Unable To Create or Edit Listing Templates - When I try to save I get a perpetual spinner...

[intimewithmusic]

Hi. Has anyone else noticed this? This past week the template form won't allow me to edit a listing template  or copy it and create a new one or even start from scratch. When I hit save I just get a spinner and gray screen. 

I haven't used up the 50 allowed templates. I've tried it on two separate computers. 

Mystified...

Thanks!

[magpie1313]

I'm having the same issue

[intimewithmusic]

Thanks. Someone must knowwhat's going on..

[magpie1313]

Yes they ended or reduced the amount of free listings in the promotion. If you look to see if you have anymore available then you can only list items in the following categories: Sports cards and memorabelia; Toys, Hobbies; Collectibles; Music; Video games/consoles; Stamps; Crafts; Home and garden>cards>party supplies. I have not been able to list in any other category. Hope that helps.

[davismavis017]

I just contacted ebay through chat due to the same issue. They told me they have multiple reports of the same issue and are looking into it. Don't waste time like me trying it six ways from sunday. Ebay screwed up, big surprise right?

[davismavis017]

I don't think this is correct for this issue. If the listing aren't free anymore, you pay for them. It doesn't freeze the screen.

[intimewithmusic]

tyler@ebay

Hi Tyler, Can you please review and advise as to how to proceed to use Listing Templates? Thanks!

UPDATE: Listing Template Failure Appears To Be Related To Fall Seller Update. 

As of today the gliche continues. (See 1st post for description of the gliche. 

Photo #1 (below) shows the added word [TESTED*] listing template edit.

Photo #2 and 3 (below) show what happens when you hit "SAVE TEMPLATE" (Spinner is perpetual)

                                                       

Photo #4 (below) shows the new instructions from Ebay in the CATEGORY column that the previous templates utilized.  EBAY "The category you chose for this listing template is no longer available. Please edit the template and select another category".

It appears due to the Fall Seller category reclassifications our listing templates need to be updated manually. The problem is this gliche prevents that and it seems to apply to ALL templates including the ones that still have correct categories. My example shown is from the category "Music/Other formats". That's a cat that didn't change.  You can use your unedditted templates but you have to edit them inside each listing one at a time. 

It's November 5 for gosh sakes. How much harder can they make it to get our items listed in time?

I hate to say it but it this FSU just gets worse and worse.  I yi yi yi Yiiii!

Please let me know if anyone has a fix for the Listing Template Edit Gliche.  Thank you!

Photo 3# (below) shows the new instructions from Ebay in the CATEGORY column that the previous templates utilized.  EBAY "The category you chose for this listing template is no longer available. Please edit the template and select another category".

It appears due to the Fall Seller category reclassifications our listing templates need to be updated manually. The problem is this gliche prevents that and it seems to apply to ALL templates including the ones that still have correct categories. My example shown is from the category "Music/Other formats". That's a cat that didn't change.  You can use your unedditted templates but you have to edit them inside each listing one at a time. 

It's November 5 for gosh sakes. How much harder can they make it to get our items listed in time?

I hate to say it but it this FSU just gets worse and worse. 

Please let me know if anyone has a fix for the Listing Template Edit Gliche.  Thank you!

[intimewithmusic]

PS. sorry for the repeated paragraph at the bottom. Photos go missing,  text gets redistributed and just when it's sorted out the edit box times out... 🙂

"It's a poor carpenter who blames his tools...  ;>}

[kawartha-ephemera]

These sorts of problems shouldn't happen but they do with regularity on eBay. Again, it shouldn't be necessary but the best solution might be to just create new templates and delete the old ones. Recreating templates is a chore I've found myself doing after each major "improvement" that "simplifies" selling on the site. The moment I read of these latest changes coming down the pipe I thought to myself "guess I'll need new templates then".

If the new "simplified" listing tool ever makes it way to DOT.ca I expect another go-round with templates may be the way to go. The last time I tested the new tool on DOT.com there were a few shipping details that didn't pass through correctly when I started with a template created with the classic SYI tool. Other than the template issue, I liked how the new tool has evolved since it was first introduced. Have not used it since mid-summer so I'm not up to date on the current version.

[intimewithmusic]

Hi. Thank you for your response. You may have missed this part " the template form won't allow me to edit a listing template  or copy it and create a new one or even start from scratch." But....

