How can I bulk upload images for product import?

[albshop]

I have read you upload them into files directory?

Or you just upload them to your server and then use the path in excel files when you import the products?

[Allan · Accepted solution]

Hey, there!

Jason here from Shopify Support.

You're on the right track. There're two ways you can upload the images files in bulk.

The first method is through the Shopify admin > Settings > Files. Once there, click on Upload files on the top right corner, then you'll be able to upload the image files directly from your device to your admin. You can then use the images while you set up your store/product. For more detailed information, here's a helpful document going through how to upload image files to your store.

The second method is through a CSV file. The key to make sure that the files upload correctly is to follow the CSV format accurately. Here's a great document going over what content is required for each field. I've attached a sample template for you so you can take a look and make sure your Excel file complies with the format. If you wish to use the CSV method, the image files need to be uploaded to a publicly accessible URL first. This can be from the links you received after you use the first method or any cloud services, such as DropBox and Google Drive. Keep in mind the server needs to be at a decent speed. Otherwise, there's a chance you'll get timeout while importing the file resulting in import failure.

If you run into any issues, or if I misunderstood what you're hoping to set up, feel free to reply back here and I'd be happy to help out!

All the best,
Jason

[James_TGP]

I've tried this many times - but dropbox is a horrible place to host images.

In fact, you need a place that allows you to keep a 'fixed' or 'static' link - not one that is scrambled upon upload. (It's a safety thing, so I get it)

When you upload something into dropbox, youll see the 'image URL link' to be something like...

dropbox.com/jhfkjhdsf9734rsfndsfg/image_file_name.jpg

That middle part is what makes it impossible if you're uploading a ton of images.

Ultimately what you want is an image host that allows you to have static URLs like "dropbox.com/folder_name/image_file_name.jpg"

This way it is predictable, and you can change that in bulk in excel. 

[JHS]

Do you have any sample csv files for importing multiple images? That is, my products all have multiple images.

Also, when adding multiple image url's to the csv file, does the upper image become the 'main' image ? 

[James_TGP]

Each product equates to a new row in the CSV.

However if you have additional variants or images for the same product, they too will have a new row.

So if you have a product with multiple images, the first row will be the main product info, and will be the main image.

In order to add additional images, create a new row and copy and paste the handle. Skip to the IMG SRC column and add the image URL. That will result in the second image....

Keep following the same procedure to add additional images.

[JHS]

It's all good ( in a way ) now.

I exported the products I had listed and used the .csv as a cheat sheet.

Abysmal luck with images. Correct format but the import kept failing

when one of the images couldn't be fetched before time out.

I have read that this is a common problem.

They are buried under 4 layers of folders so maybe I can put a copy of

the folder at the root of my current web site to speed things up ( maybe ).

[JHS]

I have placed all my images in a 'shopify' folder at the root of a non-SSL site

but still getting 'time out' when trying to import just 1 product 😞

If I upload all my images to shopify how could I easily access them when adding to a product ?

I have over 500 products.

Current location

http://www.mydomain.com/shopify/__57__4__qw5n-sr.jpg

There is no product identifier in the string so finding it would be ordinarily involve

far too many steps per product.

[Wenzu]

Hello, Just to confirm  understood you well...
So if I got a product with multiple images, i fill in the whole template for the first row and then i just copy and paste the handle and insert the other image links in the image src column under each other, leaving all the rest of columns empty?

Thank you in advance

[Oz_Barron]

The bulk image upload isn't working for me, and I"m not sure why. 

I have a series of items that share an image, so I'm trying to upload an image that's common to all of them, in addition to the image that is different among each one. the primary image is there. So I exported the group of images to a csv. I used google sheets as requested (Though I prefer Open Office, but I got error messages). 

I uploaded the image into shopify files, and put that image URL into the spreadsheet in the image source field

If I have all the fields populated for both images, the import shows no errors, but the secondary image, that I"ve put as Image position 2, does not get added to the item. No error, just no image.

If I put only the header and the image link info, I get errors and it won't import.

I've tried it by importing the images for only one item, and when it imports, there's still no second image and no error.

I must be missing something. I've gone over all the csv info and the bulk import info, but I"m stumped.

I am pretty proficient with CSV files and database imports and exports. I assume this works as it seems others have had success, I'm just seeming to be missing something. And yes, the theme supports multiple images, but they're not showing up in the item card.

