Shutterstock: why your photos show "Needs attention" (and how to fix it)
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- 2praline
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Needs attentionFood and Drink ✓
You upload your photos to Shutterstock via FTP, with a proper description and keywords, and they appear in your portfolio flagged "Needs attention". It's not a problem with the photos: they're missing their categories.
Why it happens
Shutterstock reads the description and keywords from the file (IPTC), but not the categories. Without at least one category, it won't let you submit the photo for review. There are two ways to add them: by hand, one by one, or with a CSV.
The fast way: its CSV
- Prepare a CSV with these columns, in this order: Filename, Description, Keywords, Categories, Illustration, Mature Content, Editorial.
- In Categories, put one or two categories using the exact name from its list (for example "Food and Drink", not "Food & drinks"). If the name doesn't match, it isn't applied.
- In Illustration, Mature Content and Editorial, "Yes" or "No".
- On Shutterstock, go to your portfolio, "Not submitted" tab, and click Upload CSV.
- Reload the page. The photos move from "Needs attention" to ready to submit, with their categories.
- Review them and click Submit. Uploading via FTP doesn't send them to review: you do that.
Still flagged? Almost always the filename in the CSV doesn't exactly match the uploaded photo, or the page hasn't been reloaded.
Other reasons for "Needs attention"
- Editorial photos without the right caption: "City, Country - Month D, YYYY: description".
- Recognisable people without a model release attached (upload it in the web editor, not via FTP).
- AI-generated images: Shutterstock doesn't accept them from contributors.
How Tagvora makes it easy
Tagvora picks the Shutterstock categories with AI, uploads the photos via FTP and builds the CSV with just what you've uploaded, using the exact category names. Upload it in "Not submitted", reload, done.
More guides
- Keywords for Adobe Stock and Shutterstock: what's different
- How to upload to iStock / Getty Images with ESP without losing keywords
- What each stock agency requires in 2026: the table
- How to upload photos to several stock agencies at once
- Alamy: captions, tags and supertags, step by step
- Dreamstime by FTP: how to set categories with its CSV
- 123RF by FTP: no title and the “Upload Via FTP” step
- AI keywording tools for stock photographers (2026)
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