Good news update!! :

At 6:36pm (Friday) the templates are now saving. Haven't tried creating a new one yet but the edits are saving. So far I've  tried a category that wasn't changed (Music/Other formats). It worked! Yippee!

I will update again. This may reoccur. I wonder if the fact EVERYONE who uses templates is forced to edit them to the new categories thus ovewelming the server's capacity? 

[intimewithmusic]

False Alarm: The template system has crashed again: I was able to save a listing with one word editted. After that nudda... 

It's similar to trying book a campground in BC. Try.... nope... try ...  O G... I finally got through... nope... 

Please let me know if 

a) you can edit templates for the updated categories and can successfully save them

b)you can create new ones and  "                        "           "

c)an ebay msg " this category no longer exists....." replaced some of your template cats. 

Thanks!

[kawartha-ephemera]

I did read and I think comprehend all of that you described. My point was that in my opinion templates created prior to any of eBay's major re-shuffles are afterwards prone to errors and glitches, even if legacy templates are edited, copied, or started anew from within an old legacy template. Ebay tries to update the legacy template framework but there are often oversights, not to mention seller customizations that may have become redundtant or flat out errors. For me it's not worth fighting with them. I just pretend I'm new to eBay creating my very first listing as in where they ask "what are you selling" and craft a new listing starting from there. Starting this way keeps me wholly within the new "improved" system where my chances of no hassle success are much better. Once I have created my first totally new listing using nothing of the past, only then do I save that one as my first new template. With one new template in hand I'm then free to copy it to use as the basis for other new templates.

[shoppergurl08]

I was just going to post about this to see if others were having the same issue.  I haven't been able to edit templates for at least 3 days now.  You would think this would be fixed by now.

[intimewithmusic]

@kawartha-ephemera 

"Once I have created my first totally new listing using nothing of the past, only then do I save that one as my first new template. With one new template in hand I'm then free to copy it to use as the basis for other new templates."

There is no debating what you say you are currently able to do IE: "copy it to use as the basis for other new templates" .

Due to the gliche this is simply not possible for the rest of us.  

[kawartha-ephemera]

Are you saying you are unable to use the "Create Listing" link located in Seller Hub Overview?

What I'm suggesting you try is to use this link https://bulksell.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SingleList&sellingMode=AddItem&guest=1 thereby avoiding your old templates altogether.
Use the " Tell us what you are selling" section at the very top to choose a category and create yourself a brand new template or listing. I would be interested in hearing if a newly created template can be used without encountering this glitch. If the new template behaves correctly then copy that to create other new templates to replace the old problematic ones. Hopefully I've done a better job of explaining my suggestion than with my previous attempt.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@kawartha-ephemera wrote:
Are you saying you are unable to use the "Create Listing" link located in Seller Hub Overview?

What I'm suggesting you try is to use this link https://bulksell.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SingleList&sellingMode=AddItem&guest=1 thereby avoiding your old templates altogether.
Use the " Tell us what you are selling" section at the very top to choose a category and create yourself a brand new template or listing. I would be interested in hearing if a newly created template can be used without encountering this glitch. If the new template behaves correctly then copy that to create other new templates to replace the old problematic ones. Hopefully I've done a better job of explaining my suggestion than with my previous attempt.

---

@intimewithmusic 

@shoppergurl08 

Correct me if I am wrong but for anyone that relies on templates, each time eBay modifies item specifics in a category, isn't it going to corrupt any recently created templates? Made even worse if something gets either moved or merged into a different category.  Same thing happens with a basic draft.

-Lotz

[kawartha-ephemera]

This is the point I was (badly) trying to get across. Trying to continue using old templates can cause problems. What you end up with is a bunch of old category IS mingled together with (possibly) a new category and new IS. Throw in a few old custom IS and it becomes difficult to separate what should be there and what should not. By the way, this mingling of old and new Item Specifics is why the new search filter choices are often nonsensical, and do not work a lot of the time. The blender style implementation of this and previous category and IS changes is utter insanity. Unless EVERY listing is FORCED to use and include only the LATEST VERSION of Item Specifics the entire project is close to a waste of everyone's time and effort.

[intimewithmusic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

"Correct me if I am wrong but for anyone that relies on templates, each time eBay modifies item specifics in a category, isn't it going to corrupt any recently created templates? "

First of all Lotz thank you for your response!

