Users seek to display the featured product image by default on product pages instead of the first variant image in Shopify’s Dawn theme (v8.0.0 and later versions).
Primary Solution (by made4Uo & gr_trading):
Edit product-media-gallery.liquid in the Snippets folder
Replace product.selected_or_first_available_variant.featured_media with product.featured_media at specific lines (originally lines 67-68, 92)
gr_trading provided complete replacement code for the entire file
Common Issues Reported:
Duplicate images: Featured image appears twice in gallery (lines 92 and 237 need modification)
Mobile variant switching: Selected variant images don’t update properly on mobile
Missing variant images: Default variant image disappears from gallery after implementation
Alternative Solution:
Rizwan-Shabbir shared a comprehensive code replacement that reportedly fixes bugs present in earlier solutions, confirmed working by multiple users on Dawn and Refresh themes.
Key Recommendation:
Backup theme files before implementing changes. Line numbers vary between Dawn versions (8.0.0, 13.0.0, 15.2.0), requiring users to locate code by content rather than exact line numbers. Some users report needing custom fixes for specific theme versions or layouts.
Summarized with AI on November 7.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
When I land in a product page, the first image I see is the image of the first variant product, but I would like the featured image to be displayed by default when I land in the product page. I have found a few posts on this same topic with a solution (link to those below), however those fixes are for a previous version of the Dawn Theme which aren’t working for me.
I’m using the Dawn Theme, Version 8.0.0
I would appreciate if someone could help with this.
Thank you, @made4Uo I appreciate your assistance on this. This solution works perfectly on the web version. On Mobile however, the image for variant 1 is getting stuck on the image of the variant I had selected prior. For example, I click on Variant 4 and I see its image with no problem, but then I click on Variant 1 and I still see the image for Variant 4. Any idea how to fix that? I’m testing this on a copy of my theme, here is the link should you need it for reference: Click Here
Hey, this has worked for me, thank you for this, however now I have the first variant image showing twice after the featured image, do you know why this might be? All the other variant images only show once.
I’m having only one problem with this. On first load or refresh, the featured image is shown (which is ok), however selected image is still for the chosen variant. When I want to show the image for the variant, I need to switch between featured image and then go back to variant image, but the variant image doesn’t show anything, the image disappears. If I change the variants, everything works just fine.
Do you think there could be any fix for this?
I would appreaciate any help.