MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: milo22 on April 23, 2024, 07:55
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On 12.03.24 Adobe has blocked my account with a portfolio of over 50,000 images and over $2000 on it because of "terms violation".
I don’t work with AI Generators, I have no idea why the account was deactivated and what I can do to reactivate it.
After using the contract form, I still haven't received a response (over a month). On Discord they just tell me to keep waiting.
I find it very unpleasant to keep someone in the dark for so long and to be at the mercy of it all
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On 12.03.24 Adobe has blocked my account with a portfolio of over 50,000 images and over $2000 on it because of "terms violation".
I don’t work with AI Generators, I have no idea why the account was deactivated and what I can do to reactivate it.
After using the contract form, I still haven't received a response (over a month). On Discord they just tell me to keep waiting.
I find it very unpleasant to keep someone in the dark for so long and to be at the mercy of it all
This is ridiculous. Adobe needs to do better.
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This seems extremely shocking. :o
Really, I doubt Adobe would do this sort of thing lightly.
Your portfolio had 200k images in 2021, 50k in 2024?
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The best way is to contact Adobe via the MatHayward PM in the forum.
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That is horrible.
Please contact Mat.
Adobe should have a much more professional system, especially for reliable and proven producers.
To have us at the mercy of an invisible department you cannot talk to is crazy.
It is terrifying to be cut of abruptly from your income.
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If you had 200.000 images in your Adobe port in November 2021 according to your old post and now had 50.000 images in January, you must have some kind of idea why your account was banned? Surely the 150.000 images didn't disappear for no reason?
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If you had 200.000 images in your Adobe port in November 2021 according to your old post and now had 50.000 images in January, you must have some kind of idea why your account was banned? Surely the 150.000 images didn't disappear for no reason?
the mentioned 200000 portfolio from 2021 belongs to my husband. since the registration here has been inactive for days, I used his login.
So we are talking about a different portfolio (50.000) here.
As I said, we have already been asked if it is normal to wait so long and we wanted only to know if others have had similar experiences
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"...Before you can login and start using the forum, your request will be reviewed and approved. When this happens, you will receive another email from this address. ... – www.microstockgroup.com (http://www.microstockgroup.com)"
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It takes a lot of time and hardwork to get a balanced income from microstock. Its a highly competitive market.
If contributor do any mistake > Destroy them and take away all the earning.
If employee makes any mistake > Give them a scolding and ask them to resume to work.
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On 12.03.24 Adobe has blocked my account with a portfolio of over 50,000 images and over $2000 on it because of "terms violation".
I don’t work with AI Generators, I have no idea why the account was deactivated and what I can do to reactivate it.
After using the contract form, I still haven't received a response (over a month). On Discord they just tell me to keep waiting.
I find it very unpleasant to keep someone in the dark for so long and to be at the mercy of it all
This is ridiculous. Adobe needs to do better.
You know the details and facts, could you explain how they could do better and why this is ridiculous?
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If you had 200.000 images in your Adobe port in November 2021 according to your old post and now had 50.000 images in January, you must have some kind of idea why your account was banned? Surely the 150.000 images didn't disappear for no reason?
the mentioned 200000 portfolio from 2021 belongs to my husband. since the registration here has been inactive for days, I used his login.
So we are talking about a different portfolio (50.000) here.
As I said, we have already been asked if it is normal to wait so long and we wanted only to know if others have had similar experiences
Do you both have your own AS account, use the same computer, internet and camera? That might be why. Good luck.
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On 12.03.24 Adobe has blocked my account with a portfolio of over 50,000 images and over $2000 on it because of "terms violation".
I don’t work with AI Generators, I have no idea why the account was deactivated and what I can do to reactivate it.
After using the contract form, I still haven't received a response (over a month). On Discord they just tell me to keep waiting.
I find it very unpleasant to keep someone in the dark for so long and to be at the mercy of it all
This is ridiculous. Adobe needs to do better.
You know the details and facts, could you explain how they could do better and why this is ridiculous?
I Ignore posts from blvdone (and some other ridiculous posts), it saves me time ;)
I don't say it's the case here, but even a thief can come and complain on this forum, he will be supported by some ridiculous people.
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You can keep waiting or forget about it, because they will do it again if you open a new account.
Why do we need to go to Discord or use Mat help, i don't get it!
And who said Adobe is ridiculous here! they're thieves or stupid in solving issues, or both, why some keep defending them! i don't get that too, until they block them maybe.
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You can keep waiting or forget about it, because they will do it again if you open a new account.
Why do we need to go to Discord or use Mat help, i don't get it!
And who said Adobe is ridiculous here! they're thieves or stupid in solving issues, or both, why some keep defending them! i don't get that too, until they block them maybe.
When people keep criticizing, attacking and calling Adobe thieves, but no one has the details, or why the block occurred, not even the OP, how's that for fair and balanced? Are we allowed to defend reason and responsible comments?
Yes, we'd all want a better communication and faster response, no argument with that.
We're also trusting and assuming the block was unjust, because we trust the OP actually didn't do something wrong, by accident?
ps You're not supposed to open a new account!
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You can keep waiting or forget about it, because they will do it again if you open a new account.
Why do we need to go to Discord or use Mat help, i don't get it!
And who said Adobe is ridiculous here! they're thieves or stupid in solving issues, or both, why some keep defending them! i don't get that too, until they block them maybe.
When people keep criticizing, attacking and calling Adobe thieves, but no one has the details, or why the block occurred, not even the OP, how's that for fair and balanced? Are we allowed to defend reason and responsible comments?
Yes, we'd all want a better communication and faster response, no argument with that.
We're also trusting and assuming the block was unjust, because we trust the OP actually didn't do something wrong, by accident?
ps You're not supposed to open a new account!
Exactly,there's no point in commenting on a block,because we simply don't have enough elements to judge,Adobe has,and I'm sure they will do the best.
In any case,I hope it's nothing serious and that everything turns out well! :)
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On the Discord server we have a rule that blocked accounts are not to be discussed. One of the reasons for this is because it instills too much fear in contributors who have nothing to fear. Another reason is that no-one can help you other than contacting Support using the link they have provided.
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But to have a place where blocked accounts can be discussed is useful. Producers need freedom to talk about their problems.
If Adobe bans it from their company support groups, that is their decision, but personally I do not believe that is helpful.
And talking about the blocks also helps to create awareness for the problem and especially what kind of mistakes will trigger a block.
For instance there is the problem of credit card thieves abusing a portfolio and as a producer you have zero influence on that. But can be punished by losing access to your income and having all your image algos reset.
Then there are many people who are completely new to stock, who are being edged on by youtubers and simply make mistakes because they do not know that what they are doing is wrong.
And finally you have actual criminals, who upload stolen content, who buy each others files to improve their rank etc..
All these cases need a different level of attention.
However, although all agencies suffer from the same criminal activity I only see Adobe blocking accounts of reliable, decades old producers abruptly.
So, of course people are terrified!
There should be some kind of system in place, where reliable producers have their issues cleared up much faster.
That would help to alleviate the real fears in the community.
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wanted to let you know that my account has been reactivated since today, so far without answer what the problem was.
I just kept waiting and fortunately everything is ok now. for me the issue is closed
thanks for the feedback and also to uncle Pete, soon I will use my own account here :)
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wanted to let you know that my account has been reactivated since today, so far without answer what the problem was.
I just kept waiting and fortunately everything is ok now. for me the issue is closed
thanks for the feedback and also to uncle Pete, soon I will use my own account here :)
That's nice to hear.
I wish you good sales!
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@milo22
Very good to hear your account is open again.
I hope the sales will come back very soon!
After my Account block it took some weeks to get back to similar download counts again.
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wanted to let you know that my account has been reactivated since today, so far without answer what the problem was.
I just kept waiting and fortunately everything is ok now. for me the issue is closed
thanks for the feedback and also to uncle Pete, soon I will use my own account here :)
all's well that ends well! :)
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all the best milo!
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On the Discord server we have a rule that blocked accounts are not to be discussed. One of the reasons for this is because it instills too much fear in contributors who have nothing to fear. Another reason is that no-one can help you other than contacting Support using the link they have provided.
But apparently support cannot or doesn't help either. This contributor still has no idea why the account was blocked, and this is the first report here of not getting an answer.
As a long time contributor, what I find deeply distressing is the complete lack of responsiveness. Not talking about all the people who are "disappeared" smacks of scary dictatorships, not a place I'd like to be.
But I'm happy that milo22 has been let out of detention.
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Slightly related note but elsewhere people are complaining of "download bombs" and Adobe blocking their account shortly afterwards and not responding to any attempts to contact them to ask why.
Now a lot of these are genuine rule breakers - on FB and elsewhere you see people (primarily Pakistan and sub-continent) openly advertising to "buy" images from contributors using stolen or corporate accounts to boost rankings and provide earnings. These accounts then are blocked and fair enough, good.
However it does seem to be a minority of people who ARE genuine, havent used the services of these people who have had excessive downloads in a day or several days that have triggered whatever alarms Adobe has and seen their account blocked. If someone has used stolen credentials to raid their account and the contributor is unaware then it really isnt that persons fault. It also seems a good way to "get rid" of someone by using the same tactic on their account.
I stress this looks like a tiny minority of people but it does seem to be happening. The lack of any communication or response from Adobe using any of the recommended contact methods seems to be the biggest problem making it near impossible for them to find out why or how to restore their account, or at best, it takes months.
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Just got blocked too with 12k videos and 1,500$ in my portfolio.
I am a full time stock contributor and Adobe is my best earner. I don't work with AI and I have no idea what is going on.
I sent them a message, but I'm still waiting for a response... >:(
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sorry to hear that. hope it's resolved quickly. keep us updated.
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Just got blocked too with 12k videos and 1,500$ in my portfolio.
I am a full time stock contributor and Adobe is my best earner. I don't work with AI and I have no idea what is going on.
I sent them a message, but I'm still waiting for a response... >:(
did you received any email on why they blocked it?
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this is the email I got;
Hello,
Your account has been blocked for submitting content that violates Adobe Stock submission guidelines, or for activities that violate the Adobe Stock Contributor Terms, on the basis of internal review of your content and account. These content or account activities were found to be incompatible with the Stock Contributor Terms, because they are prohibited under Stock account and submission guidelines, such as submitting offensive content, excessive submissions, content to which you may not own the rights, spam, or other prohibited content or account activity.
For more information on why your account has been blocked, and your appeals options, see the Submission Guidelines.
After I sent them an email they answered;
Your content may be removed, or your account may be deactivated, for not complying with these Account and Content Submission Guidelines.
If your content has been removed, or your account blocked, due to a violation of our Terms (including these Account and Submission Guidelines), and you dispute the decision, you may file an appeal or use an out-of-court dispute resolution option (where applicable in your jurisdiction) by following the process here: https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html (https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html)
I am becoming kind of desperate here. MAT please HELP
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A generic email that gives the contributor no idea at all what the apparently violation is gives them no real clue how to appeal or how to fix it.
