Alt text disappearing

[#1]

Hello all,

I hope that people are well and coping. I have a question please: has anyone else noticed alt text disappearing? I have added it to the first photo of every listing (and clicked Save and seen that it says that my alt text has been saved), but sometimes / often if I go to check, the alt text is gone. It seems random: sometimes it happens after a while, and other times it happens straightaway, i.e., I click save, it says the text is saved, I click on the alt text field again and it's blank. I suppose this could've been happening all along, but I've only recently started checking.

It's a bit like the thumbnail issue ("your thumbnail has been saved" when actually it hasn't), but potentially even more frustrating as the alt text seems to disappear randomly over time. Possibly. There doesn't seem to be any pattern (that I can see) to which listings it sticks on and from which is disappears.

I know about not using apostrophes, etc., so it's not that; I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas? I spent ages going through and adding it to all my listings, but if it's just going to vanish, I'm not really sure of the point!

Thank you. Take care everyone. Stay safe and sane.

[DriftingSpirits]

@AcrossLeather 
I haven't had the pleasure of the new listing experience yet, but I'm sure my time will come. Thank you for investigating; I'd be very interested to hear what answers (if any) Etsy gave you. I gave up entirely on including alt text on Etsy a few months ago as it only disappears anyway. I do use it on my own website, but there it hangs around!
Good luck anyway and thank you again.

[AcrossLeather]

On another subject where did the chat box go? I'll bne back

[AcrossLeather]

talking with Etsy right now.

[StitchRoundabout]

Like many of you, I thought it was just me having this experience too.  Alt text works for all of my photos except the first one.  Have tried adding it back multiple times, but it still keeps disappearing.

[StitchRoundabout]

Just tried what TinTeddy said above as follows:  "When adding the alt text, you have to be very careful not to move the cursor out of the box before hitting save.  The moment the mouse cursor leaves the box... the text vanishes."

I just added the text back into the alt text box in a listing where it had disappeared and did what TinTeddy said above, and it worked.  Would others please test this to see if it works for you?

@TinTeddy:  Thanks so much for the tip.

[ArcZealDesigns]

I spent weeks adding these to my images. And just logged in today and noticed the information was gone after uploading new listings and figured I would check the others. This means no one could see my listings on Google search, what a waste of time. I went in and put the alt text back into all my listings again. Hopefully, it will not disappear again.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ArcZealDesigns: While GOOD alt text does help a search engine better understand what an image is, no alt text will not result in "no one could see my listings on Google search". Also if you do not supply alt text Etsy does, they use your listing title.