Yes and no.

   Item specific data is not stored in templates. Only the description, the category, the title, the unique id and the business policies data and dimensions are stored. (photos can be stored but that's pointless.) You are correct in that every time Ebay changes the category the template requires editting. This is no big deal. You simply reallocate the category with one click.  Then all of the item specifics automatically repopulate for the new cat void of any data.

   This is the problem if you use "sell similar" or "sell one just like it". If you use them all of the item specific data  and all of the HTML that is unseen repopulates into your new listing.   You can't imagine the hidden background HTML you add to your listing put there by other sellers if you choose to use "sell one just like it".  Companies put all kinds of their own proprietary data in the HTML. For the stuff you can see you have to go thru every data box and check to see if it applies to your new listing. Let's say one is "1st Edition" but this particular book is not. The book gets returned...I should clarify... When you create a template if you fill in item specifics they WILL be stored so you don't do that if you expect changes from listing to listing just like you can store photos and wouldn't do that either. The idea of a template is to store data that saves you time and requires little or no editting listing to listing. Lets say you have a Goth clothing store. You may want to fill the item specific color with "Black" to save time. If you deside to sell an "ugly Christmas Sweater" the onus is then on you to change the IS for the sweater. The beauty of templates are customization not duplication.

   This is the 1st time in 3 years I've used them to have any sort of problem. It's exacltly why we need editting capabilities. Templates mean something different to different sellers depending on what you sell, how much you sell, how you track your sales and how you find them in your warehouse when they sell. Here's some clarifications;

* Your instructions about "Create a Listing" work just fine. The existing templates we saved before the gliche work and can today be used to create new listings. That said those who use them must be able to edit them for various reasons or they are useless.

* Templates are not important to sellers who either sell in a few categories or that have minormodifications to apply to each similar listing.

* Templates do not have to be on Ebay. Some of us use templates stored on their hard drives and upload them for each listing. Some use templates from 3rd party services such as "Ink Frog". 

*Sellers use templates in a great many ways for a lot of reasons. Here's a few;

1. If you sell in a lot of different categories (our business plan includes 50) they help with continuity and accuracy from listing to listing.

2. Templates can be configured as to direct the listing and the sale of an item to a specific revenue category in your financial statement.

3. If you want to deal in a large variety of shapes and widget sizes (in my case from guitar picks to grand pianos) templates can be used to tag the location of each item in your warehouse so your staff can find them when they sell.

4. Templates include Business Policies. If you have many items using a policy such as "No Returns" or "Free Shipping" you can edit the template to change them for all future listings. 

I understand sellers selling similar one off items in 1 or 2 categories only require a sentence or two description and would not recognize the asset value in having 50 templates.  That said anyone with a 15,000 item Ebay clothing store listing dozen's of items per day in men's, women, kids etc and possibly many non clothing  categories is going to appreciate templates that can be editted for seasons, styles, sizes, colors, etc.  

I find the 50 templates Ebay supplies to be very helpful. Having said that I have all of them saved in case of Ebay "catastrophic failure". I can go to a 3rd party with them and pay a fee if Ebay discontinues the service.   The ones on Ebay are far more convenient. For my business model it's not practical to create listings from "scratch". 

I understand many sellers don't need templates, don't use them and instead use ":sell similar, "sell one just like it" etc.  Do whatever works for you to generate a listing. For our intent and purpose templates are a valued asset. We need to modify or improve them periodically. 

At this pont I think they are malfunctioning because of the change over . I hope it clears up once other sellers have made the updates into the new categories. 

IT

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@intimewithmusic 

Pretty much. Why I've been sticking with the mantra all along that each time a category has been tinkered with it's caused a situation where listing(s) that were technically okie dokey originally have now been corrupted and ended up as spot the hidden mystery changes.

I've had one category of collectables where i've had either required or been suggested information needing updating multiple multipe times in 2021. (I refer to this as eBay deja vu without the meds.) These are vintage items with no original packing material that had to be either individually researched or creatively updated to fill in the majority of the blanks. This is not an improvement when it causes sellers extra work with little to no real benefits. 

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@intimewithmusic 

According to post 11 from dot com it is a known issue that they are working to resolve.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Seller-Tools/Why-can-t-I-edit-or-make-new-selling-templates/td-p/32430...

-Lotz