Its pretty poor from AS to do that.
If someone is banned they at least deserve to be told exactly what the violation is that triggered it. Not some generic, no-detail email out of a template.
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What exactly did you violated? You need to have some information before you make an appeal. Did you asked them?
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I ask them and got this generic answer. I don't know what else to do.
Does anyone knows how to contact Mat?
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I ask them and got this generic answer. I don't know what else to do.
Does anyone knows how to contact Mat?
I have just sent you a PM.
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Follow the process outlined to you and you should get your account back. When you get it back read the guidelines and go through your account and delete anything that, even if the reviewers accepted it, should not have been accepted. Look for IP infringements, and if your account includes AI, look for AI issues such as extra fingers and other artifacts.
EDIT: I see you don't submit AI so ignore the part above about extra fingers etc :)
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Thank you @Wilm. I sent him a message.
@synthetick "Follow the process outlined to you and you should get your account back"
I hope you are right, but what process outlined to me are you referring to?
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My account was deactivated without any explanation, and it remained locked for 6 weeks without any justification provided for the deactivation. I filled out an appeal form and just waited for a response.A few days after unlocking my account, I discovered that some funds had been deducted from my balance. The lack of communication from Adobe regarding the reasons behind these actions has left me extremely frustrated. What's more concerning is that I'm not the only one who has experienced this issue.
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I'm starting to think that someone with stolen credit cards or abused accounts is working to do massive buy to generate automatic kick off of long time contributors...
BTW I don't know Rod-09 and I don't know nothing about his deactivation-block reason. But it seems to me that several long time contributors are affected, and this is strange ::)
Adobe should absolutely work in more clear process to let contributors know the reason of any blocking
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....Your account has been blocked for submitting content that violates Adobe Stock submission guidelines, or for activities that violate the Adobe Stock Contributor Terms, on the basis of internal review... such as submitting offensive content, excessive submissions, content to which you may not own the rights, spam, or other prohibited content or account activity....
I obviously know nothing about what happened to trigger this account block, but neither do you, which is IMO the problem. For there to be any reasonableness to this process Adobe Stock needs to mirror basic legal principles where they are specific about what violations they accuse you of.
Image numbers (submitted or approved) that violate terms; how many submissions on what days that were "excessive", etc.
Anyone can read the submission guidelines and contributor terms, but that doesn't help a contributor (a) know what they are accused of doing, (b) offer a clarification (such as proof of rights ownership, or (c) remove content where necessary and stay within whatever number of submissions is not "excessive"
This isn't hard.
This isn't the first time this has come up.
I'm 100% behind an agency having the right to close contributor accounts where there are violations of terms of service, but there needs to be a process and it needs to be transparent and fair.
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....Your account has been blocked for submitting content that violates Adobe Stock submission guidelines, or for activities that violate the Adobe Stock Contributor Terms, on the basis of internal review... such as submitting offensive content, excessive submissions, content to which you may not own the rights, spam, or other prohibited content or account activity....
I obviously know nothing about what happened to trigger this account block, but neither do you, which is IMO the problem. For there to be any reasonableness to this process Adobe Stock needs to mirror basic legal principles where they are specific about what violations they accuse you of.
Image numbers (submitted or approved) that violate terms; how many submissions on what days that were "excessive", etc.
Anyone can read the submission guidelines and contributor terms, but that doesn't help a contributor (a) know what they are accused of doing, (b) offer a clarification (such as proof of rights ownership, or (c) remove content where necessary and stay within whatever number of submissions is not "excessive"
This isn't hard.
This isn't the first time this has come up.
I'm 100% behind an agency having the right to close contributor accounts where there are violations of terms of service, but there needs to be a process and it needs to be transparent and fair.
There was one last week on FB that looked the same. A contributor who has been doing it a fair time, no issues. Had a strange "download bomb" one day. He thought it suspicious enough to post on the forum asking "Whats happening here?" AND informed Adobe about it (got no response).
A few days later, email stating his account had been banned with the same generic email as above.
Although most are genuine rule breaks im seeing enough anecdotally to suggest not all are and on top of that, communication from the company is effectively nil with no detail provided to allow you to fix, appeal or even understand.
If you dont know MSG exists and the likes of Matt, outside here, there seems to be no way at all of getting a response.
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This is the stuff of nightmares. When you've been doing this for years (more than a decade) and it's your sole income, hearing this type of thing happen and the response...
"If you don't hear anything within 15 business days (check your spam folder for a reply), send a follow-up inquiry."
Sends a chill down your spine. There would be outrage if employers started suspending staff home without pay with no easy way to find out what they've supposed to have done.
I hope Matt or, another member of staff at Adobe could provide some sort of reassurance or advise of a process that doesn't involve sending an email and hoping someone may get back to you in a few weeks... that level of stress is just cruel for those who are innocent. If you stop someone's income, they should make it a priority to either confirm what that person has done exactly, not a cut and paste reply, giving you a chance to respond.... or, reactivate your portfolio asap if it's deemed to be an error.
I know there must be a stack of dodgy accounts out there but surely there must be a way to protect the innocent as well. This just doesn't sound like the Adobe I've come to know over the years.
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It is very frustrating to keep reading this.
I certainly support agencies to go after fraud and criminals, but so many longterm artists are suddenly cut off from their income.
It has again made me realise that I must put more effort into distributors like BB. At least then the individual account cannot be closed down. Unless you yourself do something bad and BB itself kicks you out.
Also if you write something on the net that company people don't like, nobody can hit an individual delete portfolio button.
I hope the issue for the latest artist affected here gets resolved quickly.
Adobe is my biggest stock agency, the thought criminals can lock me down by abusing credit cards on my port is frightening.
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Proposal @Mat
I know very well how can be difficult in big company to talk from a dept to another, sometimes communication is not easy and, most of the times, the results that departments have to reach is in conflict or, at least, questionable.
My suggestion for Mat, that is a master in communication with contributors, is to kindly ask the legal dept to let him give a look at the few long time contributors involved. I'm quite sure that this is a small number of people, that could have a fastest way to know their problems.
This would be a great step for long time contributors involved.
Quite easy to produce: list of contributors deactivated, in order of lifetime
BTW, I hope not to need this option in the future ;D
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@synthetick "Follow the process outlined to you and you should get your account back"
I hope you are right, but what process outlined to me are you referring to?
They sent you a link to file an appeal.
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The thing that concerns me here is the issue of download bombing causing portfolios to be suspended. This is open to malicious players causing successful contributors to be suspended and lose income .... why is the contributor the one who suffers in the first instance .... these suspension probably have a long term effect on where they appear in the algorithm as well.
I respectfully ask Mat to clarify that this does not happen and that there is a clear protocol in place. The ones who have had suspensions also need clarification that can be communicated so none of the rest of us fall into the same traps. Violations should be easily identified to all of us. No-one likes to have ambiguous reasons given. It is like being arrested because you did something criminal, but they wont tell you what you did, but they are going to put you in jail anyway.
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I find it troubling that contributors are not told reasons.
I find it troubling that Adobe is trying to sell AI software.
I do not use AI and have no intention of doing so even to try it for fun after having to click through a whole new screen with warnings.
Also tired of image rejection for technical reasons when many are bogus-- images accepted everywhere else. That vagueness is concerning when seen next to no reasons for acct blockages. Same vagueness.
I support companies blocking accts that violate terms but less vagueness would be a good thing.
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Really, I can't believe that Adobe closes accounts on the only basis of "passive innocent" violations of terms of service, in case of tier stolen credit cards and download bombing. If no proof that the given contributor participated in any action, how could they legally suspend an account?
They can close an account on their own decision, without giving any reason. If that is the case, then Adobe really falled down.
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Really, I can't believe that Adobe closes accounts on the only basis of "passive innocent" violations of terms of service, in case of tier stolen credit cards and download bombing. If no proof that the given contributor participated in any action, how could they legally suspend an account?
They can close an account on their own decision, without giving any reason. If that is the case, then Adobe really falled down.
The terms and conditions are pretty standard for most agencies - they can terminate at any point they choose for any reason they choose.
However, just because you CAN do something doesnt mean you should. Im wondering if we're seeing the spectra of automated account reviews/suspicious activity flags and automatic termination which then generates a generic email with no human involved in the chain. Id like to hope its not the case but ive got my doubts. As they get swamped with AI and data its very tempting to automate everything from review to account management to avoid needing a lot more staff.
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See the section here about prohibited activities to better understand why Adobe blocks accounts: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html
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See the section here about prohibited activities to better understand why Adobe blocks accounts: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html
That really, really doesn't help a contributor who has been on it for years, has a portfolio of tens of thousands with good sales who suddenly receives a generic email. They have no idea what's changed, what rules are broken OR if its an incorrect decision. And due to the lack of detail they can't realistically appeal or fix it. A huge amount of the guidelines are subjective.
It also doesn't help the "download bomb" things we're seeing lately where something completely out of their control for whatever reason decides to test a stolen card or similar on their account.
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See the section here about prohibited activities to better understand why Adobe blocks accounts: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html
Thanks for sharing this.
These kind of situations should make all contributors review these guidelines and thoroughly go through their portfolio to ensure there is no content that may have gone passed the reviewers and could be in breach of the guidelines.
I will definitely do that this week.
I’m curious. Is this something that happens mostly with AS or does it also happen with SS?
I hope this issue is quickly resolved for you. You’re going through a stressful moment. I empathize with you.
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One week later and I am still blocked. No access at all to my Portfolio and gains.
Mat Hayward didn't respond to my message here.
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Thanks for the update.
Your situation is unbearable.
The block-you-first-then-look-into-your-case way of working is frustrating.
I truly hope it resolves quickly.
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Thanks!
The way they are handling this situation is horrible!
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One week later and I am still blocked. No access at all to my Portfolio and gains.
Mat Hayward didn't respond to my message here.
Don't wait to hear back from Mat.
If you've already filled out an appeal form, just wait for a response. I waited six weeks. I never got a response. I just logged into my account and it was already active.
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update: 3 weeks+ and I am still blocked. No answer from Mat or the Agency...
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update: 3 weeks+ and I am still blocked. No answer from Mat or the Agency...
There's not much more I can say without repeating myself - Adobe should be thoroughly and utterly ashamed of how this process is working. Sorry to hear your situation hasn't been resolved and that you've heard nothing.
Apologies for the repeat, but it is useless to just point to a list of things that aren't allowed when a blocked contributor, especially one with a large portfolio, wants to know what they did wrong. Contributors need to know specifically what they are accused of having done so they can respond.
On top of which the crack inspection team at Adobe Stock apparently accepted the content in the first place, so if the rules aren't 100% clear to the inspectors, why does anyone think they will be to contributors?
Long-term contributors - more than a year with the agency - should be given priority in processing any block procedures. Unless the issue is copyright infringement, a blocked contributor should have access to their accumulated earnings - what rational basis is there for Adobe hanging on to it?
