My Own Photo Was Rejected as "Already Exists" – Need Clarification

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 22, 2025
3 replies
273 views

Hello Adobe Stock Team and Community,
I recently submitted a photo that I personally captured using my own mobile phone. It’s a sunset view over green fields, taken in my local area.

Unfortunately, the image was rejected with the reason “Similar image already exists.”

I want to confirm that this photo is 100% original. I took it myself and did only basic adjustments (like color and clarity) before uploading. I haven’t uploaded it from any other account or shared it in any way that others could use it.

Could someone please clarify why this happened? And how can I avoid this issue in the future?

Thank you for your support.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Adobe Stock already contains more than enough sunsets/sunrises.

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=sunset 30.1 MILLION results

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=sunrise 41.6 MILLION results

You can't compete with over 70 MILLION assets and expect to make sales. So don't even try.

Find other, less represented subjects to submit.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Jill_C

Community Expert

The rejection explanation indicates "similar content in our collection". This means that they are comparing not only to other images in your portfolio, but the entire Adobe Stock database.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

daniellei4510

Community Expert

We're seeing these "similar" rejections a lot. In fact, some contributors have ceased submitting assets or at least slowed down doing so as a result. There's not much you can do if anything.

That said, your asset is underexposed and would have been rejected for this reason.

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.

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