Importing Products
What this article covers: How to bring all of a product's images into Shopify from a Google Drive folder, without downloading or re-hosting anything yourself.

Import Product Images from a Google Drive Folder

Paste a single Google Drive folder link into the Image column of your CSV and Importier collects every image in that folder, sorts them in natural order, and attaches them to the product. Each product can have its own folder, and folders can sit alongside Dropbox folders and direct image URLs in the same import.

Before You Start

  • Put each product's images in its own Google Drive folder.
  • Share each folder so anyone with the link can view it. A private folder will not work.
  • Standard image formats are supported: JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF. Shopify accepts images up to 5000 x 5000 pixels and 20 MB.

Steps

  1. In Google Drive, open the folder for a product, choose Share, and copy the folder link using the Anyone with the link option.
  2. In your spreadsheet, paste that single folder link into the Image column for that product. One folder link per product, not one link per photo.
  3. Repeat for each product that has a Drive folder. Rows can mix sources, so some rows can use Google Drive, others Dropbox, and others direct image URLs.
  4. Upload your spreadsheet and continue through the import as normal.
  5. When Importier detects folder links it shows a Folder Images step. Each product is listed with its Source shown as Google Drive or Dropbox.
  6. Select Fetch All Images. Importier opens each folder, collects every image, and orders them naturally so image 2 comes before image 10.
  7. Check the thumbnails and image counts per product, then Continue. The first image becomes the product's main image.

If It Does Not Work

  • If a product shows no images, the folder is almost always not shared with anyone-with-the-link. Fix the sharing in Google Drive, then select Retry on that row.
  • Only images at the top level of the folder are imported. Images inside sub-folders are skipped.

Pre-Caching for Large Imports

When your import contains more than 200 Google Drive images, Importier pre-caches the image URLs through a proxy to prevent Shopify rate-limiting during import. No setup needed; it happens automatically.

For the Dropbox equivalent, see Dropbox Images. For how Importier orders images once it has collected them, see How Importier Sorts Your Product Images.

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