Copying DAM images from one AEM to another in AEM

We should be very careful when packaging up DAM assets and moving them from one AEM instance to another,  because the package install on the target system will delete anything, from the folder on the target system, which is not in the package.  This would also automatically trigger a deactivation of those images from the publish servers (assuming the target is an author). 

Below are some recommended methods.


Step 1 - retrieve the images safely

Login to CRX Content Explorer of the originating system (in this case the AEM Publish)

Create a 'safe' folder in the CRX repository at /tmp/images2copy_safe

Copy the image nodes from their original location in to the 'safe' folder.

Login to CRX Package Manager of the originating system

Create a new package called "images2copy" with the filter of the 'safe' folder /tmp/images2copy_safe

Build the package

Download the package



Step 2 - upload, install and move the images in the author

Login to CRX Package Manager of the target system (in this case the AEM Author)

Upload the package "images2copy" to the target system

Test install the package - check that it will store the images in /tmp/images2copy_safe and NOT in /content/dam/...

Install the package

Login to CRX Content Explorer of the target system

Move each of the image nodes from the 'safe' folder /tmp/images2copy_safe to their correct location in the DAM /content/dam/...

Verify that you can access each image via the DAM Admin interface



Clean up

Delete the "images2copy" package from the publish server

Delete the "images2copy" package from the author server

Delete the "/tmp/images2copy_safe" node from the publish server

Delete the "/tmp/images2copy_safe" node from the author server

Finally, share the list of images with the content team and ask them to activate them or de-activate them as appropriate.