Can't Send Invoice - spinning load wheel / screen flashes (firefox)

[igotgames1134]

I'm having the exact same problem another user posted about Feb 2017 but no one replied to their posts.

The link below shows a picture of what is happening to me:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Technical-Issues/Invoice-Page-Glitch-spinning-load-wheel-scree...

Basically, there's a spinning load wheel, and the screen flashes but I can't click on the 'send invoice' button.

This is happening  to me on Firefox 64.0 Release / Windows X (which is up to date according to Windows Update)

It doesn't happen to me using IE though but I do everything on Firefox.

I don't recall adding anything Anyone know how to fix it? Or where to start looking?  Thanks in advance.

[berserkerplanet]

You pretty much voiced the answer yourself - it is a browser related issue. (the poster in the 2017 thread you reference was also using Firefox)

As such, and in light of the fact that you are the only one having the issue that has come forward, it would be a very low priority ("can you say zero?") for eBay to do anything about.

Only solution is to use a browser that works (IE, an older Firefox version, etc).

Firefox 31 was working when I last set up to send an invoice a week ago (stopped short of hitting the Send button, waited, and then opened a UPI instead).

I have no pending unpaid sales, so can't test anything like the following.

You could try spoofing your Firefox browser as an older version (I do the opposite and spoof FF31 as FF52 and FF59 all the time to lie to eBay servers for some functions), assuming you can find the tools to use in FF64 to do so (that is one of the primary reasons I stick with older versions - FF2, FF3, FF11, FF31, FF52 - 15 years of addons/tools many of which still work and I use were tossed away with Firefox Quantum.)

I use User-Agent Switcher (and have for 15 years), but the developer has a note on his website that starting with FF57 the addon will require a total rewrite from scratch, and it sounds like he has other things to do.

You could test the idea manually by following the procedure here:
https://www.howtogeek.com/113439/how-to-change-your-browsers-user-agent-without-installing-any-exten...
and use a Firefox 31 user-agent: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0
or a Firefox 52 UA like: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0
and then try the invoice page.

[igotgames1134]

Thank you. 

I'm not really a big tech person and afraid I'd break something trying any of that. 

I guess my main hope would be for Firefox to fix the issue and I'll just have to use IE until then to send invoices.

[eburtonlab]

@igotgames1134

As a workaround, you might be able to open a private window in Firefox and then navigate to the appropriate page and see if it gets you past the spinning wheel. It would require an extra sign-in.

If that works, that might indicate the problem is with your Firefox extensions, history/cookies or profile. If clearing cookies and site data in your Firefox Tools: Options menu doesn't help, you could try Help: Troubleshooting Information to start Firefox with Add-ons disabled, or Refresh Firefox.

[igotgames1134]

Thanks - I just tried opening a private window in Firefox but got the spinning wheel there too 😞

[berserkerplanet]

You'd be surprised how easy it is to start "hacking" things once you jump in, but I understand your reluctance.

The Howtogeek instructions are pretty straightforward, and as long as you only change that one setting temporarily, and then reset it back to default when done seeing if it works, you can't break anything.

(if spoofing the user-agent were to do the trick, and the spinning wheel went away and the invoice page worked, then the next step would be figuring out how to make spoofing the useragent for that eBay page easy or automatic like it is for me using user-agent switcher addon for global manual temporary switches and UAcontrol addon for automatic spoofs for particular sites)

Whether it is something Mozilla broke that affects multiple sites and pages or something subtle they changed that an eBay change conflicts with is unknown, but unless it affects A LOT of people, don't hold your breath for a fix from either. Once either etch group becomes aware of it it would get tossed in a queue for fixing, and priority would depend on impact.


Switching to IE is a workable option. I use 3 versions to get my eBay stuff done, with 2 of the 3 always running, so it has become second nature to know where to go to do certain things. I do most of my work in FF3.6.24 where more and more eBay stuff doesn't work every day, but I just copy links I know are broken in that browser to the clipboard instead of clicking them, pop over to FF31 browser, paste it in, do my business, then go back to FF3.6.24


What the problem comes down to is that there is either some functionality in your browser that has changed or is no longer present that eBay calls upon for rendering that page, or eBay *thinks* it isn't present and presents your browser with alternate code or executes alternate scripts/functions based on that determination.

That is where the browser spoofing comes in. Spoofing doesn't always work if the browser fingerprint/capabilities are determined via scripting, but when it does, you can lead the server around by the nose ring by manipulating the user-agent, and sometimes get it to display what you want (ie: make it show you a mobile page or make it show you a fall back page that works in your browser. Very hit and miss, but a trivial thing to check when the proper tool are installed.

Anyway, you can use IE until something gets fixed, and I'll try to remember to experiment if I ever get the opportunity (needing to send an invoice comes up once a year for me, so not likely soon, and I can't think of any way around waiting for the need to arise to be able to test)