DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

AEM Asset Selector: ‘Upload Failed’ error when importing PDF assets

Last update: October 8, 2026

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Asset Selector may return an Upload Failed error when importing specific PDF assets. This issue occurs when the PDF contains corrupted or invalid metadata, preventing successful import through AEM Asset Selector, even though the asset remains visible and selectable. To resolve the issue, re-upload the PDF asset to regenerate its metadata and verify that the import succeeds.

Description description

Environment

  • Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), all versions
  • AEM Asset Selector integrated with a third-party content management platform

Issue/Symptoms

  • Importing a specific PDF asset using AEM Asset Selector fails with an Upload Failed error.
  • Other PDF assets import successfully.
  • The problematic PDF is visible and selectable in AEM and the Asset Selector UI.
  • No meaningful client-side errors appear in the browser console or network logs during the failed import.
  • AEM logs show only informational entries, with no explicit error messages or stack traces related to the failure.
  • The problematic PDF displays unusual metadata (for example, the document title appears as a font name), suggesting possible file corruption or malformed metadata.
  • Re-uploading the same PDF file resolves the issue and allows successful import.

Root cause

The original PDF asset contained corrupted or invalid metadata, which prevented successful import via the AEM Asset Selector. Re-uploading the file regenerated the metadata and resolved the issue.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

  1. Re-upload the problematic PDF asset to the AEM folder linked with the Asset Selector integration.
  2. Retry the import operation through the Asset Selector in the third-party content management platform.
  3. If the asset imports successfully, the issue was likely caused by corruption or invalid metadata in the original PDF file.
  4. For future occurrences, inspect the PDF metadata for anomalies (such as unexpected titles or font names) using a PDF editor or metadata inspection tool.
  5. If re-uploading does not resolve the issue, collect AEM-side logs and client-side browser logs for further investigation.
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