Participant

Question

My original icons and AI art are being rejected as 'Similar Content' by the automated system. How can I get a manual review for these?

Forum|Forum|1 day ago
May 24, 2026
4 replies
105 views

Hello everyone, I need some help!

Many of my original handmade icons and unique AI surreal artworks were rejected on Adobe Stock for 'Similar Content.'

I am confident they are unique, as I've used distinct titles and keywords for every single file. It seems like the automated system is flagging them incorrectly. I have many other images that were also rejected for the same reason.

Has anyone faced this? How can I get a manual review or fix this issue? Any advice would be a huge hel

p!"

O

Oh.N8

@rafi1235
The other thing regarding keywords… who is your target audience? Is there a market for mushroom chessboard? How many people are looking for “x” type of chessboard?

Cool idea? Artistic and fun 100%. Is there a market on Adobe Stock images?
You may want to try other artistic stock sites for such concepts. The concept is fun and interesting.

Cheers

Nate

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

You can’t. Review decisions are final and there’s no appeals process.

All you can do is make necessary changes and resubmit for another review.

Mushrooms are generously represented in Stock inventory. If that’s your main keyword, it’s not hard to understand why it was flagged for “similar content.” This is what you’re competing with in “mushroom.”

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=mushroom 3.5 million results

If these are supposed to suggest chessboard pieces, the key figures (King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook) should be distinguishable from other tokens on the board.

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=chessboard+pieces 277K results

Traditional chessboard pieces:

Hope that helps.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

rafi1235Author

Participant

Thank you for the guidance. My main concern is the keyword selection. My images, like my mushroom themed chess set, are creative compositions where I replace standard pieces with mushrooms. Since there are millions of images online, I struggle to determine which of my keywords are truly unique enough to avoid being flagged as similar content. Could you please provide an example of how you would structure the tags for this specific concept to ensure it is uniquely categorized? Or should I just choose the keywords that Adobe suggests to me while submitting?

daniellei4510

Community Expert

Your guesses are as good as ours. I’ve amassed over 500 similar content rejections in the past year. Unique images that I felt certain would be accepted have been rejected for similar content. Images that I felt certain would be rejected for similar content get accepted more often than not, while others have been rejected that are, in retrospect, over-represented. Personally, I tend to avoid using Adobe’s suggested keywords given the possibility that they are the very keywords most likely being overused.

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

daniellei4510

Community Expert

Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of whatever automated system has been implemented and manual reviews aren’t available.

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

yamato713108855

Community Expert

Rejection due to similar content applies not only to the asset's content but also to its title and keywords.

If the title and keywords are not appropriate, the asset will not appear in search results and will not sell.

rafi1235Author

Participant

Thank you for the guidance regarding the 'similar content' rejection. I understand that both the content and the metadata need to be unique.

However, I would like to clarify that these assets belong to a 'Surreal Silliness' creative series. Because they share the same artistic theme, it is natural for them to have some overlapping keywords and similar descriptive structures. Despite this, the core subjects of these images are fundamentally different and are not duplicates.

For instance, I have reviewed two of my recently rejected assets:

Asset 1:

Title: Surreal conceptual green cactus plant shaped like a twisted balloon dog over pink background

Keywords: cactus, balloon, dog, animal, green, prickle, spine, thorn, sharp, dangerous, fragile, inflatable, rubber, latex, glossy, shiny, reflection, plant, succulent, desert, botany, nature, party, toy, sculpture, art, texture, tension, abstract, contrast, metaphor, concept, weird, funny, ironic, humor, creative, modern, studio, lighting, vibrant, pop, minimal, backdrop, clean, fresh, organic

Asset 2:

Title: Vintage wooden violin with melting honey strings dripping on a yellow background, surreal creative concept

Keywords: surrealism, silliness, violin, honey, sticky, dripping, musical, instrument, creative, concept, sweet, melting, yellow, background, whimsical, quirky, absurd, bizarre, liquid, gold, strings, classical, music, unusual, food, art, playful, escapism, wood, vintage, floating, pouring, splash, unique, abstract, conceptual, fun, humor, artistic, illustration

As you can see, the subjects and their primary descriptions are distinct. It seems they might be incorrectly flagged as duplicates by the automated system due to the shared theme. I would appreciate your help in resolving this.

yamato713108855

Community Expert

Set the top 5 most important keywords that users search for.

Think about what words users actually use to search.

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