How do I fix "Invalid image URL"?

Use a full http(s) URL to a publicly accessible image.

Shopifyimages

Invalid image URL

Product image URL is not a valid http(s) URL.

What is this issue?

Product image URL is not a valid http(s) URL.

Affected field:Image Src

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Why Shopify rejects this

Shopify must be able to fetch images via a valid URL.

Valid values / expected format

✓Full URL starting with https:// or http://
✓Must be publicly accessible (no login required)
✓No spaces in the URL
✓Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF
✓Recommended: under 20 MB per image

Examples

Bad value	Good value	Note
`products/shirt.jpg`	`https://cdn.example.com/products/shirt.jpg`	Must be a full URL
`www.example.com/image.jpg`	`https://www.example.com/image.jpg`	Must include https://
`C:/Users/me/image.jpg`	`https://cdn.example.com/image.jpg`	No local file paths
`https://example.com/my image.jpg`	`https://example.com/my-image.jpg`	No spaces in URLs

Fix in StriveFormats

Upload your CSV to StriveFormats to detect this issue across all rows, with clear line-by-line reporting.

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Fix in Excel

1In Excel, click the column letter for the Image Src column.
2Press Ctrl+H. Find: http:// -- Replace with: https:// -- Replace All. This upgrades insecure URLs.
3Scan the column for cells that start with // or just a filename like 'shirt.jpg'. Add https:// in front of each.
4Find: ' ' (a space character) -- Replace with: - -- Replace All. This removes spaces from URLs.
5Click a sample URL and press F5, or paste it into a browser, to confirm the image or page loads correctly.
6Save as CSV (Comma delimited).

Fix in Google Sheets

1In Google Sheets, select the Image Src column.
2Press Ctrl+H. Find: http:// -- Replace with: https:// -- Replace All.
3Scan the column for cells starting with // or just a filename. Add https:// in front manually.
4Find: ' ' (a space) -- Replace with: - -- Replace All to clean up any spaces in URLs.
5Paste a sample URL into a new browser tab to confirm it loads correctly.
6Go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).

Prevent it next time

--Always use the full URL starting with https://. Never use relative paths or local file paths.
--Before importing, paste a sample image URL into a browser to confirm it loads correctly.
--Host all images on a reliable CDN or cloud storage before adding URLs to your CSV.
--Avoid URL query parameters unless the platform explicitly supports them.
--Keep image files under 20 MB and use standard formats: JPG, PNG, or WebP.

How StriveFormats detects this

StriveFormats checks the Image Src column by verifying that each non-empty value begins with http:// or https:// and does not contain spaces. Values that look like relative paths or local filenames are also flagged.

►Technical detail

Shopify's importer fetches image URLs at import time (or at product display time). The URL must be a fully-qualified address starting with http:// or https:// so the importer can locate the resource. Relative paths (like "images/shirt.jpg") are interpreted as relative to nothing, since the platform has no base path context from your local machine. Spaces in URLs must be encoded as %20 or replaced with hyphens -- most CDNs reject URLs with literal space characters.