I'll take any hints or tips you have.

Thanks, Oz

[BaseCampWA]

Hi @James_TGP 
Surely there is now a better way to upload more than one image per product rather than having to keep adding new rows.
This makes it super difficult when you are importing for a second time and you have to ensure you keep the row below it just to keep all the images with it and if you get it wrong you end up with 100's of products with only one image.
Thanks

[StitchShop]

If you have a Mac, use this.

You can download a demo.

Name your files, match your SKUs and hit upload!

https://www.diagram.one/image-uploader-for-shopify

[connektiv8]

Too bad I have 5000 SKUs to do and every application I've ever used has one row per record, with images in separate columns, not rows...

So I guess if I sit there and do 50 SKUs manually per day, of which there's four images per SKU, it will only take me around four months to format my data so I can import all my images... 

Would be far easier if there was some kind of mapping tool like applications such as Microsoft Mail had back in the 1990s... (it's not like the technology doesn't exist to allow you to map fields one-to-one to enable far more flexibility)... seems pretty short-sighted about what customers want in an admin system for an e-commerce business...

Any recommendations of how to get around this?

[kgrammer]

Search Google for Bucket Lynx.  It allows you to upload your image files to buckets, then will auto-populate excel files for bulk uploading Shopify images.

[madhikar]

Hi,

You need to position your multiple images in sequencing manner in 'Image Position' field. The 'Variant Image' field will have single image URL and 'Image Src' will have multiple image URLs with sequencing.

[danielpretorius]

Hi @madhikar 

You can do this rather easily with Airtable. Airtable natively supports the loading of images from a file on your computer or via URL. You can either manage your images via a separate table (useful for specifying alt tags and the order of your images) or using our Power Images functionality that embeds images right into your product/variant tables. Read more about how to manage your Shopify Images with Airtable and also how to bulk update your Shopify data in general.

[tresorsstrand]

Can you send a sample of this coding?

Jennifer

[StitchShop]

What are you referring to Jennifer?

[StitchShop]

Shopify SKU Image Uploader

If anyone is interested in my Shopify Photo Upload tool, for a short time i am offering it free and looking for beta-testers. It is specifically for matching SKUs/Barcodes with images.

Please read about the product here:

https://www.notion.so/jc2020/SKUpload-Documentation-406e3f3e79e145eb98dbbd2d4d252681

If it is something you are interested in, please contact me via the page.

John

[StitchShop]

Image Uploader Released!

https://www.diagram.one/image-uploader-for-shopify

• Matches Filenames with Variant SKUs
• Uploads to Variant Photo
• Uploads to Generic Product Photo.

 

[rmanke]

Awesome!  Thanks so much John!

[CraigHughes]

Hi John,

This app looks great - do you have any feedback/examples of how stores have used it?  

Also, how would this work in line with the Product upload CSV?

Whats the cost for the app?

Thanks

Craig

[StitchShop]

The App is primarily for matching and uploading images into Shopify without the need to use the CSV or host the images online somewhere.

This is particularly good if you have lots of SKUs

The app assumes you have the product information loaded into Shopify. As most people who have this many skus probably are sending them from an inventory or POS application like Vend. You then can use the app to match and upload.

 

Currently the price is $49.00 USD, If you have lots of SKUs this will save you hours of work. Our team love it.

We have had a number of beta testers  who have 1000s of SKUs and seemed to work fine for them.

Documentation here:

https://www.notion.so/dgrm/Image-Uploader-for-Shopify-406e3f3e79e145eb98dbbd2d4d252681

Download here:

https://www.diagram.one/image-uploader-for-shopify

Feedback welcome

Cheers

John

[FusionDecals]

Have the same issue just one of my category has 400 designs with each product having 7 images each.  I ended up purchasing low end cpanel hosting service and set up ftp access to accommodate my needs.  I already have about 100k images I uploaded by hand to shopify (estimate 7million images if i get all my designs loaded with 7 examples each, we create decals) but alot of those images where dropped during uploading via the browser so its been nothing but a nightmare.  But using a cheap website host with cpanel access to create a ftp directory made it much easier,  once shopify imports the images correctly you can remove them off your server to save space and start on your next upload.  This is unfortunate as these services cost money we already spend 100$ a month just in plugins for shopify so we completely feel your pain.  I also tried the hosts you mentioned and many others and they all generate random urls that are not static and require weird file permissions and or you have to share the files its just useless for what we are doing.   My host WX hosting is hopefully going to make a ftp specific account with more space and less features to keep the price right for us today or tomorrow as technically there service is meant for people hosting Opencart and other functions we do not need as we have shopify which we used to use before we switched to shopify.  Shopify is better in many ways compared to open source shopping carts and is not very good with some of the basics like file hosting and variant limits etc

-Jason 
Fusion Decals

If you still have this issue I can get you in touch with Jeff with WX hosting if your interested.

