Item data DELETED BY ETSY Materials Attribute

[FatherandSonGlass]

Sellers - take a moment to check your listings!!!

I have reported this issue to Etsy with no resolution. I do not know how wide spread this is, or how it affects or impacts sales. I do all of my listing and editing on a PC, not on the App.

Yard Art Category, Materials Attribute - info was deleted by Etsy

Before the update: Glass and Copper selected. 

During update: Glass and Copper DELETED. 

After update: Glass and Copper are valid choices to select (prior choices were not removed from the drop down). Etsy has told me that I have to manually re-enter the data!!!

Here is the response I got from a supervisor by email:

"I appreciate you sharing your concerns. Etsy regularly updates categories and attributes, which can sometimes cause fields like "Materials" to appear blank on older listings, even if you originally filled them in.
 
Unfortunately, Etsy doesn’t always send direct notifications for every change, so manual review is needed to keep your listings current. I understand how frustrating this is, and I’m sharing your feedback with our team for future improvements."

First of all - I have found this issue on most of my listings, regardless of age.

ETSY: Why was the data deleted? When did it happen? How does it affect my listings (impact to search, rank etc.)?

Did this happen just to Yard Art? Was the attribute update specific to Yard Art (if it was, NO COMMUNICATION was sent to sellers). I know that the Jewelry category had an update in June (thanks to another seller on the forums for the info).

WILL THIS HAPPEN AGAIN??? 

I have spent hours re-entering data that Etsy deleted and I have less than 100 listings!!!

[FancyTogs]

Make sure that you are saving backups of your listings.

Settings > options > download data

There is no automated upload available, but it does give you a copy of all the text that you have entered, and provides links to the master images saved on Etsy. You can use it for repairing damaged listings, and for recreating deleted listings.

Lawrence (Clare's other half)

[FatherandSonGlass]

I appreciate the tip and will add that to my process in the future.

I want to alert other sellers that this may have happened to their own listings. I also want Etsy to explain how deleting item data that is accurate and valid is an acceptable business strategy.

[breadandroses2]

Yes, we're finding this as well. It's unacceptable that Etsy makes these changes without our knowledge &/or consent. By removing attributes in existing sellers' listings, they are violating our privacy in a sense. And as with every wrongheaded test/change/screwup by Etsy, we foot the bill with endless uncompensated time/labor trying to fix this nonsense. 

[AzanaPhotoFrames]

Glad I'm not the only one, how infuriating - Etsy removed three of my material attributes per listing and replaced them with just one attribute 'paper', which NONE of my materials are made of paper! This is incorrect information for the buyers.

Now, I can't manually add it as before and it is not in the dropdown list.

Looks like I will have no attributes at all.

Please fix this, Etsy.