Community Manager

Update on Similar Refusals

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
April 30, 2025
20 replies
6772 views

Hello!

You may have noticed in recent weeks more content being refused as “too similar.” This is part of our ongoing effort to maintain the relevancy and discoverability of content within the Adobe Stock collection.

We understand that an increase in refusals can be discouraging, but this is an opportunity to refine your portfolio and submit your strongest content in future submissions.

To learn more about how to submit distinct content that stands out in our collection, please refer to our Learn & Support article.

Thank you for being part of our Contributor community!

J

Jamal_Hossain4323

Participant

This is my original cat. Please approve this if it is possible. For your kind consideration I attatch my original and refusal picture.

Jill_C

Community Expert

No one here in this forum can get the moderators to reconsider your assets. That's not the purpose of this forum.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer

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Hermes Bezerra

Participant

Entendo o aumento significativo do recuso por semelhança, porém, está quease impossível subir material de IA, procuro ser muito criterioso na seleção, tratamento e retoque. Perdendo muito tempo pra me dedicar ao material, penso que está excessiva demais esse tipo de recusa. Tem acontecido com frequência a recusa por problema de qualidade. Quando acontece, reviso tudo nos detalhes, subo novamente aí vem a recusa por semelhança, lamentavél isso!

daniellei4510

Community Expert

Is the image you posted one of the ones first rejected for quality issues, followed by a rejection for similar content?

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

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Hermes Bezerra

Participant

Bom dia. Obrigado pelo retorno. São muitas imagens por conteúdo semelhante,
sobre a questão do perfil de cores está em RGB, Quando reviso o material no
Photoshop a prmieira coisa que faço é incluir o perfil.

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Edward_St

Inspiring

Oh, this topic alleviated some of my concerns. I was sure my account was flagged or something because I was getting so many "similar content" rejections on completely different assets pictures, illustrations, transparent PNGs, etc.

So it's probably just a poorly configured AI deciding if an image is "similar."
The question is .. are they still tuning it, or is this how things will be from now on? And what should we do with images that were already rejected as similar content?

daniellei4510

Community Expert

are they still tuning it, or is this how things will be from now on?

We don't know, but we hope so.

And what should we do with images that were already rejected as similar content?

Every now and then, I will re-submit a formerly rejected asset within a group of new submissions, but with changes to titles and keywords. Sometimes this helps, but it's not a guarantee.

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

jacquelingphoto2017

Community Expert

Hi @Raul Ceron29343509,

So, targeting and refusing all I submit to this platform "is part of (your) ongoing effort to maintain the relevancy and discoverability of content within the Adobe Stock collection"? First off you started to refuse all my photos, no matter what I do they're refused. So, I start submitting vectors only to receive a similar refusal that no other is in my portfolio. I send a ticket to ask what is it that the refused asset is similar to, but received two generic responses that do not answer my question. Contributors have been complaining that they are not submitting similar assets, but getting similar refusals. Did you investigate any of these cases to find out if it's true?

I submitted a magnetite chemical molecular structure diagram. It was refused for similar. I have absolutely none other in my portfolio? This is what I found on your website:

One molecular diagram asset incorrectly labeled as magnetite. This is in fact showing molecular structure of two compounds. This is no way near to what I did. I created a single molecule that looks totally different from this. So, is it a case you're going off caption? If so are you saying is only one of any subject that must be on the platform and it's the lucky winner that will get the chance to have that subject licensed? Or is it that only certain category of contributors will be allowed to submit to Adobe stock, so you frustrate who you don't want with similar or quality refusals until they get the message and move on? Or, is it a case of overworked reviewers who decide that their pay is too small for the amount of work they have to do, and the only way to maximize pay is to unscrupulous do mass refusals, since the mass acceptance will not work as they wish? You are a staff member, so tell us what's the case.

Regards

Jacquelin

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hombrelogo

Participant

Sorry, but the tool* you are using to find similar content doesn't work. As other users have claimed, it is discouraging not knowing if your work will be accepted. It is even worse for contributors who don't use AI, as creating an illustration by hand takes a lot more time and effort.

*Be it AI or any kind of algorithm, it's impossible that any human criteria could be involved in these 'false positives'.

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Will Jaya

Participant

Hi Raul,

Let’s consider two scenarios:

Someone uses AI heavily to create content, uploads it, and gets rejected due to similarities.

Another person creates original content without using AI, spends significant time on it, and still gets rejected for the same reason.

I think the second case is very harsh on original creators. It’s obvious that if you search for “apple,” many apple images will appear in Adobe’s search results. But that doesn’t mean a new, well-made apple image shouldn’t be allowed to sell simply because the topic already has mature content.

What Adobe should do, in my opinion, is find a way to rotate or balance these situations. For example:

Provide an option for users to easily filter out all AI-related content if they wish.

Provide an option for users to find very fresh content, even if it doesn’t yet have any downloads, to suit unique new projects.

I personally don’t use AI in my account. Over the past year, fewer than 10 of my assets were rejected, while many others were accepted and generated revenue. But in the past few weeks, I’ve been facing a disappointing number of rejections.

I believe Adobe needs to rethink its approach toward non-AI creators.

It doesn’t seem fair to treat AI-generated and non-AI content in the exact same way.

Thank you
Jaya

daniellei4510

Community Expert

"Provide an option for users to find very fresh content, even if it doesn’t yet have any downloads, to suit unique new projects."

There's a specific filter for "undiscovered content" in the filter drop down. And I can assure you, there are contributors who spend a good deal of time editing faulty AI results that also get rejected for being too similar.

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

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rkniazi_8200

Participant

but its my own generated how it can similar i love adobe but when your content rejected its so harsh because your effort totly destroy

Jill_C

Community Expert

As a Stock Contributor you must learn not to take image rejections personally. This is a business. If Adobe decides they don't want even more similar images in their database you have to accept it or move on to another agency.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer