Remove orphaned assets in Adobe Experience Manager Assets
This article explains how to identify and remove orphaned assets in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets, including steps for users with and without administrative permissions.
Description description
Environment
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) - Assets
Issue/Symptoms
- You find assets in AEM Assets that are no longer referenced by any pages, projects, or workflows.
- You notice unused assets accumulating over time and consuming repository storage.
- You find it more difficult to manage your asset library because obsolete assets remain available.
- You cannot delete identified orphaned assets because you do not have the required permissions or tools.
Resolution resolution
To remove orphaned assets in AEM Assets, follow these steps:
- Compile a list of asset paths that you suspect are orphaned by reviewing asset usage or running custom queries, if available.
- Validate that the assets are orphaned by using AEM asset reference tools, custom queries, or available search and reporting features to confirm that the assets are not referenced by any content, projects, or workflows.
- Delete the validated orphaned assets by using AEM bulk delete functionality or CRXDE Lite, if you have sufficient permissions. Before deleting the assets, verify that the deletion will not affect any dependent processes or users.
- Prepare a list of the validated orphaned asset paths and submit it to your AEM administrator or support team if you do not have the required permissions or tools to perform the deletion yourself.
- Verify that the assets have been removed by searching for the asset paths in AEM Assets or reviewing storage usage after the deletion is complete.
recommendation-more-help
experience-cloud-kcs-help-kbarticles