All contributors should remember these incidents whenever they're tempted to wax lyrical about how Adobe Stock is on our side because we're customers as well as contributors.
Off topic, but I can't resist. Here's a doozy in the recently approved genAI content (90+ million and growing).
(https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/08/57/70/59/240_F_857705960_AE0cFZm3nZbFp3h6LHunWBA0vgIuisZg.jpg) (https://stock.adobe.com/images/high-definition-image-depicting-a-man-running-overlaid-with-an-x-ray-of-his-skeleton-showcasing-orthopedic-tech/857705960)
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Thanks Jo Ann Snover. Couldn't agree more with your opinion, you said it all !!!
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update: 3 weeks+ and I am still blocked. No answer from Mat or the Agency...
Off topic, but I can't resist. Here's a doozy in the recently approved genAI content (90+ million and growing).
(https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/08/57/70/59/240_F_857705960_AE0cFZm3nZbFp3h6LHunWBA0vgIuisZg.jpg) (https://stock.adobe.com/images/high-definition-image-depicting-a-man-running-overlaid-with-an-x-ray-of-his-skeleton-showcasing-orthopedic-tech/857705960)
Anatomy redefined! Orthopaedists will be delighted!
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The pelvis, backside is certainly..... different :o
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I find the humerus bone particularly interesting...
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Now it hit me too: Woke up this morning to see me Adobe Contributor account deactivated. No explanation, no email.
I have 4000 assets, mostly photos, all non-AI. Latest upload was 2 photos of a Cannabis-plant and a video of me mowing my lawn. ;D
Curios where this is going, I´ll keep you posted.
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I am so sorry to read this.
It is terrifying.
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Now it hit me too: Woke up this morning to see me Adobe Contributor account deactivated. No explanation, no email.
I have 4000 assets, mostly photos, all non-AI. Latest upload was 2 photos of a Cannabis-plant and a video of me mowing my lawn. ;D
Curios where this is going, I´ll keep you posted.
I'm so sorry this is happening to you.
Mat - you're the contributor liaison still, yes? Why is there no email sent when an account is blocked? That is is the absolute least Adobe could do.
This process is totally, utterly broken - no details given, no timetable for resolution, no opportunity to answer whatever "charges" have come up.
Please, please be an advocate for a fair, transparent, timely process for established contributors who get caught up in this effed-up mess.
It keeps happening. It's obnoxious to treat suppliers with such contempt.
And just to finish with another dig at the broken process of inspecting genAI content at Adobe Stock. Here's a sad attempt to cash in on the Olympics - if it were a correct number of rings in a correct arrangement (https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-rings), it'd have to be editorial use only.
(https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/08/63/08/91/240_F_863089181_bvCv5o2H7ggCJ85MAGqT9luLCj611ai5.jpg) (https://stock.adobe.com/images/beautiful-paris-sunrise-with-eiffel-tower-reflecting-on-calm-seine-river-cityscape-skyline-in-the-background/863089181)
Never mind that the rings are mounted on the Eiffel Tower, not a bridge
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/paris-olympics-organizers-unveil-the-5-olympic-rings-mounted-on-the-eiffel-tower (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/paris-olympics-organizers-unveil-the-5-olympic-rings-mounted-on-the-eiffel-tower)
97+ million genAI images and growing
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Now it hit me too: Woke up this morning to see me Adobe Contributor account deactivated. No explanation, no email.
I have 4000 assets, mostly photos, all non-AI. Latest upload was 2 photos of a Cannabis-plant and a video of me mowing my lawn. ;D
Curios where this is going, I´ll keep you posted.
wooa!
I don't understand why agencies ban contributors without any explanation and even if they give reason, they do not listen to any of your plea.
It hurts to see when many users have asked questions and got no reply.
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Thanks for your support!
Last week I sold 48 photos (all with the same theme) at once to a single customer (I know this, because a few days later the buyer contacted me directly to ask if I have even more photos on the subject), maybe that´s the problem?
Quite ironic: The day after Adobe deactivated my account I got an email, that one of my uploads in the queue (1 photo) has been approved. Hooray.
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On valentines day I sold 16 romantic cards probably to the same buyer. They were all downloaded at the same time with the same price.
We were joking that this was maybe someone with many girlfriends.
If something like this happens now I will be scared!!
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This is a serious issue, if someone is downloading same theme photos in bulk then how can you stop them?
It is something out of your reach and you cannot control this.
Yes, there can be scene where the author can fake download the stuffs but eventually Adobe has to find the solution of such situation.
Banning accounts isn't the right way to handle such cases.
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A good idea is to have report button in our dashboards through which we can report unusual activity in our account.
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Thanks for your support!
Last week I sold 48 photos (all with the same theme) at once to a single customer (I know this, because a few days later the buyer contacted me directly to ask if I have even more photos on the subject), maybe that´s the problem?
Quite ironic: The day after Adobe deactivated my account I got an email, that one of my uploads in the queue (1 photo) has been approved. Hooray.
Yours is an interesting case and I'm sorry to hear about it. When this buyer contacted you, did they seem pretty legit? I'm wondering if they used a stolen credit card.
Anyway, what you need to do is contact Adobe via the link they provided and then you will get the reason for the block.
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On valentines day I sold 16 romantic cards probably to the same buyer. They were all downloaded at the same time with the same price.
We were joking that this was maybe someone with many girlfriends.
If something like this happens now I will be scared!!
no..no...don't be scared of money! :D
I don't think this is a problem,it can happen that you have chain sales,it happens to me sometimes,even small chains with 4/5 similar contents or many more,last year about 100 sales in 30 minutes,something that has never happened before.
I never contact Adobe about unusual activity in my account,simply because it's not my job.
sales come to me!I'm not afraid! :D
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In my case nothing was solved yet. Almost 6weeks blocked already...
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In my case nothing was solved yet. Almost 6weeks blocked already...
That is really horrible.
Adobe is over 80% of my stock income. If they blocked me even for just one week that would be a terrible problem.
Getting blocked for weeks or months?
This really has me living in fear. I am absolutely terrified.
And I don't understand why Adobe is treating their loyal suppliers and business partners this way.
Why can't they have a professional investigation process that at least allows us access to our money.
If in doubt, please work in favor of the loyal longterm contributor???
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Even if I share your way of thinking about loyal long-term contributors,I don't think this is applicable because it would mean favoring contributors to the detriment of others.
Do you want to know what I do if Adobe blocks my account?
I'll take a week off to start,and then I'll go back to producing normally,so when my account is unblocked,I'm ready to send a month's work.
yes,because mine,yours and any account blocked by Adobe is then unblocked in a month or two,unless it is a serious and intentional case.
you should instead be terrified of the digital vampire with a nice face! :D
regarding the blocked money,unfortunately I believe it is part of the procedure,because unfortunately it could be money earned against the terms.
in any case,having your account blocked is certainly not pleasant,I wish all the unfortunate people the best wishes!
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stock is my major income, I simply cannot afford to lose that income.
I also running expenses and investments, I absolutely think it is totally unprofessional and completely unethical the way Adobe treats loyal producers.
The only thing I can do, is literally take away attention from Adobe and spent my major time uploafing elsewhere.
Problem: I really like Adobe.
And all it takes is a professional workflow in communication and investigation in dealing with this issue.
This is one of the largest companies on the planet, why not create a professional way to handling this?
The current system feels like they hate us.
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I,on the other hand,think that if what happened to me with Getty/Istock had happened to you,you would think differently.
is totally unprofessional and completely unethical the way Getty/Istock treats loyal producers,not Adobe.
but you can't know because it hasn't happened to you.
do you know how Adobe works,in your opinion,if there was another way to do this Adobe wouldn't apply it?
If you can't afford to have your account blocked for a month or two on Adobe,you can imagine if I can afford it.
Believe me,it's better this way than Getty's modus operandi.
Unfortunately these are procedures that take time,but at least with Adobe in the end everything is managed and resolved in the right way,just need a little patience.
but as I was saying you don't know the difference,because it didn't happen to you and you don't know it.
It seems serious to you to have your account blocked for a month or two,but there is worse,believe me.
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I got kicked out of SS for not being a fan of the changes - does that count?
istock was basically fair to me. I voluntarily gave up my crown and my Getty contract. And they were kind enough to ask if I was really sure about the latter, because they never take you back if you leave.
But seeing my images abused 1.3 million times and the way they handled it, was too much for me.
Adobe could simply have a very simple customer workflow page.
An email letting you know why you were blocked. A page where you can see how long it will probably take to get your case reviewed.
A professional interface to ask questions etc...
None of that is rocket science and Adobe is a software giant.
They could, very, very easily have a professional workflow.
Also preferential inspections of the case for longtime established producers, the right to still have access to your money while they investigate...
an if in doubt - you are still innocent policy.
If there really was fraudulent money paid out to you, but it was not your fault, it then gets deducted later, similar to when customers give files back with other agencies.
Keep the process as simple, as streamlined and as transparent as possible.
And don't cut off the money until you are sure the producer is actually responsible for the fraud.
Not difficult to do.
You just have to want to do it.
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I don't know if it counts,you got the red card for protesting,I got the red card for nothing,I was just working.
Istock kind?like I said:"digital vampire with a nice face!" :D
an email from Adobe?And what should they tell you if they don't know yet,nothing is sure since the case has just started the procedure.
also seems logical to me to think that there would be no point if everything was too fast and too simple to solve.
All resolved in 48 hours or a week,so who cares about breaking the terms?
Innocent until proven guilty I don't think it applies in this case,I believe it is fairer to also block the money during the verification.
However,Adobe is constantly evolving,so things could change.
as I said,if it happens to me I won't even come here to say anything,I will continue to work and produce,and when they unblock me I will already have content ready to send.
I'm not worried because I follow the rules,and if I make a mistake or something happens outside of my control,I'm more than sure that Adobe will evaluate it in the right way.
It's not pleasant for anyone to go through something like this,but if you don't act intentionally,you only have very short-term consequences,and that's what matters.
then each of us has our own point of view,this is mine.
best wishes to everyone! :)
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Back in the days of Fotolia, there was a forum moderator who was banned for a long time because he had been caught buying his own new images via another account in order to push these images up the rankings. In this case, I think a block is fine.
But: in dubio pro reo! If someone buys a large package of images from a contributor, you can't just block the account. It can't be right that a contributor is punished for something he can't do anything about!
From my point of view, Adobe has to prove that there was fraud.
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Update: I've been blocked for 2 months.
Adobe Stock hasn't responded to me. I've filled out their form twice and haven't heard anything back. I'm starting to think this situation might be permanent.
Adobe was my best earner, and now I'm stuck with only P5 and SS. I won't be able to make a living like this, so I have no other option but to upload to the "all-you-can-download" websites. :-[
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Hello, thank you for updating us. It’s unbelievable that you haven’t received any response from Adobe. This is not how to treat a long time supplier. Have you tried to contact Matt directly or discuss this on Discord?
