Low Approval Rate and Long Review Times – Need Feedback

[Cine_Hub]

I'm a professional filmmaker and contributor on several stock platforms. I’ve had success selling my work, but my experience with Adobe Stock has been frustrating.

Out of 12 video clips I recently submitted, 11 were rejected. This keeps happening, even though the same clips are accepted and sold elsewhere.

What's even more difficult is the extremely long review time. It often takes weeks to get a response, and most of the time the content is rejected without explanation.

I have read the guidelines carefully and followed all technical specifications. I'm genuinely confused.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced similar issues and how you are dealing with it.

Adobe team: Please provide some clarity on how to improve approval rates. I want to grow my portfolio here, but this is very discouraging.

Thanks in advance for your support and advice

[Moderator moved the thread to the correct forum]

[daniellei4510]

Long wait times are being experienced by numerous contributors. As for your assets being accepted elsewhere, we hear that a lot. Different standards for approval most likely.

[Cine_Hub]

Thanks for the clarification. I understand that different platforms have different standards, but it would really help if Adobe provided at least some general feedback or rejection reasons to help contributors improve and align with those standards.

[daniellei4510]

We don't disagree. A number of contributors are having assets rejected for quality issues (where it's strongly felt there are none) or for being too similar to other assets (when they are arguably not). This has been going on for close to a month.

[Cine_Hub]

Thanks for your honesty. It’s helpful to know that others are experiencing the same. I’ll keep contributing and hope things return to normal soon. I really want to build here long term.

[Jill_C]

They do provide general guidelines for rejections, such as quality issues, similars or IP issues. However, lately many Contributors have experienced dramatically increased rates of unwarranted rejections. Adobe has been silent on any changes in their reviewing practices, so we're all struggling to understand what's going on. Meanwhile, I've stopped uploading new content.

[Cine_Hub]

Thanks, Jill. It’s reassuring to know that even experienced contributors are seeing the same. I hope Adobe addresses this soon — it’s a shame to see good work being pushed aside without clear reasoning. Appreciate your insight.

[Jill_C]

I've maintained a rejection rate of ~5% for years. When it jumped to 40% I decided to take a hiatus. 

[Ars_Nova]

There is definitely something going on with the review process lately. My rejection rate went from 11% to 100% in the past week. My uploaded assets keep trickling from the "in review" to "not accepted" section one by one without any logic or reason.

[EOF22]

Jeah same. My images get rejected for beeing to similar to other content but there is 0 images that are even remotly close iny my assets... it is frustrating.

[Abambo]

They are also checking against the whole database, at least for some assets. But I think that they are using a new tool that is ill configured, or that is reacting to a low level similarity.

[Abambo]

What was the rejection reason?

[antonymatthews]

I've slowly decreased my uploads this year given poor sales as well as really inconsistent reviews. Big waste of time when something seems completely fine but they somehow find a fault. Then you check the store and absolute slop from AI is getting pushed. Not worth the time. 

I keep getting the "unintentional shaking, empty black or white frame, compression and/or audio issues" excuse on drone videos shot in crisp 4k, no exposure problems, and no wind/stabilisation problems in the footage through the gimbal. Weirdly I get these even on a batch where the other videos shot at the same time do get approved.

I've had instances in the past where this has happened and I've contacted Adobe over it and they've admitted it was their fault and pushed the clips through after a second review, but again that's just not even worth the time anymore.

[DailyShutter45]

Me also, My submission mostly accepted in others stock platform. I don't think this is quality issue but more to uniqueness, saleable, usable. If the asset was photos I think they want something fresh not too generic like New Concept of Digital Imaging. And If the asset was Video maybe they want something new and have a high demand like Infographic Video The Impact of US Import Tariff.

I don't know, It Just My own opinion, maybe right or maybe wrong.

[bardhok0D4D]

Lately i've been experiencing a sudden spike in rejections - about 90% of my assets are being rejected now, compared to around 35% previously. The main reason given is "quality." What’s strange is that the rejections are happening almost instantly after I upload them, which makes me wonder if Adobe might be testing some kind of AI system to review submissions.

I’ve seen something similar happen on another platform where assets were auto-rejected for quality issues. Eventually, they switched back to human reviewers, and since then, I haven’t had any problems. I completely understand that Adobe has high standards for quality—and I fully respect that—but it’s clear that something has recently changed, and it doesn’t feel quite right.

[Abambo]

Adobe has yet to announce a change in the way they moderate, but I don't think that AI rejection works well. However, they can use some tools to check the quality and thise tools can point the moderator faster to the errors.

[erik@@@]

Is it possible to see some of your rejected work?

[Abambo]

They should create a new threat and post one or two assets at the submission quality. They should not submit 10 assets in a row.