Etsy Support just responded: NEW LISTING FORM is experiencing "wide spread outage" & not working!

[#1]

June 14: I have just gotten off the phone with Etsy Support.  Over the past (nearly 2) weeks, I could not consistently list new items in my shop, The Gilded Griffin.   I have reported this multiple times to Support, and each time, Support states that yes, there are glitches and the New Listing Form is not working.  Tonight, they said that they are asking sellers to use The Old Form, if possible, but she also stated that the Old Form is likewise inconsistent and, at times, blocking new listings as well.

Etsy Support also stated tonight that they have known about this for some time now and that, yes, this is considered a widespread outage. I responded that the sellers are not currently notified about this and asked why Etsy's Mgmt. refuses to acknowledge this lack of communication. 

Etsy Support told me they were sorry, but since this is being categorized as a "widespread outage," they have no idea when it will be resolved. Support simply indicated that there is no end in sight presently while they are working on this.  Hopefully, it will be resolved when The Old Form goes away....

If you are being affected by this 'widespread outage', your feedback is crucial. Please contact Etsy to let them know about your experience!  

I hope that these changes are going to make some kind of incredible difference for the best once this is all resolved!

Best wishes to everyone!

[WitticismsRus]

Yeah, it was working fine for me for the past couple of hours but it's giving me the same ""Hm, we're having trouble saving your changes.  Try again, and if this keep happening contact Etsy Support."  for the past 10 minutes or so. I guess I'm taking a break for a bit and will try again later. grrr. I will say that It's super annoying to be on a roll chugging along being productive getting work done only to have to slam on the brakes because etsy is being buggy *again*. Some days I feel like I waste so much time just trying to be productive here . Today seems to be one of those days.

[BodkinsFrance]

I have just listed items and tweaked older listings in the new form and had the "Hmm we are having....etc "

I kept that page open and opened a second one and copied and pasted using the old listing form. It published fine. Then I just left the new form listing without saving changes (chance would have been a fine thing) and closed it down.

I much preferred the old form, but was getting used to the new one. I really despair of the amount of time wasted on it when it doesn't work properly though. As others have said, we are all lab rats doing the testing for them.

[TheGildedGriffin]

Hello @BodkinsFrance  and thank you for commenting. I am determined to keep this topic running so that Etsy hears how difficult all this is on their sellers.  

Yes, I was told by Etsy Support that [This content has been removed by Moderation. We ask that you please review Section 1, Item 2 of our Community Policies before posting in the Forums.]

Thank you again.

[hopeandjoystudios]

It worked fine in one shop and in another it would not let me copy and edit a listing( well you could DO it but it wouldn't publish) nor use a similar sold listing. I had to make the listings from scratch or they wouldn't publish.  Maybe a glitch with editing??

I see no option for the old lister anymore. 

[SeasideRoseCreations]

Same...no option for old listing.

I wanted to go back because, like you, I was copying and editing a listing and it wouldn't save.

[hopeandjoystudios]

I wish they had a template option like Ebay . Even just a couple so all your boilerplate info was saved. I had been copying listings and editing which was at least a work around but now....

[FunkyJunkyVintage]

I am SO PISSED! I just spent I don't know how long on a listing that I'd copied from a sold listing and when I went to publish it said "renew".

Went to the top of the page and it still said "sold out".

What the hell? I just wasted so much time doing something that I've done thousands of times and NOW it doesn't work?

[Adorabilities]

@FunkyJunkyVintage 

Did you set the quantity to more than one? That seems to be the workaround for the "sold out" problem.

[DoggieCustomCouture]

I am having the same problem which is preventing me from relisting items for sale.  Sadly this hurts sales... We need to be able to relist items that have not sold.

[pHashIONpassION]

Unbelievable! As an Etsy shop owner, I feel as if I am in the TWILIGHT ZONE! 

[Redpeonycreations]

I tried twice to list a new item yesterday, and both times I unexpected lost all the data I had just imputed!  I went back to the old form and in a couple of minutes had the item listed- no problems at all!  All in all, I lost 30 min. trying to use the new form!!! Why is Etsy making this so hard???  

[rebstuff2]

The new form won't save drafts on my Mac, so I'm still using the old one till the 25th, then I'm not sure what I'm going to do. It works on my ipad but not very well and the photo editing is terrible and its slower to list than on the old form . I don't understand how the new form is quicker, or why they needed to change it?

[mailordervintage]

Tried to copy an expired listing first on the 'old form' and it did not work....so decided to try the new form and at the top right it said 'copy' so I figured that meant 'copy'...by the time I made my changes, the bottom right was set at renew....I renewed it but this has happened twice...I was aiming both times for a 'copy'....I must be missing something here as I always found it pretty easy to copy stuff before and now it is not working!

