For most photo retouching, Content-Aware is usually the first mode to try. The main times to avoid it are when the area is near strong edges, solid boundaries, or high-contrast transitions.

Why: Content-Aware analyzes surrounding pixels and can pull in tones or textures from both sides of an edge. For example, if you remove a blemish near a face/background boundary, it may blend skin and background together and create a mess.

It’s also less reliable when repeated attempts give inconsistent or obviously wrong results. In those cases, Proximity Match may work better because it uses nearby pixels more simply and predictably. A second pass can sometimes clean up small artifacts left by Content-Aware.

Create Texture is generally less useful for normal photographs, though it may help more with graphic or illustrated work.

So, a practical rule is:

• use Content-Aware by default for simple areas
• avoid it near edges and high-contrast structures
• switch to Proximity Match, Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, or Patch Tool when Content-Aware keeps failing