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That is incredible!
Mat, where are you? can you not do anything to help a longterm contributor?
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Mat, I understand that you may not have the time to review every account ban. However, I hope you have been communicating with key employees at Adobe to ensure that the ban and appeals process is as transparent as possible.
Going eight weeks without a response or an explanation regarding one's ability to defend oneself is excruciating, especially considering that the person depends on Adobe to make a living.
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Update from my blocked account:
No (real) answers from Adobe. Photos and videos ready for upload are piling up on my drives...
This really is f***ed up, the only good thing is that I don´t depend on the money.
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@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered
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@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered
Hi all,
I am not able to provide support through private messages here in MSG. I have communicated this many times in the past and I have shared my direct email. Rod, in your PM you did not share your full name, or your account information. Even if I could provide you with support here, I wouldn't be able to look up your account since you are anonymous in MSG. You can send me an email to [email protected]. I cannot make any promises that I will be able to make any changes, but I will look at your account.
I will never speculate or comment on blocked accounts in a public forum. For anyone else with a blocked account, your first step is to reach out via the contact us form in the contributor portal. When you hear back, be sure to follow the procedures outlined in the communication you receive on how to file a formal appeal.
Thank you,
Mat Hayward
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Thanks, Mat. I hope I will never need to send you an email ;D
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Yes, thank you Mat.
I also hope I never have to send you that email.
At the moment I am basically exclusive with Adobe. I think it is fantastic place for stock producers and also like my earnings.
I especially like how dynamic it is, if you have the right content you can move up really quickly, there is no delay and no barrier.
Don‘t have what is currently popular.. you will drop down fast…but over time you can mitigate that with a larger port and more variety.
I can control what I upload and make sure there is nothing in there with copyright issues.
But I cannot prevent criminals from testing their stolen credit cards on my port.
The idea that I might get cut off through no fault off my own remsins terrifying.
Hope the op can get his port back soon.
But obviously he needs to identify himself.
Again thank you for reaching out, it really helps.
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Thank you so much for your attention Mat.
I Will send you an email then.
cheers
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@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered
Hi all,
I am not able to provide support through private messages here in MSG. I have communicated this many times in the past and I have shared my direct email. Rod, in your PM you did not share your full name, or your account information. Even if I could provide you with support here, I wouldn't be able to look up your account since you are anonymous in MSG. You can send me an email to [email protected]. I cannot make any promises that I will be able to make any changes, but I will look at your account.
I will never speculate or comment on blocked accounts in a public forum. For anyone else with a blocked account, your first step is to reach out via the contact us form in the contributor portal. When you hear back, be sure to follow the procedures outlined in the communication you receive on how to file a formal appeal.
Thank you,
Mat Hayward
Many THANK YOU VERY MUCH :-*
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Guys, I have some bad news. Several authors who were previously blocked due to irregular sales activity have been blocked again. This time, someone bought a large number of images from their portfolios, leading to their accounts being permanently deactivated for violating clause 8.1. This is very unfair, as authors have no control over fraudulent transactions, yet Adobe holds them responsible.
While it is possible that some authors might have exploited this scheme, punishing all authors for the actions of a few is unjust. Perhaps we should write a petition or a collective letter to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Does anyone have any other ideas?
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Guys, I have some bad news. Several authors who were previously blocked due to irregular sales activity have been blocked again. This time, someone bought a large number of images from their portfolios, leading to their accounts being permanently deactivated for violating clause 8.1. This is very unfair, as authors have no control over fraudulent transactions, yet Adobe holds them responsible.
While it is possible that some authors might have exploited this scheme, punishing all authors for the actions of a few is unjust. Perhaps we should write a petition or a collective letter to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Does anyone have any other ideas?
Assume we're reading this, trying to be impartial and want the facts, then decide what's going on, after that.
What proof does anyone have, other than someone saying, they didn't have a scheme to buy their own photos? And got caught! Would anyone say that Adobe just did this, regardless of evidence or that they did investigate?
As for the scary part, what if someone is wiping out competition or getting back at someone, who they don't like, by going to their portfolio and buying only their images. That would be really odd. Who would do that and why?
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Let's suppose that an author with 10 years of experience bought some of their own images and was then blocked by Adobe. After being unblocked, they received a warning from Adobe that next time their portfolio would be permanently blocked.Why would the author risk repeating the same action? I'm not sure, but it looks like eliminating competitors.Any ideas?
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I find this very scary. there is no way a normal producer can protect themselves from criminals testing credit cards on their port.
There are of course people who fall for the scam/promise that they can get rich quick if they hire someone to buy files from them.
However, it is doubtful they would do it again if they were lucky enough to get their ports back.
Transparency is the only solution.
Those affected should probably open their own group or feed documenting what happened to them in great detail and then appeal to Adobe as a group.
What on earth can we producers to do protect ourselves from this very grave risk?
A block can wipe out years of hard work and destroy our income complteley as Adobe is now the dominant agency in the industry.
I am otherwise, very, very happy with Adobe.
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@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered
Hi all,
I am not able to provide support through private messages here in MSG. I have communicated this many times in the past and I have shared my direct email. Rod, in your PM you did not share your full name, or your account information. Even if I could provide you with support here, I wouldn't be able to look up your account since you are anonymous in MSG. You can send me an email to [email protected]. I cannot make any promises that I will be able to make any changes, but I will look at your account.
I will never speculate or comment on blocked accounts in a public forum. For anyone else with a blocked account, your first step is to reach out via the contact us form in the contributor portal. When you hear back, be sure to follow the procedures outlined in the communication you receive on how to file a formal appeal.
Thank you,
Mat Hayward
Hello Mat, I see that you are trying to help some participants here voluntarily, which I find to be great and commendable.
As for me, I don't want help in recovering my account. In fact, the last message I sent them was aggressive, but they deserved it. I just want to know what happened and what is happening with the team responsible for accounts.
Why is Adobe capable of detecting fraud as most people say, or that no account is closed unjustly, but it is unable to provide conclusive evidence to silence the contributor! Why, if we assume that someone suddenly buys many files from my account, would Adobe consider us partners even if one of us is innocent! And if we report the incident in advance, it won't help us! And if they re-activate the account miraculously (with a full profit deduction) and the incident repeats, the account is closed again. Why would someone risk their well-regarded account after years of contributing by tampering with sales! If we say you become greedy, we go back to the beginning, which is why they are unable to provide conclusive evidence... And why did someone from Adobe Artist Relations tell me in one of their replies that there is nothing you can do about suspicious sales! So in this case, anyone can close any account by buying many files from it in a short period either using a fake card or any other method. Not to mention the long time it takes to investigate or get a logical response.
There's definitely something hidden that they can't disclose, unless we consider that the matter is simply that the investigation team cannot definitively determine that this contributor truly violated the terms and manipulated the sales, but they can determine that suspicious sales have occurred in his account and that's it.
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. How can I defend myself against such situations?
Oh, needless to say, of course I don´t get to keep the money for the sales...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account".
Ridiculous.
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I am so relieved that you have your account back.
But you have a severe financial loss because of the criminal activity.
How can we protect ourselves against this abuse?
No other agency does that.
This can even be used to get rid of a competitor for a few months. Just pay someone to download files with a fraudulent card, then happily watch your own sales soar while the competition has been taken out.
Mat,
is there really no other solution?
Do we all have to continue to live in fear?
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
Great news! :)
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. How can I defend myself against such situations?
Oh, needless to say, of course I don´t get to keep the money for the sales...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account".
Ridiculous.
I am happy to see you got your account back.
I still wonder, who's going compensate for the losses he faced in the down-time?
It is hard to see a happy moment of good downloads changed to a moment of fear... when you did nothing wrong.
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. ...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account"....
Happy to hear your account is unblocked.
Adobe's deduction of the "irregularly earned" credits defies logic.
If the activity is something violating the rules, your account should still be blocked. If it doesn't violate the rules, you get the royalties you earned by licensing those items. What reason justifies confiscating contributor earnings like that?
This is really unsettling news for contributors IMO.
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. ...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account"....
Happy to hear your account is unblocked.
Adobe's deduction of the "irregularly earned" credits defies logic.
If the activity is something violating the rules, your account should still be blocked. If it doesn't violate the rules, you get the royalties you earned by licensing those items. What reason justifies confiscating contributor earnings like that?
This is really unsettling news for contributors IMO.
I'm agree, this really seems a nonsense.
Why Adobe don't change this situation, simply deducting the irregular sales without blocking the accounts?
This way anyone will be no more tempted to push irregular sales for himeself, as there would be no money to pick.
At the same time the "regular" contributors with no fault would have their accounts still alive, only with with reasonable deductions, if in case.
I think this is the way in which other agencies do the job, I'm sure that "irregular sales" happen everywhere
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Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.
I'm very pleased to hear that your account has been unblocked - great news!
As I've already had an account block myself... in the coming weeks your sales should recover to a normal level, for me it took about 8-10 weeks to get back to my previous level.
I agree with the others here that blocking an account because of "conspicuous sales" and then unblocking it weeks later is a very unfortunate option.
Here the contributor is condemned before it is proven that he is to blame.
I can understand that the sales may have to be deducted again if, for example, a purchase was made with an invalid credit card, but this direct "pre-judgment" of the contributor is definitely the wrong way to go.
The whole thing creates a new atmosphere of fear - I, for one, look at the screen every day with fear when I log into my AdobeStock account and hope that the account still exists.
The climate in the stock sector is definitely getting rougher and of course we are more and more at the mercy of the rules of the big stock agencies.
Have a nice day,
Michael
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Thank you all for your kind words and empathy! :)
I will post it here if/how/when my sales return. But in the next two weeks I am going to 2 festivals where I will spend the money I haven´t earned! ;D
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I think this is the way in which other agencies do the job, I'm sure that "irregular sales" happen everywhere
This is indeed what is being done industry wide. You simply have money deducted, wether it is a refund because a client gave a file back or if the card used was criminal, we don't get an explanation.
It is simply part of doing business, these things happen.
Nobody would just block a producer from selling for months while "investigating".
I also wonder what do clients say when the content they have lightboxed is suddenly unaivalable?
The blocking must be very intense and wide spread, this group only has some pro producers from the English language speakers.
It is crazy to think that Adobe, a huge gigantic software company, cannot come up with a professional, even elegant workflow, to deal with these issues.
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The blocking must be very intense and wide spread, this group only has some pro producers from the English language speakers.
Account suspensions for irregular sales are already a very common problem. I am not from an English speaking country, and I know to many authors who have been banned for this reason.
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My English is not good enough. So I hope I misunderstood.
Everyone shares their own portfolio pages here. If two people argue about a different topic, and one opens a fake account and buys 50 images from the other's account with his own credit card, is the other's account closed?
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Good question.
If somebody wants to hurt someone it looks like all they have to do is open a fake account, download images and not pay.
