Alt Text working for you?

[TheAtticRooms]

Hi everyone, I'm just trying to update some of my old neglected listings and can't seem to type into the photo' alt text box. Having to re click after every single letter I type to refresh the cursor and allow it to type. I know the alt text box is always a bit sluggish but this is next level annoyance. Anyone else having issues today? Given up for now but just trying to establish if it's an Etsy glitch or a 'me' glitch! I seem to be able to type here freely so maybe Etsy has an issue.

[CustomSawdustCo · Accepted solution]

not a prob i've noticed - is it possible to write in Notepad or something then copy/paste into the field?

[TheAtticRooms]

@CustomSawdustCo Now that is a really good idea! Why didn't I think of that? Thank you! That's a great workaround.

[CustomSawdustCo]

huh, and having just said it was working for me (because I updated some alt text yesterday) i just checked again and it's behaving exactly as borked as you say

(this in Firefox browser if it's relevant)

[TheAtticRooms]

@CustomSawdustCo Just tried this and it worked. Thanks for the suggestion!

[TheAtticRooms]

@CustomSawdustCo I'm using Chrome on desktop. Glitching all over the place but I can use your copy and paste method so I can get by till it stops misbehaving. Super annoying glitch though! 

[CeLidDigitalHouse]

I just tried it myself and yes it happened to me also. I think what you can do at the moment is select all the text and move it to another text editor such as notepad and modify there. After that, you can copy and paste the updated words into the alt text box. It's a bit troublesome but that's what you can do if you need to edit the alt text while waiting this glitch to be fixed.

[TheAtticRooms]

@CeLidDigitalHouse Thanks so much, yes, that's what I am going to do I think. I feel so silly I didn't think of doing that myself. Think I got too caught up in swearing and muttering at the desktop screen!

[TheHopAndPop]

urghhh, the whole photo editor is falling to bits (but i noticed the etsy icon has changed colour from orange to black down the side of the dashboard, so thank goodness for that!! /s)

[TheAtticRooms]

"

@TheHopAndPop I know! I have just spent a very irritating half hour shouting at the screen! A cup of Yorkshire tea calls and then copy and pasting shall commence!

[TheEternalKnot]

Same problem yesterday. You are not alone...

[ArtyCaves]

Same here, I also couldn't set up a new listing yesterday so I've had to copy and edit an existing listing just to get it published.  It shouldn't be this difficult!

[artbyjocelyn]

Yes, no, not yesterday it wasn't. Allowed one letter then deactivated the field and could not continue the sentence at all, only 1 letter at a time.

[DougsVintageStore]

Mine was fine yesterday, just checked and yup its broke.

Doing the paste from text editor. Jeez!

[digidwnlds4u]

I am having the same issue and can't find a way to report it. Do you know how I can?

[CatherinesAtticFinds]

Same here. 

[WitticismsRus]

Yep, it started yesterday for me and is beyond aggravating. Sure, I could just copy and paste from a word doc but I really shouldn't have to do that to get a simple text box to work. Not to mention the extra time it takes.  The only other option is endless mouse clicks to put the cursor back after every single letter typed. Nope. Just Nope. Way too much clicking and mousing. Why can't things just work properly around here?

[MouseGarden]

No and it happened yesterday.  I got one letter and gave up.  

So what it has been doing in the past is text lagging.  I think there is a coding problem because it worked fine before they rolled out the new page, and now it has actually stopped and become unusable.

[CanningCrafts]

I had the sluggish issue with alt text yesterday... and now today I see that Etsy has CHANGED how to add alt text. Instead of opening up the photo editor & seeing the text block on the page for alt text, now we have to click a button on each individual photo to ADD alt text on a new pop up window. Like WTF Etsy?? A new extra click for each individual photo. Anyone else get this new "improvement" Might explain why the feature was "broken" yesterday. 

[WitticismsRus]

@CanningCrafts 

I'm seeing the same today. Etsy and the endless clicking grrr. They love to add extra mouse clicks to everything they try to "improve". It may be my zoom setting but I also have to scroll a bit to get to the actual alt text text box now which is as annoying as the extra clicks grrr.

At least it seems to be working. 

[CanningCrafts]

@WitticismsRus It is beyond inefficient now. It is so easy to add alt text on Shopify. They have the arrow button on the right side to advance to the next photo to add alt text. So you have very little hand movement going on. It was already a dumb process on Etsy having to go from the left side to the right side to add text. Over & over repetitive hand movements. And now this. I'm done adding individual alt text now. 

[WitticismsRus]

@CanningCrafts 

Mine just switched back to how it was yesterday with the text box showing (no extra clicks to get to the alt text) but it's still broken not working properly like yesterday. 

[CanningCrafts]

@WitticismsRus I'm seeing that now too... back to the text box but stupid slow still.

[MyRetroRecollections]

Had that problem today also. My computer said a MS update needed to complete so I shut down and let that run. Now the Alt text page looks all different. There is a statement on top that I don't remember seeing... about "Etsy might add Alt Text if they think you need it."   I was able to edit my Alt texts but it was confusing. Once I said "Apply" another window popped up.. looked like it was zoomed in on a bit. X on the right to close the window and it again had an "APPLY" If you "Apply again it just goes in a circle again. So I clicked on the X to shut the window and it said my changes would not be saved.. but I hadn't changed anything after the first Edit and Reply so I just shut it down. It's way confusing. I don't want Etsy adding things to my listings. If I want Alt text (always do).. I will add it myself with my own words.

[CanningCrafts]

@MyRetroRecollections  Etsy has actually been adding alt text to seller's listings with Ai for a while now. This may just be a test where some users can see this added alt text & others cannot. The "added" alt text is not shown on your backend, it's only something you can see by looking at the source code on product pages. In the past, the alt text would just default to your product title. That is NOT what this is. They have lengthy descriptive sentences for alt text. And sometimes they wrongly describe the product.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/My-Alt-text-for-photos-is-being-written-BY-Etsy-A-t...