All My Drafts Have Disappeared. What is going on?

[houseofblair]

This is the second time that this has happened to me.  This time 4,000 drafts disappeared within a matter of hours after I had been working on them.  None of the listings were over the 75 day rule.  Most are from November 3-15.  In fact, I had created a listing draft, closed it and went to do research and I come back and it along with all my drafts are gone.  I cannot and will not recreate those drafts.  That would be like recreating the wheel!  I had a chat session last night but nothing resolved.  Just said "You have no drafts".  I'm hoping this isn't just an isolated case.  Anyone else have this happen to them?

[wilsonharborsales]

I was receiving a ‘server: call error’ when trying to open drafts last night, but I don’t let them build up over 60 items.  If they are gone from the app and the pc, you will need to rebuild them.

[dy60609]

 I'm hoping this isn't just an isolated case.  

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So,  ............................you are hoping that this has happened to everyone ??

[wastingtime101]

There are several reports about this since yesterday. Do you see a sitewide tech ticket devon@ebay ?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Drafts-have-disappeared-Glitch/m-p/34774770

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Where-did-my-drafts-go/m-p/34774665

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Can-somewhere-tell-me-where-drafts-are-located-In-Oct-the...

Unfortunately @houseofblair the first response is correct that once drafts vanish, they can't be recovered.

4,000 drafts - yikes - please tell me you were using a file upload to begin with so you don't have to start from scratch?

[houseofblair]

Nope.  Just wondering if anyone else was experiencing what I was.

[devon@ebay]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

There are several reports about this since yesterday. Do you see a sitewide tech ticket devon@ebay ?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Drafts-have-disappeared-Glitch/m-p/34774770

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Where-did-my-drafts-go/m-p/34774665

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Can-somewhere-tell-me-where-drafts-are-located-In-Oct-the...

Unfortunately @houseofblair the first response is correct that once drafts vanish, they can't be recovered.

4,000 drafts - yikes - please tell me you were using a file upload to begin with so you don't have to start from scratch?

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Hey @wastingtime101! I have not seen any sitewide tickets open as of now but I have reached out to Product teams to see if they are aware of the issue.  

[houseofblair]

Since this is the second time that this has happened to me, I will not be reinventing the wheel and redoing all those draft listings.  I simply would end listings and use sell similar to rework the old listings.  I was trying to not go over my allotted free listings so I have always used this method.  I'll just throw my hands up and keep going forward.  I'm just about ready to quit as sales have been horrible and I list daily.  

[brentandbecca]

This is a major issue. I can't even save any new drafts. I try to create a new listing, it goes to manage drafts, and there are 0 results.

I was working on drafts for Christmas and all 195 of my newly created drafts disappeared yesterday afternoon at the same time my order pages/awaiting shipment page changes happened. I was hoping they were connecting and thus drafts could be fixed or recovered.

I still can not create a new draft today, not on PC or mobile app. They don't save. Unless they are being saved on a "new" drafts page that is not correctly linked up yet, if that makes sense.

Just like the "new" message system (which is way worse now, IMO) and the other new pages/changes.

[wilsonharborsales]

There is a whole section that can help with drafts here:  https://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager/faqs.html

[brentandbecca]

That link leads to a page that no longer exists, it says.

But again, this isn't a "drafts" issue. It's an eBay tech issue impacting several users. I've talked with CS.

They are tinkering with so many changes that were not known to be coming even by CS, and multiple pages changed on the site yesterday for me. The day before, I got the new messages change. Yesterday, the variation listings process changed and the awaiting shipment page changed, yet other pages, such as orders shipped or active listings,have not changed to this "new" look with bubble buttons vs clickable lines/list links.

So I was guessing a change to some of our draft page, made the pages go blank and when we go to save a draft either on PC or mobile, they aren't saving anywhere.
So I am hoping their exists a newer version of the Drafts page on the back end that will go live soon so this starts working again.

[wilsonharborsales]

One work-around is to leave the bulk drafts page open until you are ready to use the drafts.  Unfortunately, I have lost huge amounts of drafts in the past, so I don't keep many drafts in my draft bank for longer than 1 day.  

[brentandbecca]

Yes, I do leave it open, but once you leave it or click on any, or computer/browser restarts or ... You lose them.

But they way we do business here, without turbolister anymore or sixbit, we utilize drafts. My employees create them, I review and post. But these were for seasonal items, so I just started working on them after my employees worked on creating them the past few weeks.

Seeing many reports from yesterday alone, it has to be a back end issue that impacted a small amount of accounts. And again, mine happened at the exact moment my seller hub pages changed. I was on eBay working and bam.

[brentandbecca]

***UPDATE*** 11/13/24

My drafts reappeared on the phone app this morning for about 20-30 minutes, then left again.

Now 2 hours later, they have reappeared on the mobile app and PC site. Including the new drafts I had created during this time that were not saving.

Wild.

***Another Update***

Now, minutes later, they are all gone again. UGH

[devon@ebay · Accepted solution]

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@houseofblair wrote:

This is the second time that this has happened to me.  This time 4,000 drafts disappeared within a matter of hours after I had been working on them.  None of the listings were over the 75 day rule.  Most are from November 3-15.  In fact, I had created a listing draft, closed it and went to do research and I come back and it along with all my drafts are gone.  I cannot and will not recreate those drafts.  That would be like recreating the wheel!  I had a chat session last night but nothing resolved.  Just said "You have no drafts".  I'm hoping this isn't just an isolated case.  Anyone else have this happen to them?

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Hey @houseofblair! The Product team just confirmed that the issues with drafts should now be resolved! 

[houseofblair]

Thank you!  It is greatly appreciated.