A practical workflow for moving your digital assets to Stockpress.

TL;DR

Most teams moving to Stockpress already have a Digital Asset Management system.

That means the hard part is already done: your files are already centralized… somewhere.

The migration is really about moving those assets into a system your team will prefer using day to day.

This guide walks through the practical steps teams follow when moving from an existing DAM into Stockpress — whether you run the migration yourself or work with the Stockpress team on our Premium tier.

In short:

  • Your existing DAM already holds the files and metadata your team relies on
  • Stockpress becomes the new home where those assets are easier to organize, search, and share
  • The process is about structure, metadata, access, and adoption — not starting from scratch

The Stockpress DAM Migration Workflow

A typical migration looks like this:

  • Export metadata with unique file ID’s from your existing DAM.
  • Create your Custom Tag Categories and Custom Fields
  • Create Collections
  • UUpload or Import Files into Stockpress*
  • Add Tags File by File, or in Bulk
  • Review AI Tags & Apply Facial Recognition
  • Detect Duplicates & Merge or Delete them
  • Create Teams & Roles, and Add Users
  • Assign Access & You’re All Set!

* Where an export, or API is available.

Step 1: Export your metadata and file IDs from your current DAM

Start by exporting the metadata and file IDs from your current platform. We can help you navigate this.

Most DAM systems allow administrators to export metadata, along with the all-important unique file ID. This is what allows the files and metadata to be reconciled correctly on import.

Exports usually come in one of two forms:

  • CSV
  • API

If you’re using Stockpress Premium migration, our team will work with you to retrieve and prepare these exports.

If you are running the migration yourself, you’ll be downloading your assets and then uploading them into Stockpress when you are ready.

Step 2: Decide what should move first

One of the most useful steps is deciding what actually needs to migrate now.

Many DAMs contain years of assets.

Most teams start by prioritizing:

  • Brand assets
  • Active campaigns
  • Product imagery
  • Templates
  • Frequently reused content

Older material can be archived or moved later.

This approach keeps the new Stockpress workspace focused and easier for teams to adopt, while you work out what you want to bring into Stockpress next.

Step 3: Create your Custom Tag Categories and Custom Fields

Before uploading or importing your assets, you’ll want to define the Custom Tag Categories and Custom Fields your team will use to organize the tags, links, and descriptions that make files easier to find later.

In Stockpress, tags are organized into Custom Tag Categories. These are simply groups that keep related tags together.

For example:

  • Campaign
  • Year
  • Region
  • Content Type
  • Product

Inside each category you add the tags themselves, such as:

  • Campaign → Spring Launch, Black Friday
  • Content Type → Social, Web, Presentation

Stockpress also supports Custom Fields, which are useful for structured information that should stay consistent across assets.

Common examples include:

  • Usage rights
  • Client
  • Product SKU
  • Links to product data

If you’re using Stockpress Premium, we can work with you to create your Custom Tag Categories and Custom Fields so we can map your existing metadata to the files in your new Stockpress workspace.

Step 4: Agree your Collection structure

Before uploading or importing files, it’s a great idea to map out and then create your Collection structure.

Unlike many other DAMs, Stockpress allows you to build a unique structure of Collections in Collections, which adds a layer of organization similar to a folder structure, but without the endless duplication of files.

A typical Collection structure might look like:

  • Brand
  • Campaigns
  • Products
  • Events
  • Locations

Inside each Collection you can create sub-collections if needed.

For example:

  • Campaigns
    • 2026 Launch
    • Q1 Campaign
    • Q2 Campaign

When thinking about your Collection structure, it’s important to think like your users and, where possible, keep things simple. Complex setups that work for admins but not for users often get ignored.

If you’re using Stockpress Premium migration, the Stockpress team can help design your Collection structure with you.

Step 5: Import or upload files into Stockpress

Now begin importing or uploading your assets.

Teams can import and upload everything all together, because it’s often easier to organize things, tag them, and move them around in Stockpress than in an older platform.

