Main issue: After downloading a Shopify theme and importing it into another store, images do not appear. Only the theme structure and Liquid files are present; images used in sections, banners, and theme settings are missing.
What was tried:
Downloaded the theme from Shopify admin.
Uploaded the resulting ZIP to a different store.
Key questions from the poster:
Does Shopify exclude images/media when exporting or downloading a theme?
How can the theme be downloaded or transferred with all images/assets included?
What’s the recommended method to migrate a theme along with media files?
Current status: No solution provided yet; the user is seeking confirmation on Shopify’s behavior and best-practice steps to migrate themes with all associated media. No attachments or code are central to the post. Discussion remains open with unanswered questions about including images/assets during theme migration.
Summarized with AI on December 14.
AI used: gpt-5.
Advanced is parse the JSON templates for media settings to get all the URLs.
It’s annoying because the theme system itself doesn’t have a way to spit out all the CDN urls, or file names, etc
because of things like scoping even doing {% capture %} tricks is a massive kludge.
This is expected Shopify behavior theme downloads only include the theme files, not store media. Images used in sections and settings live in the store’s Files/Content, not inside the theme ZIP. To fully migrate, you’ll need to re-upload images in the new store or use a migration/backup app that copies both themes and files.
Shopify theme downloads do not include images or other assets uploaded through the theme editor or file uploader. The ZIP file only contains the theme’s code and structure.
To transfer images and assets:
Export/Import CSV: For product images, use the product CSV export/import.
Manual Download: Download individual images from Content > Files in your Shopify admin.
Third-Party App: Use a migration app to transfer all store content, including assets.