Media Library
Every Picture and Video of Your Store in One Library, Where Each Is Used, and Replaced Everywhere at Once
A store collects hundreds of pictures over a year: product photos, banners, collection covers, logos. The media library keeps all of them in one place, tells you where each one is shown, and lets you change one everywhere with a single REPLACE.
- In every plan
- Free for 14 days
Kosha is a demo store on Mercayo. Its products, orders and customers are sample data.
In short
What It Does
Online Store → Media lists every picture and video your store keeps, whichever screen added it: product photos, colour swatches, product stories, collection and category covers, blog covers, menu tiles, page designs, saved sections, your logos and share picture, and the sign-up popup. Pictures added before the library existed are in it too.
The Media Screen
| Part | What It Gives You |
|---|---|
| Summary | How many pictures and videos (videos against your plan's limit), how many are unused, how many are missing alt text, and the space they take |
| Tabs | All, Pictures, Videos, with counts |
| Search and filters | By name or alt text; Unused and Missing Alt Text in one tap |
| Upload | UPLOAD FILES, or drop files anywhere on the page |
| One file | A side sheet with the preview, name, alt text, size, where it is used (with links to each place), REPLACE and DELETE |
Where Each File Is Used
The library keeps a list of the places that show each file, updated as you edit products, pages and menus. So you can open a banner and see it is on the home page and the Diwali collection before you change it, and a file nothing uses is marked Unused.
REPLACE, Everywhere at Once
REPLACE puts a new file in the old one's place in every place that shows it, at the same moment: products, pages, menus, all of them. A page design gets a new published version, so its history shows who replaced the picture and when. The old file is removed only when nothing points at it any more, not even an older version of a page you might restore.
Alt Text Once
Alt text (the words a screen reader says, and that search engines read) lives on the file. A picture you choose in any field starts with it, and when you save alt text in the library you can also fill it into every place that shows the file without any.
Behind Every Picture Field
Every picture field in the admin opens the same chooser: search, newest first, its own upload, and FROM MEDIA next to UPLOAD. A product's photos can take several library pictures at once (Add Photos From Media). A file that does not fit a field (a square icon, a minimum size) is greyed out with the reason.
Videos in Sections
Upload a video (up to 60 seconds and 100 MB) and Mercayo makes smaller copies for the web in the background. Use it in a Video Hero section (a full-width video with a heading, a line and up to two buttons) or behind any section you write. The cached page every shopper gets shows a still picture at its exact size; the muted, looping video fades in over it in the browser, only when it is near the screen. It never plays with data saver on, on a 2G or 3G connection, or with reduced motion; there the still stays, with a play button. A playing video has a pause button and stops when it scrolls away.
Saved Sections
A saved section is a group of up to 12 blocks you build once and place on many pages, such as a trust band or a seasonal offer strip. It has its own screen (Online Store → Editor → Saved Sections) with a draft and PUBLISH, a list of the pages it is placed on, and SAVE FOR REUSE in the page editor to keep any section as one. Change and publish it once, and every page that places it shows the change.
For your store
Why It Matters
Pictures are most of what a store is, and they drift. A festive banner is used on three pages, then the sale ends and one of them is forgotten. A product photo is reshot, and the old one stays on a collection cover. Nobody knows which files can be deleted, so none ever are.
The library fixes the three everyday problems:
- "Where is this used?" Each file lists its places, with links.
- "Change it everywhere." REPLACE swaps a file in every place at once, so a new logo or a corrected banner never leaves an old copy behind.
- "Can I delete this?" Only files that nothing shows can be deleted, so you can clear out unused files without breaking a page.
Alt text matters for shoppers who use screen readers and for search engines, and writing it once per file, instead of once per place, is what makes it get done. The Missing Alt Text filter turns it into a short to-do list.