Stockpress supports:

  • Migration from CSVs and APIs
  • Drag-and-drop uploads
  • File and folder imports from platforms like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive
  • Guest uploads from non-workspace users

This allows teams to preserve structure while gradually improving organization.

Step 6: Map or add your metadata

If you’re using Premium, we will work with you to determine the most effective way to map your files. If you are migrating from an existing DAM with us, we will often be able to pull the metadata along with the files, via the unique file IDs, straight into Stockpress.

If you are adding the metadata yourself into Stockpress, it’s easy to bulk tag assets together once you’ve created your Custom Tag Categories and Custom Fields.

Stockpress also generates AI-powered tags, which typically supports the depth of tags on image files in particular.

Step 7: Review AI tagging and Facial Recognition

Once files are imported, Stockpress begins automatically analyzing them.

The platform can generate:

  • AI-generated tags on images
  • Facial Recognition, where you can tag a person once and Stockpress will find the other assets they appear in

Teams can review these suggestions, edit them as needed, and even block those they are never likely to use.

This dramatically speeds up file organization and improves your users’ ability to find what they are looking for quickly.

Step 8: Detect and remove duplicates

Older DAM libraries almost always contain duplicates.

The same file may exist:

  • In multiple campaigns
  • Across multiple Collections
  • With slightly different names

Stockpress includes duplicate detection that highlights these files so teams can consolidate them.

Cleaning up duplicates as part of your migration process is important because it reduces the amount of storage you need, as well as the confusion over which version of a file is the correct one.

Step 9: Create teams, invite users, and set up roles

The easiest way to think about this is:

Users and teams determine what people can see.
Roles determine what they can do.

So once your Collection structure is in place, start bringing your users and teams into the workspace.

Typical teams include:

  • Marketing
  • Creative
  • Brand
  • Sales
  • External partners

Users can be grouped into teams so access to files and Collections can be managed easily.

This is also the moment many organizations see the biggest change: more people start using the DAM because the system is simpler. And don’t forget — you aren’t charged per user, or per team, so you can add as many as you want without incurring any more cost.

Finally, define who can access content and what they can do with it.

A typical setup looks like:

  • User — suitable for most standard team members
  • Manager — useful for people who need to add information to files and somewhat oversee the workspace
  • Admin — for the people who need to do everything in the workspace
  • Custom Roles — for when members of your teams need to perform very specific tasks on files and Collections

Like your users and teams, you can create as many Custom Roles as you like without paying any more.

Two ways teams complete this workflow

Every Stockpress migration follows the same basic process.

The difference is who runs the steps.

Option 1: Self-migration

Many teams handle the migration internally.

This usually works best when:

  • The asset library is relatively small
  • The team has time to organize files
  • The existing DAM export is straightforward

Stockpress is designed to make this process easy through:

  • Drag-and-drop uploads
  • Bulk tagging
  • AI tagging assistance
  • Duplicate detection

Option 2: Premium migration with the Stockpress team

For larger DAM libraries, many organizations choose to use the Stockpress Premium migration service.

This allows the Stockpress team to assist with:

  • Exporting files from the old DAM
  • Preparing file imports
  • Designing Collection structures
  • Mapping metadata and tags
  • Identifying duplicates
  • Structuring the new workspace

This approach minimizes disruption and helps teams start with a well-organized library immediately.

What a successful migration looks like

When the process is complete, teams typically end up with:

  • A cleaner asset library
  • Simpler organization
  • Faster search
  • Easier sharing
  • Higher adoption across the team

Instead of a system managed by a few people, the DAM becomes something the whole team uses.

The real goal of switching DAMs

Migrating from one DAM to another isn’t really about moving files.

It’s about creating a system where:

  • People know where things live
  • Search works properly
  • Teams reuse assets instead of recreating them
  • Brand consistency improves

Stockpress was built by people who had spent years working with creative assets themselves.

The goal was simple: create a DAM that teams would actually enjoy using.