[James_TGP]

Absolutely - variant limitations have caused many store owner's difficulty.

The image issue is also another one - with the failures, it will tell you why it failed in the export error details. Many times a whole product will error out if one of the images errors out! it's definitely a pain, but takes some elbow grease to keep modifying the spreadsheets and pushing those uploads through. 

Eventually It gets fun when you offer it as a service (or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my end).

But I've done the same and used my own server to host and transfer images. It's a pain to get going, and for many people the amount of 'technical hurdles' involved will also put them in a bit of a tough scenario.

Easier to let someone else do it. But could be costly as well depending on the amount of work.

100K images by hand though? holy *. Haha.

[FusionDecals]

About 500 to 1k at a time over a 2 year period but alot dropped and never
uploaded and ended up getting lost or deleted before I realized on my hard
drive. The file formatting is also a nightmare. I now upload specific
items in a hidden category just for ebay and amazon as those have a few
variables in the shopify format because I sync to those sites. Then for
the items on the site I upload with one option and use a plugin to create
the options, its a complete nightmare but when its working it works great,
even has logic in the drop down options and because the options do not
really exist it doesn't slow down my shopify database which I had happen
with 15k designs all with 80 options combinations each. Now the options
would be more like 500+ per design but instead the plugin just makes notes
on the order since all my items allow for custom options (other then my
specific racing strip kits which just have 15 colors to choose from). But
I am just now testing the ftp and redoing almost all the images in 2k+ res
so its alot of work I can see another 2000 man hrs before I'm satisfied
with my data base on shopify.

[JasonM2020]

Quite incredible, isn't it, that a shopping platform has no simple way of bulk uploading product images? It's an absolute prerequisite to setting up the site, and if you have thousands of images, as I do, you're left with either paying someone to sit and upload one image at a time manually, or try one of the discussed 'workarounds'. It's one thing when you have a free site that has these ridiculous scenario's, but when you're paying top dollar...

[StitchShop]

Agreed.

Currently i am developing a Mac App to look at folder of images and upload them to the correct product/variant.

It would be based on naming the image with the sku eg "barcode1.jpg". It would then find the right product and upload the image.

I can keep you posted.

[JasonM2020]

Thanks, but I need to launch my site ASAP, so I have done what is currently the only option - paid someone to sit and go to each product page and upload the image to the page.... 5,000 times. What a joke.

[Modstop]

Apparantly Excelify allows bulk upload of images from a computer file, but at $200 a month i dont fancy paying that, even though i have over 130,000 product images that need uploading. Luckily i can sit and upload them gradually but currently looking for a faster solution....

[StitchShop]

Hi Jason

5000 !! Good Luck with that.

I have a beta of my app for the Mac that matches SKUs on Shopify with SKU in a file name.

We photograph the products and name the files by using a cheap barcode scanner and output them to a square size.

The same SKU is used for a variant on the Shopify. it is also what we use to track products in our bricks & mortar shop.

The application then matches and then uploads the image to the correct variant and product in Shopify.

At the moment it is only working for our store, as I need to add in preferences to enter different shop credentials.

I also need to check the logistics and legal with Shopify, as it is not a web app in the Shopify ecosystem but an application downloaded and installed locally on your computer.

Ultimately I will sell it as a once off license fee (not monthly), however I would be willing to let some beta testers trial it.

I am continually working on the UI and improvements.

As we have a lot of SKUs, it has been a life saver. We have uploaded over 500 images to our store in the last 2 days and beats mucking about with spreadsheets.

cheers

John

[Nen003]

Hi John,

I was wondering if your app could be used for a butcher shop where each piece of meat will be its own product SKU or variant?

