Sudden rejection

When saving as JPEG/JPG make sure you are not editing an already saved JPEG, and then re-editing it and resaving the file.

Each time you resave a JPEG file, you lose quality.

This is where using a raw format is great as it is non-destructive.

Changes in Photoshop do not influence the quality of your submissions, even that you could use Bridge to submit more easily. The Save a Copy vs Save as changes are due to changes of the macOS file handling. 

The quality issues can be caused by bad JPEG handling, but, as a rule of thumb, any file having a size of 2 Mb or more should be OK and not introduce artefacts that are visible. This is true only, however, if you have a nondestructive workflow, from the start of the editing chain to the final save. Intermediate files should be saved as TIFF or Photoshop. Both allow layers to be preserved and saving a new generation does not detoriate the quality. 

It is more probable that quality issues are present in the file at the beginning of the editing process or get introduced during the editing. Without seeing a picture, we won't be able to comment on this.

Examine your images at 100-300% magnification.  Fix all imperfections if you can.  Discard the ones you can't fix.

Then compare your best work with current Stock inventory. Is yours as good or better than what Stock has?  If not, don't submit.

With an estimated 500,000 assets reviewed every week, I would anticipate many more posts if Adobe had substantially changed the way they reviewed photos.  With 283 new posts in the last 30 days, I just don't see any evidence of it.

I'm sorry you've had so many rejections lately.  I think the best course of action is to understand the technical faults and turn the rejections into a learning opportunity.

Like @Jill_C mentioned, post a few photos if you'd like a fresh perspective on them 🙂

Cheers!

There is no difference in the files created with .jpg or .jpeg file extensions. The 3 character file limitation dates back to MS-DOS times, I think. Google "jpg versus jpeg" for more info. This is not the reason for your rejected images. I haven't experienced an increased rejection rate this year. If you would like feedback from the community members on rejected images, please upload 2 or 3 here at full size.