Reusing a file on more than one post
You can put the same file on as many posts as you like. Nothing is copied and nothing is re-uploaded — Add from Vault attaches the file you already have.
The one rule is that a file cannot be public in one place and locked in another. Every post that carries a given file has to protect it the same way.
”This asset is already used at a different protection level”
The full message is:
This asset is already used at a different protection level. Attach a separate asset (for example a cropped or watermarked teaser) instead of reusing this one.
In the composer it reads “One of these files is already attached somewhere with different visibility.”
You get this when you try to use one file as a free teaser on one post and as locked content on another — for example the same photo public on an Everyone post and locked on a pay-per-view post.
This is a protection, not a technicality. Once a file is public on any visible post, it is fetchable wherever it is attached. If EVVA allowed both, the paid copy of that photo would be reachable by anyone who found the free one — your paywall would be open and nothing would say so.
What to do: make a second file for the teaser. Crop it, shrink it, mark it up — anything that makes it a different upload. Use that as the public one and keep the original for the post you are selling.
”Attached with a different gating”
A closely related refusal, when you try to re-attach a file to the same post with the opposite public/locked setting:
This asset is already attached to this item with a different gating, and attach does not change gating. To change it, detach the asset from every item that shares it, then attach it again with the gating you want.
Attaching never changes an existing file’s protection. The composer’s own hint says the same thing from the other side: “Applies to items you add from now on — to change it for media already attached, remove it and add it again.”
A price change can be refused for the same reason
Putting a price on a post changes how its files must be protected. If one of those files is public elsewhere, the price change is refused with the same protection-level message rather than being applied. Detach the shared file, or replace it with a separate one, then set the price. See Pricing a pay-per-view post.
”Asset is referenced and cannot be deleted”
Deleting a file from your library is refused while anything still points at it — a post, a message, an access a fan has been given, or your profile. The refusal lists the references so you can see what is holding it.
What to do: detach it everywhere first, then delete it. The vault’s usage view lists where a file is used, one kind of use at a time, so you can work through them.
Once accepted, a delete is marked immediately and the stored file is cleared up afterwards. Asking twice is harmless — a repeated delete is the same outcome, not an error.
A file that is not yours, and a file that does not exist, both answer “Asset not found”. That is deliberate, so nobody can go fishing for other people’s files.
Archiving a file does not affect your posts
An archived file is still live and still served. Archiving only hides it from the default view of your vault — it is tidying, not removal.
This is worth stating because the opposite would be the intuitive guess. If archiving blocked delivery, tidying your library would silently break posts you had already published.
Albums and tags in the vault
Albums and tags group files, not posts, and filtering your vault by either is how you find a file again once you have a lot of them. Grouping posts is a different thing — that is a collection, described in Pricing a pay-per-view post.