What Are The Common Errors Encountered In The Media Library?

Assets (DAM)

Last updated: Jan-09-2026

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Common Media Library Errors
Common Media Explorer Error

The Media Library (DAM) and Media Explorer (Programmable Media) are the two main ways to navigate and manage Folders and Assets within your Cloudinary product environment.

Sometimes, things might not go as expected when using these tools. Here are the common errors encountered:

Common Media Library Errors

Downloaded folder does not contain all the files

You can select the files or folders that you want to download using our Media Library and click "Download" which will add them to a ZIP file and download it to your computer. This is subject to restrictions, a maximum of 1000 files in each ZIP, and each ZIP must be below (the larger of) 100 MB or the 'raw' file size limit of your account.

"No preview available" upon opening the file In the Media Library

The preview is available for Images, Videos, and PDFs. Raw files like docx, ppt, xlsx, etc. would not have previews except for PDF because it is generally uploaded as an Image.

Note

There are some cases where previews are not available for large videos. Please contact support if this occurs.

Not able to Delete a Folder

From the Media Library, you can only delete folders with up to 1000 total assets. You will be prompted with an option to use the Bulk Delete feature. Please make sure to type in the folder you need to delete.

More information on ways to delete assets from Cloudinary: Delete Assets

Cannot Rename an asset

'' is reserved by the backup system. Use a different asset name or folder.

The error implies that you have a backup system that holds the public_id. The file was previously uploaded and then deleted, but since you have a backup, we still hold the file in case you want to recover it. So, effectively, you can't reupload an asset with the same name and instead, you should:

Restore the file
Upload the new asset with the same public_id to let the system know you are creating a new version of this file. If you are using an upload API, please indicate the overwrite:true parameter.

Here is the guideline to restore backed-up assets from either the Media Library UI or the Admin API: Restoring deleted assets from backup

Access denied to Media Library/Media Library Widget

Your account might not have the entitlement to access the Media Library. Please contact support.

Sharing Asset/Collection option is missing

In the Media Library, users have the capability to share assets and create / share collections. However, these features are not enabled by default for people with Media Library User roles.

The account admin can enable this by modifying the user permissions.

Navigate to Settings > User Management
Edit the user
Select the necessary permissions

Downloading of zip files not unzipping on Windows

Some characters are disallowed in file names for Windows. Because of this, when the zip is opened up via Explorer, Windows doesn't know how to handle the file, and so it simply doesn't show it. There are third-party tools such as WinRAR or 7zip that have mechanisms in place to extract these files while still honoring Windows' naming conventions.