Replace a Webflow Asset

Currently Webflow has a few limitations regarding asset replacement.

1. In designer assets, existing assets cannot be replaced.
2. New assets you upload must be materially different from existing assets, or existing assets will be used instead.

Replacing

In designer assets, existing assets cannot be replaced.

Instead you must upload a new asset, and then find and update all existing references to the original asset.

CMS assets are easier in this regards as when you update them centrally, all bound elements will also be updated.

Uploading a new asset version

Uploading a new asset only works if Webflow identifies the new asset as different from existing site assets.

This means you cannot e.g. rename an image and re-upload it on the same site, without making additional changes.

Differences include;

• File size differences
• Content differences, like a pixel edited
• Possibly, EXIF data differences ( which may also impact file size )

NOTE: If you rename an image, and then add it through the assets panel, you will see the filename update in the assets panel. This does not update the filename actually used in your published HTML.

Why does this matter?

I've seen three scenarios where there is a need to change the filename of the image without changing the image itself.

1. Ad blockers, which are very sensitive to certain keywords and letter sequences, and may block an image if the filename contains the text "ad"
2. Google Ads, which is very sensitive to HTML content. For example, it will block all ads for a site if an image filename contains the word "botox".
3. SEO. For advanced SEO, the filename is considered a part of the SEO keywording.

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