Understanding and managing launch paths with numerical suffixes in AEM as a Cloud Service

Last update: Mon Mar 02 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Launch paths in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) sometimes end with numerical values, which can cause confusion during cleanup operations. These numerical suffixes are automatically added by AEM to ensure unique node names when multiple launches share the same base name. This article explains why these paths are created and provides steps for identifying and safely deleting them.

Description description

Environment

Product: AEM as a Cloud Service - Sites
Constraints: Launches console toolbar may be missing if the threshold of launches is exceeded

Issue/Symptoms

Multiple launch paths appear under /content/launches/ with identical base names but different numerical suffixes (for example …12052025, …120520250, …120520251).
The launches console toolbar may not be visible due to a large number of launches, making manual cleanup necessary.

Resolution resolution

Understand that launch nodes with numerical suffixes are separate entities created by AEM to maintain unique names when launches or copies use the same base name.
Confirm that these launch nodes are associated with the same project and were likely generated by repeated creation or copying actions.
On AEMaaCS Stage/Prod, use the Repository Browser (Developer Console) to navigate to /content/launches/YYYY/MM/DD/<launch-name> and inspect suspicious launch nodes’ properties (cq:launchSource, jcr:created, jcr:createdBy), then delete confirmed bad launches on author via curl using an OAuth access token, for example: curl -i -X DELETE -H "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" "https://author-p<program-id>-e<env-id>.adobeaemcloud.com/<path-to-launch-node>", where the token is obtained as described in Generating Access Tokens for Server-Side APIs.
Verify that only content under /content/launches/... is deleted; live content under /content/... remains unaffected.

Notes

Deleting a launch node removes only its content from /content/launches; it doesn’t impact live site content.
If the Launches console toolbar is unavailable due to exceeding the threshold of launches, CRXDE can be used for inspection and management.
It is recommended to test deletion steps in a lower environment before performing them in production.

recommendation-more-help