DAM audit checklist

A digital asset management library gets worse slowly. Nobody uploads a duplicate on purpose, and nobody decides to let a photo licence expire while the image stays in the brand portal. Each problem is small when it happens. After a year, people search, get poor results, and go back to asking a colleague for the file.

An audit is a scheduled check for these problems. This checklist covers the seven areas worth reviewing, what to look for in each, and how often. Each item says where to find the answer in freedam. In another DAM, look for the equivalent report.

If you are still setting up your library, start with how to implement a DAM and the metadata best practices. Come back to this list once the library has been in use for a quarter.

How often to audit

Split the work into a short quarterly review and a full yearly one.

A quarterly review takes one person half a day in a library of tens of thousands of assets. The yearly review needs the library owner, someone from legal or rights, and one or two heavy users.

1. Unused and duplicate assets

Assets that nobody opens make search results longer without making them better.

• Find unused assets. List assets older than a set number of days that have had no views, downloads or shares, and are not in any collection. In freedam, the Orphan Assets page applies these conditions and exports the list as CSV for review.
• Find duplicates. Look for exact copies and near-identical images, such as the same photo exported at two sizes. The Duplicate Scan groups exact and visually similar files and lets you keep one per group.
• Check superseded files. When a newer version of a logo, packshot or document exists, the old one should be stored as a version of the new asset, not as a separate asset that still shows in search.
• Review the trash. Deleted assets wait in the Trash so they can be restored. freedam removes them for good after 30 days, so check the trash at least once a month for files deleted by mistake.

Do not delete in bulk without a second person checking the list. An asset with no downloads can still be the only copy of an archive image.

2. Metadata quality

Search and filters only work as well as the metadata behind them.

• Find required fields left empty. Pick your three or four most important fields (asset type, product, campaign, usage rights) and search for assets where each field is empty. In freedam, build an advanced filter with the Is Empty operator on the field, then fix the results with bulk metadata editing.
• Merge duplicate terms. Check each controlled vocabulary for terms that mean the same thing, such as "Spring 2026" and "SS26". In freedam, use Merge into… on the Vocabularies page: every asset that used the old term moves to the term you keep.
• Spot-check AI metadata. Open 20 recent assets and read their generated tags and descriptions. Correct the wrong ones by hand. If assets keep landing in the wrong asset class, improve the class descriptions: freedam passes them to the AI when it tags assets automatically.
• Check text found in images. Search for a product name or code that you know only appears inside images. If those images do not come back, check their resolution (see the OCR check).
• Remove fields nobody fills in. In the yearly review, list fields that are empty on most assets. A field that nobody uses after a year should be removed or made automatic.

3. Search

Failed searches show what people need and cannot find.

• Read the zero-result searches. Each term is either a missing asset, a missing synonym, or a spelling your metadata does not use. In freedam, the Search tab of Analytics lists them.
• Read the rescued searches. These found nothing at first and returned results only through a fallback (typo correction, prefix or partial match). They point to names and terms missing from your metadata.
• Check the click-through rate. A falling rate means people see results but do not find what they want in them.
• Add the missing terms. Add synonyms or vocabulary terms for the frequent failures, then search for them again to confirm.

4. Rights and licences

This is the area where a missed check has a legal cost.

• List licences that expire in the next 90 days. Decide for each one whether to renew it or remove the assets. In freedam, the Rights page filters policies by Expiring Soon and Expired.
• Check that expired assets have left circulation. Search the brand portal, public collections and active share links for assets whose rights have ended.
• Check embargoed assets. Confirm that assets with a future release date are not visible to people outside the project.
• Review blocked and acknowledged downloads. The Rights Logs record each rights decision and download, which helps when you need to show that a restriction was applied.
• Check model and property releases. For images of people, confirm that consent records still cover the uses you allow.

5. Users, roles and shares

Access drifts as people change jobs, agencies finish projects, and links are forwarded.

• Deactivate inactive accounts. Sort the Users table by Last Login and deactivate accounts not used for several months, starting with external users.
• Set expiry dates for external users. Agency and freelancer accounts should have an expiry date that matches the contract.
• Clean up share links. On the Public Shares page, filter for links inactive for 30 days or more and revoke the ones that are no longer needed. Give the remaining external links an expiry date.
• Review roles and groups. In the yearly review, check who holds administrator rights and whether each user group still matches a team.
• Review integrations. Revoke API tokens that no integration uses any more, and check which AI assistants connect through the MCP server.
• Check the public portal. If you run a public DAM, sign out and browse it as a visitor to confirm what it shows.

6. Usage

Usage figures tell you what to produce more of and what to stop maintaining.

• List the most-used assets. Check that they are current, correctly tagged and available in the formats people download.
• List the trending assets. A rising asset is often tied to a campaign, and it is worth adding to the portal homepage or a featured collection.
• Check the download formats. If most people download originals when a web-ready copy would do, add or promote that format.
• Check stale collections. Archive collections tied to finished campaigns so they stop appearing in navigation.

In freedam, these figures are on the Content tab of Analytics.

7. Storage and system

• Check the storage trend. Compare growth with the previous quarter. A sudden jump usually comes from a bulk import or duplicate uploads. The Sustainability page shows storage, bandwidth and their estimated CO₂ footprint.
• Check failed background operations. Imports, bulk edits and AI processing that failed leave assets incomplete. In freedam, the System Health page lists them.
• Confirm your backup and retention policy. In the yearly review, confirm that backups cover what your organization requires and that a restore has been tested. freedam's backups page describes what is backed up and how restores are tested.

Record the results

Write down three things after each audit:

1. The figures you checked (unused assets, duplicates, empty required fields, zero-result rate, expiring licences, inactive users), so the next audit can compare.
2. What you changed.
3. What needs a decision from someone else, with a name and a date.

Most items on this list are reports you read, not work you do by hand. A library with automatic tagging, vocabularies and expiry dates on rights and accounts gives a short audit. A library that relies on people remembering gives a long one.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a DAM audit take?

A quarterly review takes about half a day for one person in a library of tens of thousands of assets, if the DAM provides the reports listed here. A yearly review takes one to two days spread over a few weeks, because rights and access decisions need other people.

Who should run the DAM audit?

The DAM owner or librarian runs it. Rights questions go to legal or whoever manages licences, and access questions go to the managers of the teams concerned.

Should we delete assets that have never been downloaded?

Not automatically. Review the list first: archive material, legal records and the only copy of an older campaign may never be downloaded and still need to be kept. Delete what is clearly obsolete, and move the rest out of everyday search.

What is the most important part of a DAM audit?

Rights and licences, because an asset used after its licence has expired creates a legal cost. Search comes second, because failed searches are the main reason people stop using a DAM.