Where are images stored in shopify? I lost them!

[chad0x001]

I had my store all set up with correct images for all products and product variants. I exported the products to do some work. After I exported I added a column to the left and numbered it from 0 to 11307. I reordered the sheet, did the work then reuploaded - without changing the order back or removing the extra column - Whoops! 

I have re imported the sheet as it was before I committed the mistake above but all of my variant images have disappeared - despite the relevant links being there in the export as ever they were.

Where have my images gone? I mostly added them by finding an image online, right clicking, copy image address and then going to the item in the dashboard, media section, add image from URL.

I don't want to have to go and get all the image links and add them again by hand when it took me many tens of horus to do this in the first place if I can help it. Where have my images gone? 

I clearly dont understand how images work in shopify so some education about that would be very helpful!

Thanks folks 🙂

[Shay]

Hi @chad0x001 

I definitely understand your concern and hopefully I can help you with recovering your deleted image files! Since you have your original CSV and the original file paths for the images, hopefully we can recover them using that. 

1. Open the CSV that broke the product images, and do a Find and Replace for /products/ with /deleted/products/.
2. Save, and Import to your store.

The result of this is that the images are pulled from the /deleted/products section, and re-imported as new files with a new file name. If you then export the product, you'll see that the image paths are different and no longer contain /deleted/.

Please note that if you still have some products with images in the store, then replacing all instances of "/products/" with "/deleted/products/" in the Image Src column will then remove the currently working images from the products. 

As always when working with CSV files, export a backup file before importing a new one. I also recommend testing this process on one or two product listings before doing it to all products. 

If that doesn't work for any reason, please reach out to our live support to ask for them to recover the product images. This method will not restore the images to the products themselves, but will re-add the images into your FILES section in your admin. 

[fleshandblood]

So here we are again.

I want to bulk update prices and stock levels.

I export the products I want to do this with.

I update all teh prices and stock levels.

I import using overwrite.

All the images disappear.

PLEASE tell me how to bulk update stock levels without overwriting all the images

[Shay]

Hi @fleshandblood 

Can you confirm if you are uploading the CSV on the PRODUCTS or INVENTORY section of your admin? There are two separate CSV files that can be used in the admin. One for updating products and one for updating inventory. The product inventory CSV should not be overwriting product images. 

You can confirm the steps for updating inventory through CSV on this page: Shopify Help Center | Exporting or importing inventory with a CSV file.

If you are importing and updating inventory using the steps provided in our Help Center but are still experiencing issues with the images disappearing, please reach out to our authenticated support team for further help with this. 

[Deogee]

Hello @Shay 

My Images URL looks like "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0853/7115/8850/files/siyah-parasut-pantolon-5065533-sw3024sh4032.w...

It does'nt have a /products on the url. Do you have any idea what i can do ? 

[Shay]

Hi @Deogee 

Thank you for sharing the sample link, I am not sure what the issue is that you are having with your image URLs. That is the URL for the where the image is hosted in your admin, if you are hosting your images through Shopify. 

[bluepittie01]

I can't either....This is kind of ridiculous and makes the import/export method unusable? Why would they build it like this..

[Shay]

Hi @bluepittie01 thank you for joining the conversation! I understand you are also having issues with your product images disappearing when you update your inventory, 

Can you confirm for me if you are importing your CSV through Products > Inventory or just Products? As I noted above, there are two separate CSV files for importing products vs importing new inventory. You want to make sure you are using the Inventory CSV file and importing it through the inventory page in your admin. 

[bluepittie01]

I was using the Products export sheet to bulk edit data, like descriptions, tags, titles for my listings. I haven't used the  inventory import feature yet.

[Shay]

Okay, and the image URLs were unchanged in your CSV file before you reimported it? Did you change your product handles at all? If you import a single product through CSV (as a test) are you seeing the images being removed again? 

[houseofhind]

This solution is not working for me, can you suggest any new way. Support saying they cannot recover the deleted urls