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I am glad you got your account back, but the reason why it was blocked in the first place is outrageous.
If you have a portfolio where you have many photos of the same topic, it can happen quite often that customers buy multiple images from you. I don't think the same buyer ever bought 50 images from me at once, but 20 or 30 happens from time to time. A customer might want to build a website about a certain topic, or make a brochure. It's absolutely not far-fetched that a customer might need many images of the same topic and if one contributor offers many of such images in good quality, why not buy it from one user? It might even add some consistancy to the look of your website or brochure to have your images done by the same photographed, thus giving the image the same look.
So banning a contributor because of something like this is ridiculous, even more so for multiple months. If Adobe feels like this was something that needs to be investogated - sure, investigate. But don't deprive people of their income for months when they did absolutely nothing wrong!
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3 weeks ago Adobe Stock deactivated my account and didn't even send me an email explaining the reasons.
I wrote to the support service, but this email received an automatic response.
I was filling out an appeal. No answer again.
I wrote to Mat. His answer was great - You must write to contributor support using the contact us link at the bottom of the Adobe Stock contributor portal. Thx for help :D
3 weeks and I don't even guess the reasons.
How long do you usually wait for a support response?
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Really not liking this. There seems to be no protection at all for contributors. Accounts can be closed with no notice or even information as to why. If contacted there's at best a very delayed response, at worst, no response. There does seem so be a DDOS potential here (and on SS) where activity out of your control by an outsider can get your account blocked, maybe permanently.
Id expect garbage support off SS but Adobe until relatively recently has been a lot better. Now though it seems not.
A blocked account contributor needs to know EXACTLY why its blocked as soon as its happened. Regardless of whether they broke the rules or not. People deserve to know and without delay AND there needs to be a clear procedure and sensible time frame for appeals and resolutions. The ostrich approach is not a good look.
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Hi, I´m just here to report that after reactivation of my Account the sales returned pretty quickly to normal. The problem seems to have been:
- a customer bought around 50 images from me
- this customer even called me and asked if I had more photos on the topic
- he later realized that the photos were editorial, he needed commercial (this I know, he told me later)
- my assumption: He somehow reversed the transaction with Adobe to get his money back
- meanwhile, I had immediately cashed out (like I always do, as soon as I hit the 25 USD limit)
So I assume for Adobe it must have looked like a fraud, which is understandable to a certain point. But deactivating the account for weeks without any clarification is brutal.
Thanks again to all your good wishes and feedback!
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Thank you for letting us know and glad you have your account back.
But the Adobe system is unbelievable. It is not your fault if the buyer made a mistake and bought the wrong license. There is no way you could have known this and it is perfectly fine to cash out.
None of us are safe from this kind of damage.
I don't see anyone else in the industry blocking accounts at a whim and then leaving people without access to their income for weeks.
Very unprofessional.
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Hi, I´m just here to report that after reactivation of my Account the sales returned pretty quickly to normal. The problem seems to have been:
- a customer bought around 50 images from me
- this customer even called me and asked if I had more photos on the topic
- he later realized that the photos were editorial, he needed commercial (this I know, he told me later)
- my assumption: He somehow reversed the transaction with Adobe to get his money back
- meanwhile, I had immediately cashed out (like I always do, as soon as I hit the 25 USD limit)
So I assume for Adobe it must have looked like a fraud, which is understandable to a certain point. But deactivating the account for weeks without any clarification is brutal.
Thanks again to all your good wishes and feedback!
You never participated here, except for this question.
Fraud can exist, nothing proves it was not the case.
Maybe you could tell us more about the topic in question... ::)
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Hi, I´m just here to report that after reactivation of my Account the sales returned pretty quickly to normal. The problem seems to have been:
- a customer bought around 50 images from me
- this customer even called me and asked if I had more photos on the topic
- he later realized that the photos were editorial, he needed commercial (this I know, he told me later)
- my assumption: He somehow reversed the transaction with Adobe to get his money back
- meanwhile, I had immediately cashed out (like I always do, as soon as I hit the 25 USD limit)
So I assume for Adobe it must have looked like a fraud, which is understandable to a certain point. But deactivating the account for weeks without any clarification is brutal.
Thanks again to all your good wishes and feedback!
It just goes to show they can do whatever they please since they don't expect legal repercussions from our side. I don't think they even care about being exposed here. We are just not capable of generating enough bad PR that would be detrimental for their image. It's just the reality of the situation as depressing as it sounds
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Hi, I´m just here to report that after reactivation of my Account the sales returned pretty quickly to normal. The problem seems to have been:
- a customer bought around 50 images from me
- this customer even called me and asked if I had more photos on the topic
- he later realized that the photos were editorial, he needed commercial (this I know, he told me later)
- my assumption: He somehow reversed the transaction with Adobe to get his money back
- meanwhile, I had immediately cashed out (like I always do, as soon as I hit the 25 USD limit)
So I assume for Adobe it must have looked like a fraud, which is understandable to a certain point. But deactivating the account for weeks without any clarification is brutal.
Thanks again to all your good wishes and feedback!
How did the customer get in contact with you? There doesn't seem to be any place to list contact info for your public account, unless I am mistaken and there is somewhere?
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Hi all contributors,
I’m starting a petition against Adobe Stock for their unfair treatment of contributor relations. They’ve removed contributor support from the main website(they send only auto template email), leaving us with only this survey link (https://survey.adobe.com/jfe/form/SV_74fM1z4DvUPyPlk) where no one actually addresses our cases. This situation is unacceptable and may even be illegal.
Matthew Smith, Mat Hayward, and Diego R. Gómez seem to no longer care about contributors. We need to raise our voices—this can happen to any of us! Let’s not stay silent.
Please sign this petition, share, as this can happen to any of us: https://chng.it/Yc2WNkqzvH
I already started daily post on twitter to publicly post about this until my case get reviewed: https://x.com/findrepeatwords/status/1836482552523034817
Let’s come together and address these issues more publicly!
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Recently, my account faced a sudden surge in sales, leading Adobe to block it. More than 2 weeks later, no one has bothered to look into my case (#00284743). I posted on twitter, wrote many emails but no help! Everywhere I received automatic template emails. @Mat Hayward we need you to take care of this, please!
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This is terrible.
There is no way for a contributor to protect themselves from criminals abusing credit cards or other fraud.
Why are contributors punished like this?
Adobe assumes we don't need the money, but we really do!!
They would never withhold the salary of employees while investigating a complex issue.
Why do that with your business partners?
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Isn't the right way is to reverse all the fraud credit card sales instead of banning the author?
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Hi, I´m just here to report that after reactivation of my Account the sales returned pretty quickly to normal. The problem seems to have been:
- a customer bought around 50 images from me
- this customer even called me and asked if I had more photos on the topic
- he later realized that the photos were editorial, he needed commercial (this I know, he told me later)
- my assumption: He somehow reversed the transaction with Adobe to get his money back
- meanwhile, I had immediately cashed out (like I always do, as soon as I hit the 25 USD limit)
So I assume for Adobe it must have looked like a fraud, which is understandable to a certain point. But deactivating the account for weeks without any clarification is brutal.
Thanks again to all your good wishes and feedback!
How did the customer get in contact with you? There doesn't seem to be any place to list contact info for your public account, unless I am mistaken and there is somewhere?
He called me. I use my real name on every platform, if you search the internet you easily find my homepage with my phone number on it.
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My account was blocked a couple of days ago.
>20000 images, over 3000usd of unpaid earnings.
I am not using AI to generate images.
Attempting to contact support
I was given a generic link to information something like "blocked for failure to comply with accepted standards".
How can I understand what exactly I have violated having thousands of images in my profile?
In the body of the informing page I was shown a link leading to information on how to get out of the situation.
I am in the Russia region, so the US site suggested to go to a localized one, but there I did not find a link to appeal form.
The English link gave me: access denied. "You don't have permission to access https://survey.adobe.com/jfe/form/...."
Trying to contact the chat for support did not lead to anything either,
as I was switched three times between operators, each of them asked the same questions and i had to explain my problem from scratch,
eventually all operators left the chat without solving the issue and the session was closed.
Currently i didn't receive any transparent answers from adobe.
It is important to note that i don't support bloodshed and war crimes of my country.
I'm quite shocked and it looks like it will be final breaking point in my microstock history.
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My account was blocked a couple of days ago.
>20000 images, over 3000usd of unpaid earnings.
I am not using AI to generate images.
Attempting to contact support
I was given a generic link to information something like "blocked for failure to comply with accepted standards".
How can I understand what exactly I have violated having thousands of images in my profile?
In the body of the informing page I was shown a link leading to information on how to get out of the situation.
I am in the Russia region, so the US site suggested to go to a localized one, but there I did not find a link to appeal form.
The English link gave me: access denied. "You don't have permission to access https://survey.adobe.com/jfe/form/...."
Trying to contact the chat for support did not lead to anything either,
as I was switched three times between operators, each of them asked the same questions and i had to explain my problem from scratch,
eventually all operators left the chat without solving the issue and the session was closed.
Currently i didn't receive any transparent answers from adobe.
It is important to note that i don't support bloodshed and war crimes of my country.
I'm quite shocked and it looks like it will be final breaking point in my microstock history.
I wonder if its due to Adobe policy of no further sales or services in Russia. Even if it is, they really should tell you the reason.
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I wonder if its due to Adobe policy of no further sales or services in Russia. Even if it is, they really should tell you the reason.
If so, US government and Adobe are targeting wrong focus group. US should kick out all autocratic relatives back to Russia with subsequent seizure of their all US/Europe based property, way more effective. my free hint to them.
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I wonder if its due to Adobe policy of no further sales or services in Russia. Even if it is, they really should tell you the reason.
If so, US government and Adobe are targeting wrong focus group. US should kick out all autocratic relatives back to Russia with subsequent seizure of their all US/Europe based property, way more effective. my free hint to them.
Not really related to Adobe that.
They can have their own policies BUT anyone getting an account suspended for any reason deserves to be told the full, detailed reason as to why. They arent doing that.
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I wonder if its due to Adobe polgetting an account suspended for any reason deserves to be told the full, detailed reason as to why. They arent doing that.
I even haven't received any email notification, although they are claming that they did.
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I received a notification that my account has been deactivated (6 sept) due to a supposed violation of the terms of service. What’s infuriating is that I have absolutely no idea what term I violated. I haven’t uploaded any new content in over six months, and my only activity was completing AI missions that were all approved. To make matters worse, I had over $700 in earnings from these missions, which are now gone.
All the mission content had the required releases, even though the faces in the images weren’t visible. This deactivation feels completely unjustified, especially since I’ve been contributing for nine years and have always followed the rules.
I’ve already sent an email, filed an appeal, and done everything in my power, but the lack of transparency and fairness here is incredibly frustrating.
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I wonder if its due to Adobe polgetting an account suspended for any reason deserves to be told the full, detailed reason as to why. They arent doing that.
I even haven't received any email notification, although they are claming that they did.
