How to Import Product Images From Dropbox to Acenda

Here is the plain text version for you to copy and paste directly into your Intercom editor.

How to Import Product Images Using Dropbox

You can bulk-import product images into Acenda by first hosting them on a service like Dropbox and then using their public links to build an import file.

This process has three main stages:

Extracting Links from Dropbox (Using an Excel macro)
Preparing Your CSV File (Matching links to SKUs)
Importing Your File into Acenda

Part 1: Get Your Public Image Links from Dropbox

This part of the process uses an advanced Excel workflow to get a clean list of your image file names and their corresponding URLs.

Upload Images to Dropbox:

Go to your Dropbox account and click Upload > Folder.
Select your folder of product images and upload it.

Copy the Folder Link:

Once uploaded, find your folder under All Files.
Hover over the folder, click Share, and then click Copy Link.

Open in an Incognito Window:

Open a new incognito or private browsing window (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N or Cmd+Shift+N).
Paste the Dropbox folder link into the URL bar and press Enter.

Copy Image Files:

You should now see all the images in that folder.
Highlight all the images you want to create links for.
Note: If your images are in subfolders, you must open each subfolder and select the images from there.
Press Ctrl+C (or right-click > Copy) to copy the files. This copies them as hyperlinked text.

Part 2: Extract Links Using an Excel Macro

Now you will use an Excel macro to separate the file names from the hidden URLs.

Paste into Excel:

Open a new, blank Excel spreadsheet.
Click on cell A1 and paste your copied images (Ctrl+V). You will see the file names appear in Column A as blue, clickable hyperlinks.

Open the Visual Basic Editor:

Click the Developer tab in Excel.
Can't see the Developer tab? Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon and check the Developer box.
On the Developer tab, click the Visual Basic button.

Insert the Macro Code:

In the new Visual Basic window, click Insert > Module.
A blank white code box will appear on the right. Paste the following code exactly as it is written:

Sub ExtractHL()

Dim HL As Hyperlink

For Each HL In ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks

HL.Range.Offset(0, 1).Value = HL.Address

End Sub

Run the Macro:

Close the Visual Basic window to return to your spreadsheet.
On the Developer tab, click Macros.
Select ExtractHL from the list and click Run.
Column B will now automatically fill with the full Dropbox URL for each file in Column A.

Part 3: Clean and Format Your Links

Before the links can be used, you must remove any duplicates and format them as direct "raw" links.

Remove Duplicates:

Add a new, blank tab to your spreadsheet (e.g., "Sheet2").
On your first sheet, highlight and copy all of Column A (Names) and Column B (Links).
Paste them into the new sheet ("Sheet2").
With both columns still highlighted, go to the Data tab and click Remove Duplicates.
In the pop-up box, uncheck Column A and make sure only Column B is checked. Click OK. This removes any duplicate URLs.

Convert Links to "Raw" Format (Critial Step):

You must now "fix" the Dropbox links so Acenda can see the image directly.
Press Ctrl+F to open the Find and Replace tool.
Click the Replace tab.
In the ‘Find what’ field, enter: dl=0
In the ‘Replace with’ field, enter: raw=1
Click Replace All.

(Note: Why this works: Dropbox links normally end in ?dl=0, which tells a browser to download the file. Changing this to ?raw=1 tells the browser to display the raw image file, which is what Acenda needs to import it.)

Verify Your Links:

Copy one of the new links from Column B (it should now end in ?raw=1).
Paste it into an incognito window. You should see only your image, not the Dropbox website. If you do, you're ready for the next step.

Part 4: Prepare Your Acenda Import File

You will now create the final CSV file to be imported into Acenda.

Create a New Import File:

Open a new, blank Excel spreadsheet.
In the first row (Row 1), add your column headers. You will need sku and at least one image column.

Required Headers:

sku
images.default.main.url (This is for your main product image)

Optional Headers:

images.default.swatch.url (For your swatch image)
images.default.1.alternate.url
images.default.2.alternate.url
...(You can add up to 15 alternate images)

Populate Your Data:

Go back to your other spreadsheet (the one with your raw=1 links).
For each product, enter its SKU in the sku column.
Copy the matching image link from your other sheet and paste it into the images.default.main.url column.
Repeat this for all your SKUs and links, filling in the swatch and alternate columns as needed.

Save as CSV UTF-8:

When finished, go to File > Save As.
From the "Save as type" dropdown, select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv). This is the only file type supported for imports.

Part 5: Import Your File into Acenda

You're on the final step!

In your Acenda admin, go to Imports/Exports and click the Import tab.
Click the + New Import button.
From the Import Type dropdown, select Catalog.
Drag and drop your CSV UTF-8 file into the upload box, or click to browse for it.
Map Your Fields: You will now see a list of your file's headers ("Source Headers") on the left and Acenda data fields ("Select Field") on the right.

The system will try to automatically match fields like sku.
For your image columns, click the "Select Field" dropdown and find the matching Acenda field (e.g., map your images.default.main.url header to the images.default.main.url Acenda field).
Check the box to the left of each attribute to enable it for the import.

(Optional) Save Your Profile: To make this faster next time, check the box Save custom import profile for future use and give your profile a name (e.g., "Dropbox Image Import").
Set Your Import Rules:

To add only new SKUs: Leave both boxes unchecked.
To add new SKUs and update existing ones: Check Overwrite any records that have the same ID.
To update only existing SKUs: Check Only update existing records.

Click Start Import.