Problem with collections images

Retired Boards Appdev Merchandising

Topic summary

Users are experiencing errors when updating collection images via the collectionUpdate GraphQL mutation. The error message returned is vague: {:src=>"Error updating collection with this image"}, making troubleshooting difficult.

Key observations:

  • Creating new collections with images (collectionCreate) works correctly
  • Updating collections that already have images fails with the error
  • If the existing image is manually deleted from Shopify Admin first, then the same update mutation succeeds
  • The image URLs are valid and publicly accessible

Attempted solutions:

  • Verifying image URL accessibility and file extensions (.jpg, .png)
  • Testing with different image hosting services
  • Confirming proper mutation syntax

Current status: The issue remains unresolved. Multiple users have confirmed the same behavior, suggesting a potential bug in the collectionUpdate mutation when replacing existing images rather than adding new ones.

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

Good afternoon, community

I am encountering an issue when attempting to update the image of the collections. I am receiving the following result:

{'collectionUpdate': {'collection': None, 'userErrors': [{'field': ['image'], 'message': '{:src=>"Error updating collection with this image"}'}]}}

The JSONL object is as follows:

{"input": {"title": "test-title", "handle": "test-handle", "descriptionHtml": "test-html", "id": "gid://shopify/Collection/435910377695", "image": {"altText": "test-alt-text", "src": "<url>"}, "sortOrder": "MANUAL", "templateSuffix": "single"}}

If I delete the image from the Shopify admin panel and send the same object, it is saved correctly.

I am not sure what might be happening because the error is not very descriptive.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thank you!

2

It seems the issue is with the image URL. Ensure the URL is publicly accessible and ends with a valid image extension (like .jpg or .png).

If the problem persists, try using a different image hosting service.

3

The URL is an example; when the collection is newly created or an image is added to it, updating it works. However, when it already has an image, it fails.

4

Hi David,

Are you using the collectionUpdate mutation? The mutation should look something like:

mutation UpdateCollectionImage {
  collectionUpdate(input: {
    id: "gid://shopify/Collection/1234567890", 
    image: {
      src: "https://example.com/new-image.jpg", 
      altText: "New Image Description"
    }
  }) {
    collection {
      id
      title
      image {
        src
        altText
      }
    }
    userErrors {
      field
      message
    }
  }
}
5

This issue still persists. I can confirm the same behavior David originally described. collectionCreate with a given image URL works fine. collectionUpdate with the same image URL fails with the error message as follows:

  • {:src=>“Error updating collection with this image”}

If you manually delete the image in the Shopify Admin and run collectionUpdate again, it works fine.