Please sign this petition, share, as this can happen to any of us: https://chng.it/Yc2WNkqzvH
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I Will send you an email then.
were you able to restore account? How long does it took?
What was the reason of a ban?
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Well, it finally happened to me. 17 years on microstocks, almost 7 on Adobe, and out of nowhere, Adobe cut me off from my account. On September 16th, I requested a 1k$ payout; I wonder if I will actually receive it since it should have arrived by now. I contacted support, but I don't expect a quick response. I have around 60,000 works in my portfolio, and I haven't uploaded anything new for a long time. I've never dabbled in AI. I'm really sad about how Adobe has treated me.
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We started a petition against Adobe Stock for their unfair treatment of contributor relations. They’ve removed contributor support from the main website (sending only auto template emails), leaving us with only this survey link where no one actually addresses our cases. This situation is unacceptable and may even be illegal. Matthew Smith, Mat Hayward and Diego Gomez seem to no longer care about contributors. We need to raise our voices—this can happen to any of us! Let’s not stay silent.
Please sign this petition, as this can happen to any of us:
https://chng.it/FSNs9KvHyB
Let’s come together and address these issues more publicly!
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UPDATE
I received this response to my email after 5 minutes, and now I don't know what to do. Is it just an automatic message, and should I wait for an official reply, or what should I do?
Your content may be removed, or your account may be deactivated, for not complying with these Account and Content Submission Guidelines.
If your content has been removed, or your account blocked, due to a violation of our Terms (including these Account and Submission Guidelines), and you dispute the decision, you may file an appeal or use an out-of-court dispute resolution option (where applicable in your jurisdiction) by following the process here: https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html (https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html)
Do these online petitions make any sense?
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These are automatic replies, Adobe don't check support emails anymore.
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Eh, great, I contacted Matt via email, wrote to support, and honestly, I don’t know what to do next. I'm curious if I will get the payout I requested 1.5 weeks ago
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[url=http://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html]www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html[/url] ([url]http://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html[/url])
Do these online petitions make any sense?
appeal form is blocked in my country.
adobe is like "shut the #### you misirable #######"
shitterstock petitions lead to nothing, so i highly doubt.
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Eh, great, I contacted Matt via email, wrote to support, and honestly, I don’t know what to do next. I'm curious if I will get the payout I requested 1.5 weeks ago
Payout? People can't even see their money anymore, it reminds me of an autocratic regime.
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I have an update on my case. Apparently, someone bought something from me for 900 credits, and that's why my account was suspended. My account is still blocked, but the case is moving forward.
I remember about 10 years ago on iStock, during Christmas, many people earned a lot of money. Later, it turned out that the money came from stolen cards, and they took the money back from us, but no one thought of suspending contributors' accounts.
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Another Update: I got my account back. It went very smoothly. I’m curious if it’s thanks to Mat and Diego, because I reached out to them, or if support just acted very quickly. Either way, I want to thank everyone for their help. For future reference, for those whose accounts get suspended, remember to use the proper form to contact support. You can use the form that appears on the screen with the message saying your account has been blocked, but you're likely to get an automated response there. Instead, use this link: https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html. (https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html.)
Once again, thanks to everyone!
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I’ve always wondered why contributors get blocked when someone purchases a large number of images. After reading many posts, it seems this is what happens. If someone buys images using a stolen card or commits some other type of fraud, they likely get refunded, and in response, Adobe always blocks the contributor. It seems the default assumption is that the contributor is guilty until proven otherwise, which is concerning—especially when this is a source of income. To make things worse, there appears to be little to no communication about the situation. It seems absurd to me that the average contributor would engage in something like this or am I too naive.
Other agencies must be dealing with similar situations, I haven't heard people being blocked for these reasons though.
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Another Update: I got my account back. Instead, use this link: https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html. (https://www.adobe.com/trust/transparency.html.)
Once again, thanks to everyone!
Glad your case was resolved, i have worse situation, appeal form is blocked for me, so i can't do anything
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I just received an email from Adobe that says, ‘Please note that any activity that artificially increases your sales will result in your account being blocked.
If your account is blocked again for this reason, we reserve the right to terminate your account completely.’ How am I supposed to understand this? Does it mean that this was just a warning? And if someone buys a large quantity of my work again, I will be banned? This sounds absolutely absurd, as if I am the one to blame, when I actually feel like a victim of their system
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I just received an email from Adobe that says, ‘Please note that any activity that artificially increases your sales will result in your account being blocked.
If your account is blocked again for this reason, we reserve the right to terminate your account completely.’ How am I supposed to understand this? Does it mean that this was just a warning? And if someone buys a large quantity of my work again, I will be banned? This sounds absolutely absurd, as if I am the one to blame, when I actually feel like a victim of their system
I can see to an extent why they block that - there is a big market in Pakistan/Bangladesh and a few elsewhere where people are using leftover credits or stolen credentials and offering to "buy" contributors files for a fee to increase their ranking. Its quite a common trade on the FB groups.
Of course the problem is Adobe's method of dealing with this is terrible. Its indiscriminate,inaccurate, slow and often has no communication with the contributor in question to clarify things. There seems to be no intelligence employed as to the accounts history (10 years of steady sales vs 1 month old and 2 sales etc), geographic region or anything else.
Their entire dispute/resolution system is dysfunctional. It no longer works. It no longer has humans in the loop to the extent actual, useful decisions are made. Its all a box ticking script UNLESS you get lucky and manage to reach a person, usually outside the official channels.
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I just received an email from Adobe that says, ‘Please note that any activity that artificially increases your sales will result in your account being blocked.
If your account is blocked again for this reason, we reserve the right to terminate your account completely.’ How am I supposed to understand this? Does it mean that this was just a warning? And if someone buys a large quantity of my work again, I will be banned? This sounds absolutely absurd, as if I am the one to blame, when I actually feel like a victim of their system
I can see to an extent why they block that - there is a big market in Pakistan/Bangladesh and a few elsewhere where people are using leftover credits or stolen credentials and offering to "buy" contributors files for a fee to increase their ranking. Its quite a common trade on the FB groups.
Of course the problem is Adobe's method of dealing with this is terrible. Its indiscriminate,inaccurate, slow and often has no communication with the contributor in question to clarify things. There seems to be no intelligence employed as to the accounts history (10 years of steady sales vs 1 month old and 2 sales etc), geographic region or anything else.
Their entire dispute/resolution system is dysfunctional. It no longer works. It no longer has humans in the loop to the extent actual, useful decisions are made. Its all a box ticking script UNLESS you get lucky and manage to reach a person, usually outside the official channels.
What you said makes sense, but remember there's also the possibility that someone might have simply stolen your work. In my case, my work fell into the wrong hands, I didn't get paid for it, and my account was suspended. I got hit twice, and to top it off, I was told that if someone steals my work again, my account will be permanently deleted. That sounds like a joke
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The Adobe system is crazy.
And they write software, they REALLY have no excuse not to come up with a professional system.
Every other agency is dealing with this problem as well and Adobe is the only one blaming the contributors for fraud.
I find it so terrifying that longterm contributors can be damaged in this way.
eta:
sitting here, processing videos for blackboxglobal
at least if criminals abuse these files, adobe cannot punish me as an individual artist.
to be fearing a random algorithm strike hunting online criminals feel so dystopian, like being in a bad syfy novel.
their machine doesn't know when to stop
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Just sold 10 videos one after the other and while each clip earned only a modest $7.95, given the experiences reported here gets a little worrying.
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i ve managed to reach appeal form page by means of vpn service , otherwise i was shown permission denied error.
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Just sold 10 videos one after the other and while each clip earned only a modest $7.95, given the experiences reported here gets a little worrying.
Yes, I've just seen seven images of same serie sales in a row. That made me happy just few months ago, now it's source of worries until next payment request...
That's insane
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Second deactivation of the account a week after its recovery
Greetings! This is my first post on this forum. I've decided to write about my situation after reading all topics on here and finding no information on such quick repeat deactivation of the account because of the "suspicious activity".
I've been an Adobe Stock author for over seven years. I only upload photos of animals (I am an animal photographer from Ukraine), mostly photos of dogs and cats. On August 23rd I've failed to log into my author account and saw a notice of its deactivation. I immediately contacted support through the "Contact us" link and later submitted an appeal as well. Also, I've started to search for information on the Internet and found out that it's possible to contact Matt (he didn't answer).
I've waited a whole month for an answer and, finally, on September 27th I received a letter saying that my account is active again and that it was previously blocked due to suspicious activity (obviously, I haven't done anything like that). However, a week before the deactivation someone bought from me lots of photos amounting to $169 in just one day, which was, indeed, weird, because I've never experienced something like this.
Delighted, I've submitted new photos for review, and requested a payout (the last payment that was shut down during the deactivation. The sum was around $300. Those peculiar $169 were still on my Adobe account).
Then, on October 4th, just when I should've received the payout, I received a notice of deactivation due to suspicious activity once again. Again, i didn't do anything. I've just submitted new photos for review and requested to receive the pre-deactivation money. A week before the deactivation I've only sold $27-worth of photos, which is a standard sum for my account.
What happens next? Will I wait for a month again just for my account to be deactivated while trying to withdraw money? Matt didn't answer my previous letters, therefore, I'm not sure if I should be writing him again.
Another deactivation just added insult to injury. I am quite sure that I didn't break any rules, I've been working with Adobe Stock for seven years and never had any issues before.
Moreover, Adobe buys my photos every year for their collections.
Has anyone's account been deactivated this fast before? If so - do you have any thoughts on what might be the issue here?
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Second deactivation of the account a week after its recovery
Greetings! This is my first post on this forum. I've decided to write about my situation after reading all topics on here and finding no information on such quick repeat deactivation of the account because of the "suspicious activity".
I've been an Adobe Stock author for over seven years. I only upload photos of animals (I am an animal photographer from Ukraine), mostly photos of dogs and cats. On August 23rd I've failed to log into my author account and saw a notice of its deactivation. I immediately contacted support through the "Contact us" link and later submitted an appeal as well. Also, I've started to search for information on the Internet and found out that it's possible to contact Matt (he didn't answer).
I've waited a whole month for an answer and, finally, on September 27th I received a letter saying that my account is active again and that it was previously blocked due to suspicious activity (obviously, I haven't done anything like that). However, a week before the deactivation someone bought from me lots of photos amounting to $169 in just one day, which was, indeed, weird, because I've never experienced something like this.
Delighted, I've submitted new photos for review, and requested a payout (the last payment that was shut down during the deactivation. The sum was around $300. Those peculiar $169 were still on my Adobe account).
Then, on October 4th, just when I should've received the payout, I received a notice of deactivation due to suspicious activity once again. Again, i didn't do anything. I've just submitted new photos for review and requested to receive the pre-deactivation money. A week before the deactivation I've only sold $27-worth of photos, which is a standard sum for my account.
