Photoshop plugin should automatically install to Photoshop's Filter menu on compatible Mac and Windows devices. If it doesn't, the following instructions may be applicable to different users:
Special Notes About M1/Apple Silicon Devices
Automatically Install Your Mask AI Photoshop Plugin (Mac and Windows)
Manually Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin On Mac
Manually Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin On Window
Special Notes About M1/Apple Silicon Devices
NOTE
The current Mask plugin is NOT M1 native. You will need to run Photoshop in Rosetta to use this plugin with M1 native Photoshop. The plugin will not appear until you do so even if it has been installed correctly. You can automatically run Photoshop through Rosetta by going to the "Get Info" section when right-clicking on the Photoshop icon and selecting the "Run With Rosetta" checkbox.
Automatically Install Your Mask AI Photoshop Plugin (Mac and Windows)
Before trying any other option, the following steps will address a missing Mask AI Photoshop plugin for most users.
Step 1: Close Photoshop and go to the Mask AI Help menu.
Step 2: Select "Reinstall Photoshop Plugin."
Step 3: You may be prompted to enter your Mac user password.
Step 4: The install should be very fast, if not instant. Reopen Photoshop, open an image, and check the Filter Menu for your Mask AI plugin.
Note: This option is only available in DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Mask AI.
Manually Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin On Mac
Step 1:
Close Photoshop
Step 2:
Navigate to the Topaz Mask AI application under Applications/Topaz Labs LLC
Step 3
Right-click and select "Show Package Contents."
Step 4
Step 4 Navigate to the "Resources" folder.
Step 5:
Right-click the PS_Plugins folder and select "Make Alias".
Step 6:
Rename the new alias to TopazMaskAI.
Step 7
Right click and copy the TopazMaskAI alias.
Step 8
Navigate to the appropriate Adobe plug-ins folder for your installation and paste the alias into the folder.
Depending on your Photoshop installation, the appropriate folder may be:
Photoshop CC: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CC.
Photoshop 2022: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2022/Plug-ins
Photoshop 2021: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2021/Plug-ins
Photoshop 2020: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2020/Plug-ins
etc.
Step 9
Open Photoshop. "Topaz Mask AI" should now show up under Filters > Topaz Labs
Manually Install Mask AI As A Photoshop Plugin On Windows
Step 1:
Close Photoshop
Step 2:
Open File Explorer and navigate to your Mask AI installation directory. This is typically found in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Topaz Labs LLC\Topaz Mask AI
Step 3:
Right click the PS_Plugins_x64 folder and select "Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)". 
Step 4:
Navigate to your desktop and rename the created shortcut to tltopazmaskaips_x64.
Step 5:
Right click and copy the tltopazmaskaips_x64 folder.
Step 6:
Paste the copied folder in the Photoshop plugins location for your Photoshop installation.
To do this, open File Explorer and navigate to your appropriate Photoshop plugins folder. It will either be for Photoshop CC or the version-specific folders (Photoshop 2020, Photoshop 2021, etc).
Photoshop CC (Shared Creative Cloud Location): C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CC\
OR
Photoshop 2022 (Version Specific): C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Plug-ins\
Photoshop 2021 (Version Specific): C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2021\Plug-ins\
Photoshop 2020 (Version Specific): C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2020\Plug-ins\
etc
Note About Photoshop Versions After 2018
For Photoshop 2018 and higher, you may have both the version-specific and shared creative cloud folders on your computer. In these cases, you may need to try to install the plugin shortcuts to both folders if you're not sure which version of Photoshop you're actually opening on your computer.
If you have other Topaz products installed, it should look something like this:
Step 7:
Paste the tltopazmaskaips_x64 shortcut into this folder.
Step 8:
Open Photoshop, and verify that "Topaz Mask AI" shows up under Filters > Topaz Labs