Items deactivated with no explanation - error?

[TheInkyDeer]

Hi, I was just editing one of my listings for a greetings card, I then got the 'Something went wrong' Etsy error page. I then went back into my listings to see if it had saved my edits but my listing had entirely disappeared. I then noticed it had been deactivated by Etsy along with another of my greetings cards. I'm so confused and a bit panicked. These are my own watercolour illustrations of deer, very innocent handmade greetings cards. I have in fact been selling one of them since last year, and one is my bestseller, so why now?

None of the tags or titles, or descriptions violate anything I can see. I have no emails or messages to explain why this has happened. Honestly, I'm quite upset as these are Christmas designs and I rely so my on the festive season for the majority of sales.

Before I contact Etsy with my anger and frustration, I wondered if anyone else has recently had any innocent listings taken down in error with no warning? Many thanks.

[DaisyandErma]

Starting last night, I was unable to add new listings or renew expired listings. I've been listing the same kind of item for about a decade but all of a sudden it just shows in red "deactivated by Etsy." But there's nothing questionable about the items being listed and no message or email from Etsy either about what's wrong. Shop is not suspended either.

[TheInkyDeer]

Oh goodness sounds similar to my situation - it must be a technical issue. Why aren't they sorting this asap? I haven't tried to add a new listing yet, but it happened when editing a listing - and the other (Christmas card with a watercolour stag) got deactivated immediately after I sold one? I am really hoping Etsy can explain.

[Slowlybijoux]

I have the same issue, don't know why, I have the felling that Etsy is doing what they want...hope its a bug...

[FancyTogs]

Instant deactivation implies an automated keyword bot.

It may be picking up on a keyword which is related to prohibited animal products, eg. "ivory", "fur", "pelt", "antler", etc. They are not necessarily all prohibited, but trigger a manual check of the listing.

https://www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited#Q2

There are similar reports from other sellers with the listings being released after a couple of days.

Check your emails.

Lawrence (Clare's other half)

[SmallDevotionsSupply]

I was just updating the quantity and it happened to me, so not a keyword issue here.

[TheInkyDeer]

Don't think it's a keyword though - one deactivated after I edited it, and the other deactivated after I sold one. It feels really odd, and I am thinking (and hoping) technical error as I have no emails. Very strange though.

[BagmakerSupply]

@SmallDevotionsSupply: "I was just updating the quantity and it happened to me, so not a keyword issue here." Not necessarily true, the bots seem to check when a listing is created, renewed and / or edited.

[TheInkyDeer]

@BagmakerSupply Interesting, I wonder what key words it is picking up - I can't see anything problematic. The bots are out of control!

[sweettreatssupplies]

Here's the issue..Daisy is a TM term.  I looked it up last night.  Owned by the sour cream company.  Seriously...this is a flower and I had my daisy favor bags removed last night because of a sour cream TM.  Now we can't use daisy on the platform.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@SmallDevotionsSupply   It can be a keyword issue.  When a listing is edited for anything, the BOTS review and can deactivate the listing. Doesn't matter that you are only editing quantity.

[TheInkyDeer]

@sweettreatssupplies My name is Daisy - which is why my listings my listings were deactivated. (Thankfully reactivated this evening) Nothing to do with my actual items/tags/images etc. This is the most ridiculous bot take down yet, there must be hundreds of thousands of listings containing the word! But apparently I've got to change my name now lol

[SmallDevotionsSupply]

This happened to me, I was just coming to the forums to ask about it!

I was editing a listing for bead caps, I was adjusting the quantity as a shipment arrived this weekend, and once I was done editing it I went to publish and there was no publish button, the only thing i could do was hit the back button to get out of editing and that's when I saw the listing had the red "deactivated by Etsy". That was last night. I have not received an email as to why, I tried chat which is useless they said someone from the deactivation team would get in touch with me via email. This listing is one of my most popular items so I'm super frustrated with the lack of communication!

[SmallDevotionsSupply]

Weird update, the listing is now active after being deactivated since 10pm last night. I checked it before I wrote this post and it was deactivated. Just checked it again and now it's active... makes no sense!

[TheInkyDeer]

Interesting, glad it was reactivated! Hoping the same will happen for me, I guess it's a technical glitch.

[SmallDevotionsSupply]

@TheInkyDeerI also received an email from Etsy's Trust & Safety team saying that it was suspended in error. I wonder if I would have received the message had I not used the chat feature.

[DaisyPatchPrimitives]

Same thing here, I just found 10 items in my shop that have been deactivated for no reason.  I also just noticed that my items are deactivated when an order is placed.  I don't think it has anything to do with our shop listings, it may be a technical issue.

[TheInkyDeer]

Oh no 10 is quite a lot, I'm worried more of mine will be deactivated now if they sell : ( Hope Etsy hurry up and fix this!

[Sadescreations]

Had exactly the same happen to me this morning.  One of my best sellers deactivated by Etsy in red.  Sent me into a panic and was so confused as i have other listings exactly the same and they were still active. Did contact customer support but then received the normal auto reply that it may take two days to get to me.  My listing has now changed to active again and panic over for now. Must be a bug.  Hope everyone else has their listings activated soon.

[BrooklynStVintage]

@Sadescreations  It is not a bug, it is bots.

[globalMarsha]

I had a listing deactivated while I was trying to list it in my Feature section. I got no message or communication of any kind as to why this occurred.  I contacted Etsy chat and they couldn't answer my question, saying they referred me to their "technical" dept.  I heard nothing from anyone.  Two days later the listing popped up again without explanation  as to why it was delisted in the first place. 

Someone in the forums stated that perhaps bots are randomly checking for policy violations.  The lack of (NO) communication about this issue was really disheartening and worrying.  No Star Seller for them!

[BrooklynStVintage]

This happens, it will be reviewed and if it does not violate any rules will pop back into your actives soon. 

[sweettreatssupplies]

This happened to me last night about 7 p.m.  I was updating new pics to fit the new square format and had daisy print cellophane favor bags get deactivated.  I had made changes to title lines, text and tags as well as this listing had gone stagnant due to dismal sales since March.  Anything I've been updating I also been checking for any possible violations especially FDA since I had many listings with that in it.  No...listing all clean.  Didn't realize it was deactivated until I had updated a different bag and there was an additional pc of text I wanted to add.  Went back to the daisy listing to find it was missing.  I received no notice.  when I hovered over the deactivation part from Etsy it stated in BLACK to Fix my account issues...what account issues.  I decided to give it 24 hrs for a notice from Etsy to find out what the violation was.  This morning the 1st thing I did was check on that listing and it was re-activated.  I'm speculating this is a site wide glitch on Etsy everyones experiencing with a complaint about it.  I've got more to update but will wait until weekend is over

[SmudgePlant]

Seems like the bots are hitting on the word "Daisy" in some of your cases.

I searched "daisy criminal " online and "Daisy" is part of the title of an infamous vile video. Sickening to think that video may have been on Etsy.

Hopefully they will correct the bots so they are not going after the flower or shop names.

[TheInkyDeer]

I didn't know that, that's worrying! Whilst none of my deactivated listings contain words/imagery of Daisies, my name is actually Daisy so hopefully they don't decide to take down my whole shop! Really really hope that is not what is happening : (