An AEM asset disappears from Author but remains public

A vanished Author asset is not proof that its public copy vanished. Adobe’s support guidance describes ghost files left on Publish when assets are deleted on Author without first being unpublished. A recent community request asks for a guard against this class of mistake. The operational question is whether the public URL is still serving a file.

Check both sides of the deletion

Record the asset path, its public URL, Publish state, and any CDN cache behavior before taking action. Test the URL without an authenticated session. If the file remains, distinguish a Publish copy from a cached response before choosing a purge or cleanup path.

Make unpublish a controlled prerequisite

For assets that have been published, require an explicit unpublish step and confirmation before Author deletion. Give editors a visible warning when the asset is referenced by live pages or downstream systems. Rehearse the sequence in a lower environment using the same asset type and delivery path.

Treat cleanup as a narrow recovery

If a ghost file already exists, follow Adobe’s documented recovery sequence for the exact path. Avoid broad repository deletion or cache invalidation as a substitute for identifying the surviving layer. Close the incident only after the unauthenticated URL and dependent pages have been checked.

Adovo’s view

Deletion is a distribution event. A content team owns the copies it created, even when the authoring record is gone. The reliable control is a verified unpublish path and a public URL check, not confidence in the delete button.