Can I see which image files are currently in use in my store?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Core Issue:
Shopify merchants struggle to identify which uploaded image files are actively used in their stores versus unused files that can be safely deleted. Over time, file libraries become cluttered with experimental uploads, duplicates, and outdated assets, creating confusion and risk when attempting cleanup.

Current Limitations:

  • Shopify provides no built-in feature to track file usage or display total file counts
  • The “References” column in Content > Files shows a dash (-) for seemingly unused files, but this is unreliable—it misses images used in metafields, third-party apps, or certain theme locations
  • No filtering options exist to sort by usage status
  • Users cannot track proximity to plan-based file storage limits

Proposed Workarounds:

  • Sort files by upload date (oldest to newest) and delete pre-theme-change files—only works for clean theme migrations
  • Use third-party tools like Filetastic app (now includes beta functionality to search for used files) or Screaming Frog SEO Spider to crawl the site for image links
  • Manual verification remains necessary due to incomplete reference tracking

Status:
This remains an unresolved, ongoing issue spanning 4+ years with no official Shopify solution announced. Multiple users continue requesting this feature.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Is there any way to see which of my files on Shopify are actually in use on my store? There are many unused images, which may have had wrong dimensions, wrong format etc - I want to delete these to avoid confusion. But don’t want to accidentally delete one that is being used somewhere in store.

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2

Bumpy bumpity

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3

I am also interested in this - did anyone ever get back to you on this?

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4

Nope. Let me know if you ever find a solution.

5

@Shopify_77 I have the same question as the OP

6

Agreed. Over time (we have been running a site on Shopify for years) the file store becomes a massive junk yard of everything that was ever used or even experimented with. But you can’t just start deleting images for risk of breaking something unexpectedly. Some images are very similar, perhaps just resized for instance and you can’t tell from the thumbnail which one to keep. This becomes even more of an issue if site maintenance is handed over to a new person who is not familiar with the history!

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7

YES … this.

Anyone at Shopify listening?

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8

Same boat. Developer turned out a LOT of variants, only a fraction of which were used. He left a pile of rejects in the files folder without highlighting the essentials. Most confounding.

9

AMEN. I’d love a solution to this problem!

10

I would also love a solution from Shopify for this issue!

11

Was just searching for this too!

12

I would love an answer to this problem too please Shopify

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@Shopify_77 Also the same request for me. Is there any way to see this? Maybe a directory tree where you can place images/videos and see which are in use per folder?

14

Anyone there @Shopify_77 ? Would love a response on this :slightly_smiling_face:

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15

Hi Lelilo! This is a really important question and can lead to absolute chaos if not handled correctly. Unfortunately, there’s no way to do this however there is a workaround that our team uses. If you navigate up to the filtering tab sort by look for the upload date option and toggle upload date oldest to newest, in doing that you can at least view all the images and files in the order that they were uploading so for example if you have some stuff on there from 2019 and know that you just published your new theme in 2021 then it’s safe to say you can delete those and essentially you can delete anything up until the date of (sometimes we’ll just leave a few months as a safety cushion.) of course there’s also little workaround such as images that you 100% know aren’t being used etc; So plan this out, sit down and focus and give this plenty of time and use the guide we provided. It’s not perfect but it’s the best option for now.

Hope this helps!

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16

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Unfortunately this only works in a specific case where you change themes and move cleanly from one set of images to another. For me, and I suspect most others, it’s an ongoing process of swapping images in and out, within the same theme over months and years, resulting in a mishmash of current and old images even when sorted chronologically.

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17

Well then for the people that are just starting always mainly lol and if it’s too late then like I said you’re probably just gonna have to dedicate a whole day to really going through and doing it or just guess your best and if you end up deleting some off the store replace them I always say in the time that you’ve been waiting for answer and asking you could have probably already taken care of it best of luck

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18

Just wanted to drop info that I am currently working to add functionality for searching for used images in Filetastic app, will keep you posted :slightly_smiling_face:

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19

Hi Maciej! Do you have an estimate of when that functionality will be added to Filetastic? It seems crazy that there’s no way to automatically remove unused images in Shopify. I need to resize and cleanup the images on my site, but it’s way too time-consuming having to go through and figure out which images are actually being used or not.

20

I would really appreciate an answer for this too…

1 Like