Participating Frequently

Question

All images in first batch submission to adobe stock were rejected for being AI generated. Reason stated 'Missing Generative AI Flag'. None were AI generated, even slightly.

Forum|Forum|25 days ago
July 13, 2026
18 replies
144 views

So I had no reason to check the AI generated box. I spent hours tagging and keywording. REAL IMAGES. Taken with a camera. There was NO AI editing, certainly none generated by AI, many were even taken on film before I went digital!, and the scan submitted. Unless this can be put right easily I will waste no more time here as this is ridiculous. I enjoyed submitting my photos and was looking forward to making a start as a contributor, I love photography and hate AI, so this is a real kick in the teeth.

I also avoid using any generative AI features in post processing, which are apparently allowed anyway (eg. small object removal tools). So none of this makes sense or has made me want to continue with this agency.

Every single image is already accepted by Getty who seem to use real people to assess images, not useless AI.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

It’s also quite possible that the human Reviewer checked the wrong refusal box. It happens. Reviewers have to examine thousands of images weekly. When they get fatigued, they sometimes make mistakes. Humans aren’t machines.

Without seeing the full-sized image, I can’t say why it may have been refused. But the most common refusal reasons are for Quality/Technical issues, followed by Similar Content, and IP violations.

Acceptance by Getty or any other service isn’t a guarantee that your work meets Adobe Stock’s acceptance standards. Separate companies with different customers & standards don’t always align.

Read your Contributor User Guide. It describes in detail what’s expected from Stock Contributors.

Pay particular attention to the 4-part Photography Guidelines below:

Hope that helps.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

N

nazrAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks Nancy. I have read all of these posts already and am very familiar with technical and editing requirements. I submitted a batch of 50 (the maximum allowed it seems for the first upload). All but three were rejected for being AI generated. The remaining 3 were rejected for there being similar images, which of course there will be for most shots, but I can accept that. But to reject a completely non AI influenced image for being completely AI generated, for 47 images, and not accept a single one, is beyond human error :(

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

The Reviewers are allowed to check only one box per submission. The examination ends at problem #1. Based on your very limited sales & acceptance history here, Adobe limits Stock submissions to 50. But that limit goes up as Contributors gain you more experience & track history.

I’m not here to hard sell anyone on Adobe. The products & services sell themselves if users are willing to leap through all the learning curves. Ultimately, tools don’t make great artwork, people do.

Good luck.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

daniellei4510

Community Expert

When using the chat box, type “agent” to speak with a real person.

Adobe Community Expert | If you aren't submitting your assets in sRGB, you probably didn't read the rules.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

The Adobe Product Support desk is exclusively for paying product customers, not Stock Contributors.

Stock Contributors have a separate contact portal for reaching the Contributor Relations Team.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/get-started/manage-your-account/contact-contributor-support-team.html

Due to the high volume of inquiries that Stock receives, it’s not possible to speak directly with Reviewers.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

N

nazrAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks Nancy, I will try this link. It is so ironic that I am only 1 week shy of being a long term subscriber, and only left because they (not I!) introduced an unacceptable amount of AI functionality into the workflow. I never asked for this and shifted to Affinity; free of generative AI (unless you pay, which I have no need to do).

jodij28273193

Inspiring

I always start my description with "Real image:" and then the description. works every time for me.

N

nazrAuthor

Participating Frequently

Good tip, I may try this (if I have the energy!). Thanks :)

ZALEZPHOTO

Legend

I’ve had the same thing happened! I don’t know for a fact, but logic tells me that Adobe uses an automated AI-detection system to scan submissions before human review, and scanned film in particular seems to trip this more often the scanning process. Have you taken a look at the metadata in your scans? Make sure your scanned files retain camera/scanner metadata rather than having it stripped during editing or export.

I have amazing shots that I tried resubmitting 3 and 4 times, until finally someone approved them… (and have never sold :). So my advice is that you only do this for great photos worth uploading.

I realize how frustrated it is wasting all the time, here is one huge tip, use your favorite AI system and ask it to help you with that:

Take a screen shot of your photos. Then copy and paste when you ask AI:

give me a title for each photo, with only capital letter for first word, and 50 of the best words associated with each photo, separated by commas.

I started asking for 45 so I can complete the 50 with words given by Adobe.

Let us know how that goes!

ZALEZPHOTO

N

nazrAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you for the reply! I suspected the same about this being an AI sorted (very incorrect) decision, Yes good point I will check my film prints, and whether I included metadata or not. I am afraid i do not have a favourite AI as I refuse to use it wherever possible, far too old school, so this really is comedic!

daniellei4510

Community Expert

This has been happening more often than it should. Contact contributor support. The link is located at the bottom of your Dashboard. Adobe doesn’t participate in this forum so they need to be made aware of this issue directly.

Adobe Community Expert | If you aren't submitting your assets in sRGB, you probably didn't read the rules.

N

nazrAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I cancelled my photo editing LR/PS subscription just last week as (ironically) I had had enough of AI infiltrating my workflow; I switched to Affinity, gloriously free of generative AI no monthly subscription either. So I can only speak to AI in the chat, not a real person. It is almost comedic. If anyone from Adobe can address my concern here, that is my only hope. But like you say, if they don’t participate in the forum, I might just as well go exclusive on Getty, I don’t have the energy to fight this nonsense. And I am certainly not resubscribing just to communicate with a human!

ZALEZPHOTO

Legend

Colleague, I started with Getty and Adobe at the same time. Getty is great but they have exactly the same issues as Adobe. Yet my downloads and sales are 4x greater with Adobe Stock.

If you can do batch process with Affinity as you can with Lightroom, and it it’s a non-destructive RAW file editor, I guess free is good, to me that’s like getting rid of my 85mm 1.2 for a Tamron 1.2

And the AI-powered editing in Photoshop is out of this world, saves tons of time and perfect for editing stock $19.99 for both is a tiny cost for what you get.

If the only reason you’re considering going exclusive with Getty is bc your annoyed at how things are with Adobe, do yourself a favor reconsidering… Let me be clear, I totally understand your frustration, but I can assure you leaving Adobe will only multiply that.

Best of luck to you.

ZALEZPHOTO

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