Export/import theme assets images to another store

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Goal: Move non-product theme asset images (e.g., backgrounds) from one Shopify store to another without manual one-by-one work.

Key facts/updates:

  • Shopify currently has no built-in way (Admin or API) to export files from a store.
  • Downloaded theme ZIPs do not include images; confirmed by Shopify’s help doc. This invalidates advice to copy images from the theme ZIP’s assets folder. A user verified no images appear in the downloaded theme.

Workarounds:

  • Build/use a JavaScript script to iterate over file URLs and download them; however, automating downloads is tricky (StackOverflow reference).
  • A script can export a list of all files (blog reference), but you still need to download and re-upload them manually to the new store.

Open items:

  • A request for a tutorial video was made; no tutorial link provided in the thread.

Outcome/status:

  • No native automated export/import for theme asset images. Images must be re-added to the destination store, either manually or via custom scripting. Discussion remains open for fully automated solutions.
Summarized with AI on January 22. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi all,

im moving a theme from one shop to another and i need to move the assets images as well (there are a lot)

I didnt found anything on the subject so, is there a way, other than manually one by one, to export/import these kind of images from one shop to another? have in mind they are not product images, but backgrounds and stuff.

thanks

2

There is currently no built-in way to export files from a Shopify store via admin or with the API.

You could build a JS script to loop through all the file URLs and download the files, but it gets tricky to automatically download them:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/29606450

I believe @Jason has script to export the list of files as well - though you’d still need to download:

https://freakdesign.com.au/blogs/news/113610119-export-a-list-of-all-files-in-the-shopify-admin

3

  1. Export your your theme files. Download the zip.

  2. Extract the zip file.

  3. Do the same with the new theme.

  4. Copy the image files from the assets folder in the first zip to the assets folder in the new zip.

  5. Re-zip the theme files (new) and upload it to shopify.

3 Likes
4

Is there a tutorial video for this somewhere?

5

Paul,

I’ve tried this but I don’t see any image files contained in the downloaded theme file.

1 Like
6

“Theme downloads don’t include images. If you want to upload the theme to another store, then you need to re-add images separately.”
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/managing-themes/downloading-themes