[Adorabilities]

@mailordervintage 

Sounds like you edited the original listing instead of the copy. It should say "publish" instead of "renew" if it were the new listing.

[mailordervintage]

okay thanks,  I will try it again and see if I can find 'publish'...

[mailordervintage]

It worked...but a slow process for me working around the new listing format...back to school again!

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

It is such a joke!   Why not keep the old form while they work out how to make it work!

[NancyQstudio]

I've been having the problem intermittently with the new form for a long while. It doesn't work more often than it works.  So I'm not convinced the form is experiencing a sudden wide spread outage.  It seems to have been glitchy for a long time without a successful fix.  And, I was told a few weeks ago when reporting my problems  with the new listing form again to Etsy that they were aware of wide spread issues.  

[TheGildedGriffin]

Just as an update today...I have been listing without problem if I work early in the morning EST time zone.  After all this, I thought I might mention how this is playing out at this time.  I also appreciate everyone who wrote a response to my initial post and thank you again for all your kind help!

[RustyCrustyRepurpose]

Sooooo, come the 25th “ No listing for you”.

[GroundZeroCreations]

A day or two ago I was having trouble publishing edited listings and new listings both. For some odd reason, I found if I previewed the listing before I tried to publish it and then clicked to publish that it would work. But that was really ticking me off by the time I found that workaround. 

[TheGildedGriffin]

Fascinating.  I will try to keep that in mind to try myself if I run into issues again.  I never thought to do that myself whatsoever!  Thank you for giving us yet another good idea!

[ReduxVintageBoutique]

I just got back from a month-long vacation to find that numerous listings are tagged "update required". The listing detail does not indicate what may need to be done, so I'm at a loss. In addition, the dreaded header message that the old form is going away tomorrow (6/25) shows up. Plus, as I tried to update a listing, I also got the error message that Etsy is "having a problem" - eventually losing any update I tried. I'm only just now discovering what all of you seem to know - Etsy is dragging it's feet at our expense.

[Crozroadz]

Last month, I reached my tenth anniversary on Etsy selling both my art and vintage. At first it was a creative advocation; when I retired from teaching, it became an enjoyable way to supplement my pension. Now, with this year’s Etsy changes, it has become a frustrating, stressful job with very little return for my hard work and efforts.

First, up until a few months ago, every online shopper who ‘hearted’ me or buyer who gave me a review received a personal thank you message with a discount code to use anytime in the future. There was no ‘opting into a promotion’, no obligation—simply me showing my gratitude. These messages also promoted my shop as MANY ‘heartings’ turned into purchases, and reviewers became return customers. NO LONGER—the ‘contact’ icon was removed. My sales for the past six months compared to the same six months in 2023 are down 78%.

Second, is the new listing format. I used to love the process of adding new items to my store: researching vintage, composing descriptions, and editing and selecting the best photos to show the item to online buyers. The time to actually download pics, proofread, preview and publish a listing used to take about five to ten minutes. NO LONGER…

I have twelve new items to list—the descriptions are done, the photos are ready, BUT I am now on my fourth day working to get them downloaded for publishing—PROBLEM? Every listing is met with the dreaded burgundy square message: “UM, we’re having trouble uploading those files…” over and over again--message received FIFTEEN times during ONE listing attempt. I have only been able to get two completed…AND then,

More aggravation, the ‘PREVIEW’ function used to allow me to check how the listing will appear to my customers and then go back to ‘Save as Draft’ to continue editing and finessing if necessary. No more, I have to go back to all listings and enter again.

WHY, OH WHY…

Why does Etsy make us work harder when they could actually give us the tools to work smarter? OR, at least leave the tools that work alone?

[BagmakerSupply]

@Crozroadz: We are also celebrating our 10th year on Etsy and like you have seen many changes. Have to agree with you that so many of the 'improvements' have been devastating for individual sellers - particularly the new listing form if all the posts in this forum are anything to go by. So many of these issues seem that they could be eliminated or at least minimized by better oversight by management.

However some things have been in reaction to some seller's misuse and Etsy trying to protect itself from the ever increasing laws. Whether you realize it or not, "every online shopper who ‘hearted’ me or buyer who gave me a review received a personal thank you message with a discount code" is the text book definition of SPAM if the recipient did not give you explicit permission in advance to contact them with offers. That is why the contact option was removed and replaced by targeted offers that buyers have to opt in to. One way to offset that is to include information in every shipment about an eMail list your buyers can opt into so you can legally send them offers and announcements.