Those affected by the This Item Not Available in your Region -

[#1]

Many posts about this glitch - I haven't seen this in my shop yet, but in doing a bit of research on shops with listings affected, I've found the following -

* These listings show in shop search, as well as Etsy search - so they are not "deindexed" in the the usual sense.

*Once clicked on the thumbnail, it shows the error message "Sorry, this item is unavailable in your region"

* All the ones affected that I checked still show in the mobile Buyer App (the orange icon) - and you can click to view, add to cart, and (presumably) purchase.

* The glitch / bug applies to the mobile browser / desktop site - still shows "not available" when trying to view.

There doesn't seem to be anything Sellers can do, but if you happen to get a message from a Customer who intends to purchase, ask them to fave the item, and try viewing it on the mobile Buyer app.

Any other observations, comments from chat or support?

[APrints]

@HauntCoutureAtelier Try using opaque/transparent dots on your thumbnail images. Dots that are wider than the legs of the dolls. Place them over the border of the clothing and skin. That may be enough to confuse the bots, but still allow a human to see what you are selling?

[LindasJewelryShop]

I have noticed this on 10 of my listings. What I did find is that the ones blocked are backdrop necklaces that I display on a mannequin with an open back dress, more skin exposure. Anyone else notice this with listings that don't show skin?

[TheHomeEcLady]

Only my blank doll patterns were affected. They are naked? Nothing detailed, just blank. I even made a brand new listing and it is also unavailable.

[APrints]

@LindasJewelryShop The images of the model with more space between the body and the arm are being blocked. The bot may see the arm as a leg. The ones with the arm almost against the body are fine. 

[LindasJewelryShop]

@APrints I think maybe the bots look for a percentage of skin exposed in the entire pic. Several of mine have the arm up close against the body and its still blocked. I just hope they fix it. The emerald backdrop is one of our bestsellers. 

[FashionForWomen]

Etsy paid a blunt robot, seeking only the color of the skin and comparing the skin area. A large area of the skin in the picture means it must be a naked body. You can bleach the skin and the item is visible again.

[PillowDetails]

Just a thought - if you have a Buyer who can't view your listing,  and you've suggested they try the mobile Buyer app, but they don't use that -

*  does copying an "unavailable" listing and making a CUSTOM ORDER work?  Can it be viewed by the Buyer, since it isn't actually published on Etsy?

If anyone wants to test it, let me know which listing, and I can request a Custom thru the app, then check on desktop to see what it looks like.  This would be a Custom order thru messages, and won't cost anything.  And I won't be buying it - just to test if it's showing the "unavailable" message or not.

I suspect it should not, but not 100% sure.

[TheHomeEcLady]

I deactivated one of my affected listings, remade it and included a brand new PDF link, and it still says unavailable in my area. SO frustrating.

[NancyQstudio]

I just processed the orders myself.  My buyers were frustrated with Etsy.  I was foolish enough to promote Etsy on my sites through their share program and I drove these buyers to my Etsy shop.  

I don't feel it's my responsibility to do a work-around for Etsy.  I won't  purchase a custom listing for an item I'm already paying fees for.  

I am hoping Etsy fixes this issue in the coming week so things can resume as normal.  If not, I'm preparing for that too. Etsy has become rather difficult to work with these days,  

[TheHomeEcLady]

This is very frustrating, as it is only affecting my best selling items. I have lost at least 2 sales in the last few hours because of it. I even deactivated one of the listings and created a new one, even redoing the linked PDF, and it still says it's unavailable in my area. I contacted customer support, but I have zero hope they will ever get back to me (per usual). I'm losing sales at what is usually my busiest time of year and I am terribly disappointed with Etsy.

[vintageNCtreasures]

@TheHomeEcLady 

I guess the out of control bots think your doll bodies are naked children.
I'd be ticked off for sure.

This is what I noticed.
On your doll bodies that just showed the bodies in the pictures, those were all unavailable.

But on the doll bodies where you have a white box with text on the pictures, those items are available.

ETA: now I find this, a closeup of a leg/foot that has a white box with text and it shows unavailble. The only thing I noticed on it was the white box with text was in the corner and not over the item.

How many shoppers will think it's the sellers "fault" that these items are not showing up for them when they show for sale in that shop?
How many will realize it's ETSY that is doing this.
And how many shoppers will just give up and not contact the seller and go to eBay or another site to buy something?

