Shopify created separate image files for linked image and maxed out my storage! Help!

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

A merchant uploaded multiple products using the same image link, expecting Shopify to reference a single file. Instead, Shopify’s API created separate image files for each product, consuming storage capacity and preventing further site updates.

Root Cause:
Shopify’s import process treats each external image URL as unique content without comparing file contents or URLs. This is default behavior designed for the common scenario where different products have different images.

Proposed Solutions:

  • Upload one image to admin files, then manually select it for multiple products (avoids duplication)
  • For CSV imports: Upload one product with the image manually, export to CSV, then copy that CDN URL for other products (behavior uncertain)
  • Use theme customizations or metafield definitions as dynamic image sources for placeholder content

Storage Concerns:
Standard Shopify plans include tens of gigabytes of storage. Maxing out suggests either extremely large unoptimized image files or tens of thousands of products.

Open Question:
One user with 600 duplicate color charts across products seeks clarification on implementing the manual file selection method and removing existing duplicates from their CDN.

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

Hello all,

We’ve had our store for a while and recently decided to add many more products. To simplify, we just created a generic image, saved it, then added the same link to all of the products we were uploading.

To our surprise, Shopify has an algorithm that creates separate image files for each product uploaded, even though we already included the link to the one file. This maxed out our storage, which means we’re unable to continue improving our site.

This makes no sense and Shopify customer service was of no help at all. Does anyone know a workaround?

Thanks,

Ricardo

2

Hi @rsolorzano :waving_hand: This would be expected behavior as the api fetches external images it doesn’t do comparison of the urls and can’t do comparison of media file contents.

So it treats every instance as unique since different products having different images is the most common reasonable behavior on platform with millions of merchant. So the import process wont make a single image.

It is possible to upload a single image to the admin files then manually select it as media for a product for any number of products.

Not sure of the CSV import behavior though if you were to just copy the CDN url for that image and put it in for every product in the CSV

, or setup one product manually in the admin with that image > THEN export that to CSV, and check and copy the image url.

This maxed out our storage, which means we’re unable to continue improving our site.

This shouldn’t max out the storage for a shopify store as plans get tens of gigabytes, the image filesize would have to be unoptimized being excessively large in itself, or your running tens or hundreds of thousands of products

3

If this is for the online-sales channel needing specific placeholder content:

If you need theme customizations for this then contact me for services
Contact info in forum signature.
ALWAYS please provide context, examples: store url, theme name, post url(s) , or any further detail in ALL correspondence.

4

it is possible to upload a single image to the admin files then manually select it as media for a product for any number of products.<<

Can you explain that futher? I currently have about 600 (of the same) color charts used on just about every product. This creates havoc when trying to find an image to use for an email or anything else for that matter (and most places where you need to input an image doesnt’ have a search feature)
How can I use this color chart as an alternate image for most/all products without having a duplicate image (with tailing string.jpg) and get rid of all those duplicates out of my cdn/files?