What happens next? Will I wait for a month again just for my account to be deactivated while trying to withdraw money? Matt didn't answer my previous letters, therefore, I'm not sure if I should be writing him again.
Another deactivation just added insult to injury. I am quite sure that I didn't break any rules, I've been working with Adobe Stock for seven years and never had any issues before.
Moreover, Adobe buys my photos every year for their collections.
Has anyone's account been deactivated this fast before? If so - do you have any thoughts on what might be the issue here?
kindda scary... the appeal process should be fair and fast. Adobe needs to rethink of their policies.
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So scary that reliable producers are at the mercy of this dystopian hunter killer software algorithm.
And Adobe offers no compensation if you are wrongly accused. Many people live off their stock income.
We are being punished while the criminals just start using the next stolen credit card.
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One option would be to prevent withdrawing money during the investigation, but not block the account. If the investigation reveals anything against the rules, then close the account permanently.
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Guilty until proven innocent is unfair.
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Colleagues, sign the petition for justice on Adobe. This can affect everyone
https://chng.it/sTrpgnnQZQ
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hello everyone, my account was blocked two weeks ago without any reasonable reason. There was $2,000 left in the account. my profile is about 10 years old and I have always tried to follow adobe's rules. support does not respond or respond in any way. please sign the petition, perhaps thanks to it we will be able to influence the attitude towards the authors in Adobe Stock.
https://www.change.org/adobeblockaccount (https://www.change.org/adobeblockaccount)
https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-contributors-discussions/account-de-activated/td-p/14906008/page/2#M89921 (https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-contributors-discussions/account-de-activated/td-p/14906008/page/2#M89921) there was my discussion here, you can also like it
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I read your story in adobe forum. As I understand your account was blocked because you used some elements in your pictures which copyrights doesn't belong to you? Is it correct? Do you know which pictures and elements cause you all these problems? Or atleast you have in mind which pics could it be?
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a day earlier, I received an email notification that some of my photos had been deleted (although they had been checked and posted on Adobe Stock for 5 years for sure). the very next day, my account was blocked. I don't understand what exactly could have been violated and if their policy for accepting content has changed, why didn't they inform the authors about it. anyway, I hope I've earned a second chance to work with Adobe Stock. (I still haven't been unblocked and have filed an appeal).
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Hello everyone,
I'm hoping for advice from the community and, ideally, a response from an Adobe representative. I'm a long-time Adobe Stock contributor of about 10 years, and during that time, I've built a large portfolio: over 50,000 footage clips and 50,000 AI images.
"Dear contributor, your Adobe Stock contributor account has been de-activated. Please see your email for more information or Contact us."
In mid-March 2025, my account was deactivated for reasons related to Generative AI guidelines. Since then, I have used every official channel available to make contact: I submitted an appeal form, wrote several times via the 'Contact Us' form and directly to [email protected], and also reached out through live chat and Facebook.
It has now been over three months, and the only result of my inquiries has been automated emails with case numbers. I have received no response, no explanation of the specific issues — just complete silence.
I am absolutely ready to correct any possible violations to have my account restored, but it's impossible without any feedback. The constant waiting and uncertainty are incredibly frustrating.
I would like to ask a few questions to the community and, hopefully, to the Adobe team members who are surely present on this forum:
1. Has anyone else experienced this complete lack of communication from Adobe Support recently? I understand the team may be busy, but a three-month wait for a single response seems excessive.
2. For those who eventually got a resolution after a long wait: what communication channel was most effective for you? Did follow-up inquiries help, or was it just a matter of patience? I feel that waiting over three months is just too long.
3. Is there an Adobe team representative here who could potentially influence my case and expedite its review? This waiting is becoming maddening.
I have seen mentions of Mat Hayward in older threads and also emailed him, but I believe this may no longer be a viable contact.
I would be grateful for any shared experiences or advice. It's tough to be in this limbo, especially after a 10-year productive partnership. We, the contributors, are an integral part of Adobe Stock, and I believe we deserve more transparent communication and a more loyal attitude, as we are all one team.
Thank you for your time.
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50,000 AI images.
You are not the owner of these generated images.
Adobe doesn't need you, so what's the problem?
You played, you lost, end of story.
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I've built a large portfolio: over 50,000 footage clips and 50,000 AI images.
:o :o :o
I sympathize. You probably haven't read this forum, it was written here that Adobe often bans authors for content created by AI. Perhaps you needed to create a second account for this, but I don't remember if it is done on Adobe.
50,000 videos is a lot of work.
If Adobe doesn't respond, it means it is ignoring you. Try writing to the new Adobe representative here, but he is some kind of bot.
I sympathize with your grief. Maybe you will be unblocked. Read people's stories.
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@RomanStock, have you tried through their discord channel?
https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/join-the-adobe-stock-community-at-our-new-discord-channel/ (https://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/join-the-adobe-stock-community-at-our-new-discord-channel/)
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I sympathize. You probably haven't read this forum... Try writing to the new Adobe representative here, but he is some kind of bot... I sympathize with your grief. Maybe you will be unblocked.
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, it's a lot of work, and the silence from Adobe is the most difficult part.
You mentioned a "new Adobe representative here" that is "some kind of bot." Could you please clarify who you mean or provide a link to their profile? At this point, I'm willing to try any contact that might get a response. Thank you for the suggestion.
@RomanStock, have you tried through their discord channel?
Thank you for the suggestion! I did recently join the Discord channel and posted there as well. The advice from the community and moderators there was that account blockage issues are not discussed publicly due to server rules. Have you or anyone you know had success getting a response through that channel recently? I'm trying to explore every possible avenue.
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I sympathize. You probably haven't read this forum... Try writing to the new Adobe representative here, but he is some kind of bot... I sympathize with your grief. Maybe you will be unblocked.
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, it's a lot of work, and the silence from Adobe is the most difficult part.
You mentioned a "new Adobe representative here" that is "some kind of bot." Could you please clarify who you mean or provide a link to their profile? At this point, I'm willing to try any contact that might get a response. Thank you for the suggestion.
@RomanStock, have you tried through their discord channel?
Thank you for the suggestion! I did recently join the Discord channel and posted there as well. The advice from the community and moderators there was that account blockage issues are not discussed publicly due to server rules. Have you or anyone you know had success getting a response through that channel recently? I'm trying to explore every possible avenue.
https://www.microstockgroup.com/profile/?u=150165 (https://www.microstockgroup.com/profile/?u=150165)
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What do you think the reason might be why you had account issues? I suppose you probably have a feeling/idea of what happened?
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I just received a similar mail yesterday night and my account has been deactivated. I have some 3k assets, photos videos only, no AI work.
Has anyone been able to suceed with the account re-activation in the past? What is the process you followed?
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I just received a similar mail yesterday night and my account has been deactivated. I have some 3k assets, photos videos only, no AI work.
Has anyone been able to suceed with the account re-activation in the past? What is the process you followed?
Is the work your own & original? Have you tried to game the system at all?
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All my own work, no gaming at all. No AI use at all. All shot and edited by me painstakingly over the years.
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Thank you all for your replies and insights.
@stoker2014 - Thank you for providing the link to the official Adobe representative profile. I checked it out: unfortunately, they don't seem to accept direct messages, and all the links in their profile lead back to the same 'Contact Us' form on the official website, which, in my experience, has not yielded any results. Nevertheless, I appreciate you pointing them out.
@Rage - I'm truly sorry to hear you're in the same situation. It's incredibly frustrating.
What do you think the reason might be why you had account issues? I suppose you probably have a feeling/idea of what happened?
@SuperPhoto - To answer your question about the possible reason: the deactivation notice mentioned a violation of Generative AI guidelines. Shortly before that, I had simultaneously uploaded a large batch of AI images for review that had accumulated over several months of work. It's possible the system flagged this as spam, which led to the deactivation. I am more than willing to address and rectify any issues, but it's impossible without any feedback. An interesting fact is that even after the deactivation, I continued to receive emails for about a month with notifications of accepted or rejected work, which adds to the confusion.
Another question I would like to ask for @Adobe Stock Contributor Relations: By assigning case numbers to my inquiries, Adobe officially acknowledges receiving them. In most business practices and legal frameworks, a company has a duty to respond to official user inquiries, especially regarding serious matters like account deactivation. A complete silence for over three months seems to fall short of this obligation. This feels less like a delay and more like a deliberate decision to ignore, which I believe is not a normal practice, especially towards a 10-year partner.
I've seen in this forum thread that people previously had success reaching out to Mat Hayward, but he seems to be inactive now. I also emailed him, but there was no response. Are there any other contacts or staff members one can reach out to for help? Or is the only option really to just sit and wait for months?
Any advice or shared experience would be very valuable.
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Thank you all for your replies and insights.
@stoker2014 - Thank you for providing the link to the official Adobe representative profile. I checked it out: unfortunately, they don't seem to accept direct messages, and all the links in their profile lead back to the same 'Contact Us' form on the official website, which, in my experience, has not yielded any results. Nevertheless, I appreciate you pointing them out.
@Rage - I'm truly sorry to hear you're in the same situation. It's incredibly frustrating.
What do you think the reason might be why you had account issues? I suppose you probably have a feeling/idea of what happened?
@SuperPhoto - To answer your question about the possible reason: the deactivation notice mentioned a violation of Generative AI guidelines. Shortly before that, I had simultaneously uploaded a large batch of AI images for review that had accumulated over several months of work. It's possible the system flagged this as spam, which led to the deactivation. I am more than willing to address and rectify any issues, but it's impossible without any feedback. An interesting fact is that even after the deactivation, I continued to receive emails for about a month with notifications of accepted or rejected work, which adds to the confusion.
Another question I would like to ask for @Adobe Stock Contributor Relations: By assigning case numbers to my inquiries, Adobe officially acknowledges receiving them. In most business practices and legal frameworks, a company has a duty to respond to official user inquiries, especially regarding serious matters like account deactivation. A complete silence for over three months seems to fall short of this obligation. This feels less like a delay and more like a deliberate decision to ignore, which I believe is not a normal practice, especially towards a 10-year partner.
I've seen in this forum thread that people previously had success reaching out to Mat Hayward, but he seems to be inactive now. I also emailed him, but there was no response. Are there any other contacts or staff members one can reach out to for help? Or is the only option really to just sit and wait for months?
Any advice or shared experience would be very valuable.
Re-reading this... "50k" AI images... Even though I know what I'm doing, that... is a fair amount, to do accurately. (Did you do 'ai footage' as well, or was it just the images?)
What kind of quality control did you do, or did you just churn out as much as you could as fast as possible? Assuming you (probably like many with that volume) didn't have good quality control - so you either have an excessive number of IP issues (i.e. "statue of liberty"), or - significant keywording issues (i.e. you have say a picture of an orange with totally unrelated keywords like "race car, building", etc, etc...
That, I suspect is probably what triggered it...
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Re-reading this... "50k" AI images... Even though I know what I'm doing, that... is a fair amount, to do accurately. (Did you do 'ai footage' as well, or was it just the images?)