Videos sell products that move, drape or sparkle, but they can make a page slow. Mercayo's video sections keep the page as fast as a picture page: the still is in the cached page, the video loads only in the browser and only when it is about to be seen, and phones on slow connections never download it.
Step by step
How It Works
Open Media
Go to Online Store → Media. Everything your store already shows is there, with its places.
Upload Files
Press UPLOAD FILES or drop pictures and videos on the page. Pictures keep their full quality, up to 20 MB each.
Add Alt Text
Filter Missing Alt Text, open each file and describe it. Tick the choice to add the same words wherever the file has none yet.
Use Files Anywhere
In any picture field, press FROM MEDIA and choose. On a product, Add Photos From Media takes several at once.
Replace a File Everywhere
Open the file, check where it is used, press REPLACE and choose the new file. Every place shows the new one at once.
Clear Out Unused Files
Filter Unused, select the files and press DELETE. A file still in use cannot be deleted.
Add a Video Section
In the page editor, add a Video Hero, or choose a video as a section's background, and pick a library video.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
Shoppers see your pictures at full quality, as before. A video section shows its still picture at once, then the muted video fades in over it without moving anything on the page. On a slow connection, with data saver or with reduced motion, they see the still and can press play if they want the video.
Settings
Settings You Control
All are under Online Store → Media.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
Mercayo can set either switch for a store from its console, and Mercayo's value then wins. Mercayo also sets how many videos a store's library may hold (20 on Starter, 100 on Growth, no limit on Scale), the longest video (60 seconds) and the largest upload (100 MB), and can switch the Video Hero section off for a store. Every file is checked as the store's own before it is shown, and each store's library is kept apart by the database.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- A file that is still shown somewhere cannot be deleted; remove it from those places, or REPLACE it.
- Videos are up to 60 seconds and 100 MB each, and a plan's library holds a set number of them.
- Reels keep their own library on the Reels screen; shoppers' uploads (review photos, personalisation photos) are never library files.
- The library is a list, not a grid of thumbnails, and has no folders or tags.
- Pictures added before the library may show no size until they are replaced.
- A saved section has no preview of its own; open a page that places it to see it.
Questions
About Media Library
Does REPLACE change the picture on every page?
Yes, in every place that shows it, at the same moment. You need the right to change each of those places; if one is outside your role, the replace names it and changes nothing.
Will deleting a picture break a page?
No. Only files that nothing shows can be deleted.
Are my pictures compressed?
Never. Library pictures keep their full quality; the store's speed comes from sizes and caching, not from lower quality.
Do videos slow my store down?
No. The cached page holds only the still picture; the video loads in the browser when it is about to be seen, and never on slow connections or with data saver.
Can I use the same video on several pages?
Yes. Choose it from the library in each video field; replacing it later changes it everywhere.
Where do I write alt text?
On the file in Media. A picture chosen in any field starts with it, and you can fill it into places that have none.
What is a saved section for?
Anything you show on several pages: build it once, place it on each page, and publish changes once.
Related
Related Features
- Page EditorArrange the sections of every page in a visual editor with a live preview, private drafts, share links and 30 published versions to go back to.
- ProductsA fast product list with a health strip, saved views and bulk changes you can undo, and an editor for options, variants, photos, descriptions and SEO.
- Page SpeedPages are kept ready and refreshed the moment you change something, photos are sized for each screen at full quality, and nothing on the page jumps.
- Theme EditorColours, fonts, shapes, header, cards, product page, motion, logo and sharing picture, in one editor with a live preview, readability checks and undo.
More in Admin on Your Phone: Orders · Products · Inventory · Import and Export · Collections and Categories · Order Alerts · Customers · Admin on Your Phone · Search and Command Palette · Setup Guide and Launch · Sample Data · Contact Inbox · Notification Credits · Plans and Billing · Draft Orders · Catalogue Tools · Locations, Barcodes and Stock Counts · Installable Admin
Try It on Your Own Store
Every feature is in every plan, free for 14 days.