The idea would be to allow you to see the photo of the actual package of the item that you are buying, just like when you look at it in the store refrigerator.

This way you get the actual item you select "t-bone-unique-SKU", and not a generic "t-bone". To do this, each item will be sold only once, and new items created continuously.

Do I understand correctly that I could:

- Weigh the item, and print a unique barcode that contains the info ("t-bone-0.343-kilos")

- Take a picture of the item

- Name the picture by taking a picture of the bar code

- Create the SKU (or variant) in the store using the same code

- Automatically upload the pictures to the correct SKU?

Thanks,

Erik

[StitchShop]

Technically you are almost correct.

You dont take a photo of the barcode or sku, you either type it into the filename or for better accuracy use a $20 usb barcode reader and scan the barcode into the file name. The computer just sees the barcode reader as essentially another keyboard.

We are using CaptureOne to control the photographing process. It allows you to control the shutter on a connected camera and you shoot straight into its library. Adobe Lightroom and even Image Capture (on the Mac) allows this. It just reduces dealing with storage cards and having to match up sku with file names.

Once the photos are cropped and ready. and the filename has the SKU in it, My app will upload and match it to a varient already setup in Shopify.

It is really to support products with 100s of variants and manually doing it in Shopify.

Really depends how many pieces of meat your Butcher does each day. You could easily build an iPhone app that you take a photo (on the iPhone), read the sku from the barcode (iPhones can read barcodes) and match and upload all from the phone.

[Nen003]

Thank you. 

This saved me days of thinking about it.

(Solution: while volume is low, just upload from Shopify mobile, if volume increases, develop app.)

[rmanke]

Are you sharing access to that tool?

[iceesocial]

We just built a public app that does exactly what you guys are looking to do: 

https://apps.shopify.com/photo-finish

We were manually uploading photos to merchants stores and building hacky excel macros and decided to just build something. I use the app myself once a week for migrations and customer updates figured I'd share it incase it helps someone else that's looking at the chain here. Happy to answer any questions also! 

[StitchShop]

rmanke,

I assume you are referring to me? 

I need to make the tool work for any shopify store.

I should have this done in the next week.

You will be able to auto upload any image to a matching SKU straight from your desktop - Mac Only.

[rmanke]

Yes, thanks!

[FusionDecals]

I was able to upload 500-1000 at a time using the file browser in the files section of shopify.  But I learned it would drop tons of files and not actually upload all of them when selecting that many so its a waste of time doing it that way.

[tahiralvi]

Hi @James_TGP 
For upload from dropbox replace the dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com.
By doing above you can upload images without any issue.

[DCS111]

any suggestions for hosting images with static URLs?

[rmanke]

If you want to use static image urls, then you need to insert the photos into the description field.  You can't generally host images off site for product images, because that would slow down your shopify store.

[movsumov]

You can use the "Smart Bulk Image Upload" app to upload product images in bulk from Google Drive.

You can read more about how it works here. https://medium.com/@faridmovsumov/how-to-bulk-upload-product-images-to-shopify-2bf40fa62dde

[Christilu]

Hi! 

 what is the fastest way to upload a ton of images to an excel file .. is there a better step by step tutorial on this >? please help!! thanks in advance 

[WebsiteExpert]

We can help you in bulk inserting the image.

[Christilu]

how?

[MTaylor]

I notice your reply says Dropbox links can be used for images. I have tried this a few times and always get an error. I have thousands of images and have all of the links for Dropbox.

[WebsiteExpert]

Hi Mark,

What error you are getting can you please share.

[FeltingArt]

HI Jason. I tried your suggestion but kept getting an error message on the images. I contacted chat support and they tried to tell me some of the spreadsheet info was wrong, and it was not. Then they told me that the Google Docs options does not work. I actually had to bulk upload the images to spotify and then copy and paste each assigned URl into the spreadsheet. That finally worked.

[James_TGP]

Sometimes when you copy and paste text from one source into excel, you actually post HTML/styling text that you may not see. It’s code debris from the previous site.

Must’ve been a pain to do all that one by one!

[WebsiteExpert]

Hi, 
Follow the below steps:- 

1) First Upload your images in dropbox.

2) Right Click on your images and copy dropbox link

3) Past the dropbox link and fill the two column one for main image (Image Src)and other for Variant images (Variant Image) 

4) Prepare your excel and upload in Shopify