By default, Shopify shows all your product images in the gallery no matter which variant a customer selects. So if someone picks Red, they still see images for Black, Blue, and every other color alongside it. This can make the shopping experience confusing and cluttered.
SA Variant Image Automator fixes this. Once set up, it shows customers only the images that belong to the variant they have selected — keeping the gallery clean, focused, and relevant.
The Manage product media page is where you set this up for each of your products.
Your product list
When you open this page, you will see all your products listed here — including active, draft, and unlisted products — so you always have a complete view of your catalogue in one place.
You can use the tabs at the top to filter the list:
All — shows every product
Enabled — shows products where the app is switched on
Disabled — shows products where the app is switched off
You can also use the Search bar to find a specific product by name, and the Add filter option to narrow down the list further. Available filters are:
App status — filter products by whether the app is currently enabled or disabled
Single variant — filter to show only products that have a single variant
Option name — filter products by a specific option name, such as Color or Size
Each product in the list shows you four things at a glance:
Product — the product name and thumbnail so you can find it quickly
App status — whether the app is currently enabled or disabled for that product
Number of media — how many images and videos the product has
Number of variants — how many variants the product has
Setting up a product
Click on any product to open it and start assigning images to variants. Here is what you will find inside:
Not sure where to start?
There is a short tutorial video right at the top of the page that walks you through the whole process. It is worth watching before you begin, especially if this is your first time setting up the app.
Grouping your variants
Your variants are automatically grouped by the option that best reflects how the images differ — usually Color. You can change this grouping if needed. Each variant in the group gets its own image bucket where you can drop the images that belong to it.
Assigning images to variants
Simply drag the relevant images into the bucket next to each variant name. The app will take care of arranging them in the right order in your Shopify product backend automatically.
Common images
Got images that should show up with every variant — like a size chart, a packaging shot, or a brand image? Add them to the Common media section. These will appear after each variant's images in the gallery, no matter which variant the customer selects. Just make sure these images are not assigned to any specific variant in Shopify.
Need to add or remove images?
Use the Edit product button to open your Shopify product admin directly inside the app. You can add or delete media from here without having to leave the page.
Check how it looks
Once you have arranged your images, use the Preview button to see how the product looks on your storefront. This is only available for products that are published and visible on your online store.
Switch the app on
The app is turned off by default for every product. Once you are happy with how the images are arranged, toggle the App status on to activate variant-specific image display for that product. Your changes will sync automatically with your Shopify dashboard.
A few things to keep in mind
Enabling the app on one product does not affect any other products — each product is managed independently.
The app works based on how images are arranged in your product media. Images for the same variant must be grouped together, and the first image of each group must be assigned to that variant in Shopify.
Common images that should appear with every variant must be placed at the beginning of the media section in Shopify and must not be assigned to any specific variant.
If your product is not published to the online store, the Preview button will not open a storefront page.
The app embed must be active on your theme for the app to work on your storefront. Even if the app is enabled on a product, variant-specific images will not display correctly unless the app embed is activated on the theme. You can manage this from the App settings page.
Do not manually reorder images in the Shopify product backend after setting up the app. The app arranges images in a specific order to know which images belong to which variant. If you or another app changes the image order in the product backend, the app will no longer display the correct images for each variant on the storefront. Always make image order changes through the Manage product media page instead.
The app supports most Shopify themes out of the box. However, in some cases the app may not work correctly — for example, if theme developer rolled out a newer version recently or if your theme has custom modifications to the image gallery. If the app is set up correctly but variant images are not displaying as expected on your storefront, it is likely that the app needs a compatibility update for your theme. In this case, please reach out to our support team and we will get it sorted for you. Please note that we have standard one-time charges for adding support to custom themes, as they require additional effort than stock themes and are specific to your store. Claude or any other AI-modified gallery is not supported by our app.