What kind of quality control did you do, or did you just churn out as much as you could as fast as possible? Assuming you (probably like many with that volume) didn't have good quality control - so you either have an excessive number of IP issues (i.e. "statue of liberty"), or - significant keywording issues (i.e. you have say a picture of an orange with totally unrelated keywords like "race car, building", etc, etc...
That, I suspect is probably what triggered it...
In response to your question — yes, in addition to approximately 50,000 AI-generated images, my portfolio also included around 1,500 AI-generated videos. It was a significant and meticulous effort — both in terms of generation and proper attribution. Of course, I understand that not everything can be perfect, but based on my own assessment, about 95% of all uploaded AI assets were correctly and conscientiously prepared.
As for similars — yes, they may have occurred. When working with such a high volume of content, it’s challenging to create something entirely unique every single time. Still, I did my best to maintain variety. After all, that’s what the moderation team is for — to filter out excess and approve only what meets the standards. Adobe and contributors like myself are in this together — we both care about quality and consistent revenue. I fully understand that moderation takes resources, but it should be a two-way process. And if there are any issues, we contributors are ready to adjust, improve, and grow.
Regarding IP concerns — given the scale of my portfolio, the risk should be minimal. If there were any violations, they were likely rare and unintentional. I always did my best to avoid problematic or risky content.
Additionally, I don’t understand why — if the issue is suspected to be with AI content — the entire account was deactivated. Why not just temporarily disable the AI-generated assets pending review, instead of removing access to an entire portfolio of 50,000+ video footages that were created with years of effort and dedication? That kind of action feels extremely disproportionate, especially for someone who has been contributing for over 10 years.
What concerns me the most, however, is the complete lack of communication. It feels like a sign of disrespect toward the contributors — the very people who generate the content that powers this platform. We’re in the same boat. When problems arise, the logical path is to discuss them, find solutions, and improve the system — not to simply deactivate accounts without explanation or ignore official support requests submitted through the proper channels (which were even assigned case numbers). Waiting over three months for a response is simply not acceptable.
Is there anyone from the Adobe team actually reading this forum?
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It is very frustrating to read, cannot imagine what the experience is like.
Perhaps post a link to the discussion here to many adobe forums and groups.
Then perhaps this can be a cemtral place for people with this problem.
From cross reading it serms to take several months to get a reply.
The most important you can do is to aggressively build up your ports on other agencies.
Don‘t be dependent on one place.
I hope you get your port back.
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It is very frustrating to read, cannot imagine what the experience is like.
Perhaps post a link to the discussion here to many adobe forums and groups.
Then perhaps this can be a cemtral place for people with this problem.
From cross reading it serms to take several months to get a reply.
The most important you can do is to aggressively build up your ports on other agencies.
Don‘t be dependent on one place.
I hope you get your port back.
Despite the rules, I still shared my situation on the official Adobe Discord channel (even though discussing account issues there is not allowed). Community members were sympathetic and advised me to wait, but I never received any response from official Adobe representatives.
I also created a topic on the official forum at community.adobe.com — and the same thing happened: users expressed support, but no one from Adobe responded. In fact, no one can do anything except suggest to "just wait."
From what I’ve found online, many contributors are experiencing similar issues. Some receive responses within a few days, others wait for months. Some get their accounts reinstated, while others are ignored entirely. A few have been able to get help via the online customer support chat. I’ve also tried that, and I’ve sent messages to Adobe’s official Facebook page. Each time, I was politely told that my case would be forwarded to the appropriate department for expedited review. But months have passed — and nothing has changed.
This state of uncertainty is emotionally draining and financially difficult. I do have portfolios on other platforms, but Adobe Stock has always been my main source of income. Its suspension has hit me hard. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that a company as large as Adobe would allow support delays like this. Isn’t three months enough time to at least provide an official response?
I sincerely hope someone from Adobe sees this post — or that other contributors who’ve faced similar issues find it online and can offer advice or point me in the right direction. Maybe someone can share direct contact information for an Adobe Stock representative who can help move my case forward.
If a support case has been officially registered, then the company is obligated to respond. I truly hope that will still happen.
Adobe representatives, are you here? Please get in touch with me.
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If 95% of the assets were properly prepared that means >2500 were not. That is a lot of improper assets.
I certainly would welcome Adobe cleaning up the worst of the AI slop, but just closing accounts without proper communication is a poor move, and from a quick look at search it doesn't seem like they are really cleaning things up. They really need to do a better job of communicating what they are doing and what they want from us.
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I'm interested in uploading AI content to Adobe but I've always been apprehensive in case it gets flagged for whatever reason. Even one AI generated photo could be enough to put your account in danger, so I always end up asking myself if it's really worth the risk.
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It also affects people who have no ai in their ports. If criminals abuse your port to test stolen credit cards and you have unusual volume of downloads, your port can be blocked as well.
Because in addition to testing credit cards, some creators now "book" a downloading service to buy their files and thus promote their portfolio.
So, you are under suspicion, it could be a criminal testing cards, it could be you ordering from a download service...
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Re-reading this... "50k" AI images... Even though I know what I'm doing, that... is a fair amount, to do accurately. (Did you do 'ai footage' as well, or was it just the images?)
What kind of quality control did you do, or did you just churn out as much as you could as fast as possible? Assuming you (probably like many with that volume) didn't have good quality control - so you either have an excessive number of IP issues (i.e. "statue of liberty"), or - significant keywording issues (i.e. you have say a picture of an orange with totally unrelated keywords like "race car, building", etc, etc...
That, I suspect is probably what triggered it...
In response to your question — yes, in addition to approximately 50,000 AI-generated images, my portfolio also included around 1,500 AI-generated videos. It was a significant and meticulous effort — both in terms of generation and proper attribution. Of course, I understand that not everything can be perfect, but based on my own assessment, about 95% of all uploaded AI assets were correctly and conscientiously prepared.
As for similars — yes, they may have occurred. When working with such a high volume of content, it’s challenging to create something entirely unique every single time. Still, I did my best to maintain variety. After all, that’s what the moderation team is for — to filter out excess and approve only what meets the standards. Adobe and contributors like myself are in this together — we both care about quality and consistent revenue. I fully understand that moderation takes resources, but it should be a two-way process. And if there are any issues, we contributors are ready to adjust, improve, and grow.
Regarding IP concerns — given the scale of my portfolio, the risk should be minimal. If there were any violations, they were likely rare and unintentional. I always did my best to avoid problematic or risky content.
Additionally, I don’t understand why — if the issue is suspected to be with AI content — the entire account was deactivated. Why not just temporarily disable the AI-generated assets pending review, instead of removing access to an entire portfolio of 50,000+ video footages that were created with years of effort and dedication? That kind of action feels extremely disproportionate, especially for someone who has been contributing for over 10 years.
What concerns me the most, however, is the complete lack of communication. It feels like a sign of disrespect toward the contributors — the very people who generate the content that powers this platform. We’re in the same boat. When problems arise, the logical path is to discuss them, find solutions, and improve the system — not to simply deactivate accounts without explanation or ignore official support requests submitted through the proper channels (which were even assigned case numbers). Waiting over three months for a response is simply not acceptable.
Is there anyone from the Adobe team actually reading this forum?
Well, in this case... I suspect that might be it then. 5% is just waaay too high. While yes, I totally agree deactivating the entire port is very harsh (and I think there should be better communication) - from their side, they don't know if 5%, 15% 25%, etc of your assets are misleading/inaccurate/wrong/etc, etc... And if they notice a certain pattern if you skipping certain quality control aspects, I can understand it. Better to deactivate things now and figure things out later - than spend months with a contributor "getting around" to trying to fix their portfolio, etc.
Even though I would love to outsource certain aspects of the "AI" generation process (because it is VERY timeconsuming, boring, and just in general not a 'fun' aspect of the image/video creation process), or - skip certain aspects of it, when preparing "ai" assets, I
a) I personally review EVERY single "generated" title, "generated" keywords, etc when/if using "ai" generated meta data, in detail
b) I personally review EVERY single asset, whether an image or video (including watching the ENTIRE generated videos, no matter how many I have)
BECAUSE I personally do that - for EVERY single asset, what I have found is...
a) Even midjourney (for images), or various video generation services - they do generate nude images/videos.
b) They will generate "IP" protected assets (i.e., statue of liberty, some famous painting, an identical/recognizable actor/actress/etc/etc).
c) The keyword generation tools generate gibberish, significant irrevelant or inaccurate data, or "keyword stuff"
d) The "keyword generation" tools will "skip" things/assign them incorrectly. (I.e., say you have a picture of a basketball, then a car. It will "mix up" results and assign the "car" keywords to the basketball, and the "basketball" keywords to the "car").
e) They "do" include "signatures" in the images/videos. (Because the "ai" is based off of MASSIVE theft, when they "train" the "ai" - they basiclaly steal, and then resell stolen assets).
So - if you were churning out as much as you could - without personally reviewing IN DETAIL, EVERY single asset... you most likely inadvertently have stuff like "Disney's Snow white & the Seven Dwarves" types of assets (both using trademarked terms in the title, the keywords, etc - as well as having actual generated assets like that), or any of the issues I mentioned above.
You know what you did wrong. You took shortcuts, you were hoping to get away with... But - you got caught, and now you are upset.
While I don't personally agree with deactivating an "entire" port for contributors that DO review EVERY single asset to make sure it follows 'their rules' in 'their playground', and I do believe there should be better communication... For contributors that take shortcuts and have a blatant/obvious and excessive pattern of various infringements, I can totally understand it. Obviously you've exceeded some internal threshold of what they deem to be "taking shortcuts" - and that is what most likely tripped it.
BECAUSE you "don't" know if it is "95%", "85%", "75%", etc - that is the issue right there. Obviously you didn't personally review every asset, and you took shortcuts to speed things up. (And if you are only guessing that "95%" was good, then 5% of 50,000 - means that you have 2500 image assets that are 'risque', inaccurate, IP violations, etc - and 5% of 1500 means that 75 videos that are risque, inaccurate, IP violations, etc.
Those are pretty high 'violation' numbers.
While yes, the moderation team is there to make sure assets meet certain standards (in itself a different topic, because sometimes I think certain members only feel like approving a certain %, so randomly approve/don't approve certain assets)... it's not really their job to make sure you didn't simply spam the crap out of things and skip certain QC elements. (Especially when you are not the only one playing the spam-all-you can game, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of east indian and arabic spammers trying to spam the crap out of things - so they don't really have time to figure out in detail 'who' is 'following their rules', and who isn't - so it's just much easier to deactivate ports that have consistent, blatant infringements. And again, "5%" of 50,000 is a VERY high number.
While of course extremely upsetting (I totally understand that) - while you are waiting - I would start going through your assets and looking for things like that, maybe start fixing things. Chances are you'll find its a pretty high number.
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So how long does it take and what all steps are needed apart from the mail and the two forms (from what i remember)