DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

Hide and safely delete large DAM folders in Adobe Experience Manager

Last update: October 19, 2026

This article explains how to hide a large DAM folder from the Assets UI and later remove its contents while limiting performance impact. The source procedure uses a Boolean hidden property and a Cloud Manager pipeline; confirm that the property is supported for the Assets UI in your target environment before applying it. To address the deletion task, validate the folder-visibility change in Development, promote the change after validation, and use AEM’s asynchronous deletion job for large folder operations.

Description description

Environment

  • Adobe Experience Manager Assets as a Cloud Service
  • Large DAM folders managed through the Assets UI

Issue/Symptoms

  • Applying broad deny permissions to a large DAM folder degrades performance because AEM must evaluate access control across the folder subtree.
  • Deleting a large folder or its contents in one operation slows the system or makes the operation difficult to complete.
  • You need to hide a folder from the Assets UI before deleting its contents.

Cause

Broad deny permissions increase access-control evaluation across a large subtree. A single large deletion also creates a resource-intensive operation. The source’s proposed hidden property is intended to hide a folder from the Assets UI without changing repository access; confirm this behavior for the target Assets UI before using it. Hiding the folder doesn’t restrict access to the repository content.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to address the issue:

  1. Identify the exact DAM folder to hide, such as /content/dam/<folder>.

  2. Add a RepoInit statement for the target folder path:

    code language-none 
    set properties on /content/dam/<folder>
  set boolean hidden true
end

  3. Confirm that hidden is stored as a Boolean property, not as the string "true". The hidden property changes folder visibility in the Assets UI; it doesn’t change repository permissions or prevent access to the content.

  4. Add the RepoInit configuration to your project source code and deploy it to a Development environment using the Cloud Manager pipeline.

  5. In the Assets UI, open the parent folder and confirm that the target folder is no longer displayed. Verify that other DAM folders and integrations continue to work.

  6. After validating the change in Development, promote it to Stage and Production.

  7. When you’re ready to delete the folder, use the Assets UI’s delete operation. For folder operations involving more than 150 assets, AEM as a Cloud Service processes the operation asynchronously in batches. Schedule the job for an off-peak period if appropriate, and monitor its progress in Assets > Jobs.

  8. If the large deletion fails or leaves assets behind, refresh the Assets view to check what was removed. Delete remaining assets in smaller batches of 100–200 at a time. After deleting the assets, remove the now-empty folder.

  9. If the assets are published, verify the expected Publish result before starting a separate bulk-unpublish operation. The source notes that separate bulk unpublishing might not be required, but confirm the behavior for your environment before relying on it.

  10. To make the folder visible again, deploy a RepoInit change that sets the target folder’s hidden property to false.

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