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Question

Photo moderation takes too long

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
November 11, 2025
4 replies
639 views

I don’t know what happened with the moderation lately, but I really don’t like how it’s been working since this summer (maybe it’s just me). It used to be fine, all my photos got reviewed within 2–3 weeks. Now, however, I have some photos that have been pending for over five months.

I read here that some people recommend deleting and re-uploading photos, so I tried that, and while one or two images get reviewed after a couple of days, they’re always rejected for being “is similar”. As a result, I’ve just accumulated a bunch of photos that no one moderates.

What’s even more frustrating is that beautiful and unique shots are being rejected for “similarity,” whereas before at least one or two would get accepted. Now it’s 100% refusals.

Does anyone know what’s going on with the moderation system?

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Are you using a bulk uploader to submit multiple assets at a time?

If so, try the slow & steady approach. Choose 2-3 of your best assets. Submit them individually. Wait. Repeat the next day.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

I

ihar_droneAuthor

Participating Frequently

I tried to upload photos every week from the cities I visited (~10 photos from each), but now I've stopped because the photos just pile up

Jill_C

Community Expert

The moderation system was changed earlier this year - around March - to reject many more images based on similars and quality issues. Adobe's reasoning seemed to be to reduce spamming and curate more unique images for their Buyers; however the system seems flawed in that some truly unique images are being rejected. We've all experienced this to some extent. Unfortunately, it's now the "new normal", and the unjustified rejections don't seem to be a problem as far as Adobe is concerned.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

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ihar_droneAuthor

Participating Frequently

I take aerial photos with a drone, and obviously, there are no places left where someone hasn’t already flown and uploaded similar shots. I completely understand rejecting low-quality or meaningless photos, but it feels like the element of fair competition is being removed. The algorithms already promote popular contributors, and now new submissions get rejected simply because someone photographed the same location before you. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, but with this kind of approach, the chances for beginners to achieve anything are becoming almost nonexistent.

daniellei4510

Community Expert

In a backwards way, I feel like Adobe is unintentionally putting emphasis on quantity rather than quality. Comparing similar content to content from years back doesn't necessarily mean the old content is better. Then again, we don't know how far back Adobe is going with respect to the entire database.

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

RALPH_L

Community Expert

Naturally we do not know. Our thoughts are that AI generated images have flooded the number of assets needing moderation and also has increased the number of available assets. We assume Adobe is getting strickter on what assets are approved and which are refused. We have also concluded, that the asset subject may play a role on how fast a newly submitted asset gets reviewed.

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igor_6166

Participant

So instead of supporting photographers and filmmakers and giving priority to real people’s work, all the effort now seems to be focused on reviewing AI-generated images... To me, that looks like a very strange decision. I really love Adobe, even though I don’t have many uploads overall, but compared to other stock platforms, even that small number means a lot.

daniellei4510

Community Expert

As someone who only submits AI, I can assure my waiting time for reviews have slowed down considerably, along with photographers feeling the same pinch. If I have 2 (or even 1) asset reviewed daily (which sometimes gets a refusal), I consider myself lucky. The issue is affecting everyone. Meanwhile, strict upload limits have been set for individual who submit an over-abundance of AI.

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

daniellei4510

Community Expert

It's the new norm. Everyone is dealing with this issue and Adobe did announce officially that they were going to giving close attention to "similar content" going forward. Most agree that the process is or at least appears very random at times, and I personally have had assets rejected for similar content that I felt were unique. I've also had assets accepted that I felt sure would get a similar result, but that were accepted. Submit, and cross fingers. As for the review delays, it's apparently a bug. You can wait it out (they do appear to be accepted eventually), or delete and resubmit with a different file name, so that the asset is interpreted as being an entirely new submission.

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

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igor_6166

Participant

Earlier, some of my submissions were also rejected for being “too similar” to existing ones in the collection, but not 100%. What’s even more frustrating is that the materials from Italy, which somehow got approved before this whole long moderation issue started, turned out to be the most popular in my portfolio. And now I haven’t been able to upload new ones for almost half a year, which makes the situation even more disappointing. 😞
Thanks for your reply!

daniellei4510

Community Expert

Half a year seems extra long. Upload limits have been established, but that is outside the norm. How many assets do you presently have under review?

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

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