[JSchulerArt]

Yes. this issue is affecting me this morning when I wanted to promote an item.

[DaysofYoreTreasures]

One thing I would lay money on is that Etsy management have dashboard stats that we could only dream of. If GMS and conversion rates are down come Monday morning I think we will see a quick reversal of this buggy code.

[NancyQstudio]

@DaysofYoreTreasures I hope this is the case. I'm afraid this won't be a priority.  I'm still making sales this weekend even through Etsy has made tones of my listings unavailable for purchase.  I'm afraid Etsy may see their $5 program as a success and ignore this issue.  

[AliceDesignArtStore]

I had 5 listings affected, when I reached out to Etsy chat support, I got nothing meaningful, so I decided to email them. Got an automated reply, which mentioned this:

"Per our Mature Content Policy, certain nudity and sexual imagery are permitted on Etsy, but items depicting human genitalia, sexual activity, and certain other kinds of explicit content must be presented appropriately.

This means:

Your first listing image should be family-friendly. Mature content must be entirely removed, censored, or cropped so that it isn’t visible in the thumbnails of your first photos.
Subsequent images may show the content uncensored."

In short, replacing the cover image did solve the issue immediately (still need to create new thumbnails for 2 of those).

Hope this helps someone!

[TheHomeEcLady]

I sell blank dolls. I guess I have to dress them and cover them up so clients can buy them? This is just silly.

[vintageNCtreasures]

@AliceDesignArtStore 

The problem is all of these items I see unavailable are ALL family friendly. 
Nothing sexual in it, no nudity because some of these unavailable items don't have people or any body part in them.

An arm with a bracelet is not sexual.

A painting of a mermaid is not sexual nor was it nude.

A pillow or a tea towel with pumpkins is not sexual.
Maybe since the pumpkins didn't have clothing on to cover them up those bots thought they were "nude". 

A blank doll body is no way sexual even though it doesn't have clothes on and doesn't have genitals, it's clear it's NOT a read baby.
Though I did see a closeup of doll feet with shoes that were for the shoe pattern and it was unavailable which is nuts!

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

Here are some of my blocked items:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRbmvmbrkrB/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK-D86GrBfg/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgSazgivj1H/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Definitely not mature or inappropriate for family viewing.

[VintageBarbiePhotos]

My photos are not sexual.  This affecting many sellers with zero sexual images.  

[AliceDesignArtStore]

@TheHomeEcLady I completely agree, this is just nonsense.

Try using the same image as the cover one, but this time just crop it by a few pixels.

It seems like Etsy has those images flagged, but this changes the file contents and seems to work.

[AliceDesignArtStore]

@vintageNCtreasures IMHO, it seems someone at Etsy made a hot mess by letting the bots decide what is inappropriate, and now they should manually review those images, but most likely it won't happen.

Cropping the cover image by a few pixels and reuploading it did the job for my listings.

[vintageNCtreasures]

@AliceDesignArtStore 
Exactly. Some programmer has NO clue and just unleashed these bots to not show items that should never have been made unavailable.

And now someone (or probably no one) will reviews all these items or if they do it will take forever to get them to show up available.

Wonder how many sales will be lost this weekend with Etsy's $5 off $25 promo going on?

[AliceDesignArtStore]

@vintageNCtreasures now the listings are back, the sales are increasing instantly.

I got the word from my customer who asked me why I  made it unavailable for the region.
This is SO frustrating, there's no way either of us can tell when this has started or how many sales we've lost. The customers will think twice before coming back, and Etsy is staying silent.

To say I am livid right now is an understatement.

[leinweberstudio]

Wonder how many sales will be lost this weekend with Etsy's $5 off $25 promo going on?

Which makes my suspicious mind say "and what if it was intentionally launched at the same time as the $5 promo, so they won't have to pay out as much?"

Sadly, with zero trust left in the site, I say anything is possible.

[FashionForWomen]

Etsy saw a lot of money at the time of Civid, so she spends. The losses of Etsy will be huge. It sells ELO7 from the loss of the Brazilian company, bought it for a lot of money $ 217 million and sells it cheaply. Why in Europe does not create a customs and postal place as Alibaba, Amazon and Wish. This would increase sales in Europe.