Manage your Shopify product images

Mixtable’s spreadsheet interface makes it easy to add images to your Shopify products, remove images that are no longer needed, and keep image alt text up to date. You do it all from worksheet cells: a Product Images column shows each product’s images as thumbnails, with buttons for adding and removing images.

Just want to look at a product’s images? Select its row and click Details in the toolbar (or choose Row > Open in Details). The Details panel shows the product’s images as thumbnails, and clicking one opens the full image. Details is view only, so you add and remove images in the worksheet, as described below.

Quick way to add product images in bulk

If your images are already hosted and you have their URLs, use the Add product images Action column. This lets you paste image URLs into cells and sync them to Shopify in bulk.

One URL adds one image
Multiple URLs in one cell should be separated by semicolons (;)

See the full walkthrough here: Add Shopify product images in bulk with an Action Column

Show product images in a spreadsheet column

Ensure that you have a worksheet linked to the products of your Shopify store. You can create one from the pre-built Basic Product Info or Full Product Info spreadsheet templates or by adding a Products (with variants) worksheet (see how here). The Basic Product Info template already includes a Product Images column.

To add a Product images column to any products worksheet:

To load more Shopify data, click ＋ Shopify data in the header row of an empty column, such as the one right after your last column. You can also choose Column > Add Shopify data… from the menu bar. The field picker opens and asks What should column E show?, with your column's letter in place of E. It lists everything the worksheet can show from Shopify, grouped into sections the way your Shopify admin groups them. Type in the search box at the top, or click a section on the left, to find the field you want.

Click Images in the list of sections on the left, then click Product images. Under Show as, leave Thumbnails selected, then click Save Column.

The new column will start populating almost immediately with thumbnails of the images currently on each product. On a Products (with variants) worksheet, every variant row shows the images of its product.

Add image URL columns for exports and feeds

Need the web address of each image, for example for a product feed, a marketplace file, or an export to Excel? Add a Product images column as described above, but under Show as, choose Image link. Then pick an Image number from 1 to 10. The column holds the link to the image in that position of the product’s gallery, so image number 1 is the first image, and its header reads Product image 1 link. Add one column for each position you need. If a product has fewer images, the cell stays empty.

Image link columns are view only, so edits to them don’t sync to Shopify. To add or remove images, use the thumbnail column described in the rest of this guide.

Add images to products with a spreadsheet

Each cell in a Product Images thumbnail column has a + button. Clicking it opens the Add Image window, where you add images by entering URLs that point to images on the internet.

Click + in the Product Images cell of the product you want to add images to
Paste one or more image URLs into the box. Separate multiple URLs with commas
Click Submit image URLs

Mixtable sends the images straight to Shopify, so you don’t need to sync. The cell updates with the new thumbnails shortly after. The URLs must be publicly accessible, so Shopify can download the images.

Delete a product image with a spreadsheet

To delete images, use a Product Images thumbnail column on a Products (with variants) worksheet. There, each cell has an Edit button next to the + button.

Click Edit in the Product Images cell of the product. The Image Editor window opens and shows all of the product’s images
Find the image you want to remove and click the Delete Media button above it

Mixtable asks Shopify to delete the image right away, without a sync, and the cell updates shortly after. There’s no confirmation step and the deletion can’t be undone, so check the image before you click.

On a Products (no variants) worksheet, the Product Images cell only has the + button. To delete images from there, use a Products (with variants) worksheet or the Media Images worksheet described below.

Manage images from the Media Images worksheet

The Media Images worksheet lists the images in your store, one per row. It’s a great place to update alt text in bulk, see which products use an image, and remove images you no longer need.

1. Load the Media Images worksheet

In an existing Mixtable spreadsheet, click the + button at the end of the worksheet tabs, at the bottom of the screen, to add a new worksheet.

Choose Shopify data worksheet and click Continue. Select Media Images, click Continue to keep the suggested columns, then click Create Worksheet.

2. Edit or delete Shopify images

In the Media Images worksheet, you will see all the images available in your store. From here you can:

Update the alt text of many images at once in the Alt text column (called Image ALT tag in older worksheets), then click Preview at the top right of the spreadsheet to review your changes and click Sync. See Image ALT tags in Shopify for tips on writing them
Delete images from your store with the row menu, as described below

To delete images:

To delete one media image, right-click its row number and choose Delete media image in Shopify…. To delete several at once, select their rows, then right-click one of the selected row numbers (or open the Row menu) and choose the option, which shows the count, for example Delete 3 media images in Shopify…
In the Delete Shopify Objects window, check the list of what will be deleted. This cannot be undone
Click Delete, then click Are you sure?? to confirm
Mixtable asks Shopify to delete the media image. Once Shopify has deleted it, Mixtable clears the row and leaves it empty. To tidy up, choose Worksheet > Remove Empty Rows

Only the spreadsheet's owner can delete in Shopify, and only on rows linked to Shopify. If the worksheet is filtered, hidden rows are left alone.

3. See which products and variants use an image

The worksheet shows you each image, but not where it is used. Related Data Fields add that context as extra columns, from the Used by section of the field picker:

Product title, handle, or Shopify ID
Variant SKU, barcode, or Shopify ID

When an image belongs to several products or variants, Mixtable lists them all in one cell, separated by commas. That makes it much easier to tell similar images apart, and to check what an image is attached to before you edit or delete it.

To add these columns, follow the Media Images steps in the Related Data Fields guide.

4. Download the latest images from Shopify

Shopify doesn't send changes to media images on its own, so download them when you need the latest. Click Download latest in the sync control at the top right of the spreadsheet (or choose Shopify Sync > Sync with Shopify…) to open the sync card. Under Download latest from Shopify, click Download next to Media images.