Images Flash or Appear Broken for 1 Second on Page Load — Need Help Fixing (Homepage + Product Page)

Shopify Discussion
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1

Hi everyone,

I’m facing an issue on my Shopify store (https://www.cosy-homes.uk/). Whenever I open the Home Page or any Product Page, the images appear broken, stretched, or glitchy for a second, and then they load normally after the page fully renders.

This happens only at the start of the page load and is happening across browsers and devices.

What I have noticed:

  • The issue looks like a “flash” or temporary image break.

  • It might be related to lazy-loading, image dimensions not being pre-set, or a theme animation.

  • I have not made big code changes recently, but I do use some apps that load scripts.

What I need help with:

  1. Why does this flicker happen on Shopify themes?

  2. How can I stop images from breaking for a second before loading?

  3. Should I disable lazy loading for above-the-fold images?

  4. Does this issue come from missing width/height attributes in my theme’s Liquid files?

  5. Could theme animations (fade-in, transitions, JS effects) cause this?

Any guidance or troubleshooting steps would be super helpful.
Thank you!

2

Hi,

I checked your store. In your case, the flicker happens because the placeholder image your theme is trying to load is invalid. Becuase the placeholder URL is broken, so it fails to load

Once the placeholder is fixed, the flicker goes away.

You can use a working placeholder URL, for example:

https://placehold.co/160x46

Replace the broken placeholder in your theme (usually in sections/*.liquid or snippets/*.liquid), and the images should load smoothly again.

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