ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
I keep seeing sporatic gallery photos not loading correctly on ebay even though everything seems OK.
Example is this item: 362384991839, 362384179620
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You might ask SixBit how they schedule. They could either connnect to eBay every fifteen minutes and send a listing, or they could connect just once and give ebay a schedule. I think scheduling is now free, so SixBit might be taking the latter path.
Here is the "?" deal:
There is a long-standing feature of uploading self-hosted photos through automated listing tools that may affect some tools (I don't know the extent). eBay accepts the initial set of image URLs and keeps those URLs on file. If photos are subsequently uploaded through automated processes, and those images have the same URLs as the prior upload, eBay will not bother fetching the photos. eBay assumes they already have those photos. It reduces their server processing load by avoiding redundant work.
You might ask SixBit if this is an issue they see with their tool. The developer should be well aware of this old problem, and should know whether his tool is affected by it.
So, the workaround is to send eBay a different URL when replacing a photo. One way to do that without changing image names on your server is to add a "?" to the end of the URL, since it should not affect your server's ability to return the true image. If more attempts are required, the suffix can contain additional letters or numbers with each attempt.
For instance, here is one photo in your listing 362384991839:
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg
Any of these suffix variations will also fetch the same photo
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?a
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?ab
Each of those suffix variations will look like a new image to eBay, so eBay will try to fetch the image instead of considering it a duplicate.
The reason those photos are not always appearing when the page loads is because they are still hosted on your own web server, and your server is not responding quickly enough. eBay was not able to successfully retrieve them when you uploaded the items (your server was busy), so eBay's fallback position is to display them directly from your server.
I should also note that "zoom" is not supported on externally hosted photos, so once you get those rehosted on eBay, you should see the zoom feature reappear.
If you would like to determine which of your listings failed to rehost images on eBay, you can run a scan with this tool:
http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkPhotoScanner.htm
Enter your sellername and country and click the "Get Items" button. After a few minutes, a bank of page buttons will appear. That is where you would click "Fast Scan", which, for 8K listings might take 15 minutes or so.
When the full scan completes, you can use the report option below the scan grid to generate a list of externally hosted items that you can then repair. I see that you use SixBit and they probably have some method for you to resubmit the photos for the affected listings. You could also use File Exchange to re-upload only the photos, but it is my understanding that the replacement URL must differ from the one eBay already has or it won't be replaced. I haven't tested that in quite some time, so don't know if that holds true.
If you find naming to be a problem with SixBit, the easiest way to change the image name, without actually changing anything on your server, is to add a "?" to the end of the image URL that you are submitting to eBay. Most servers will ignore everything after a "?" when delivering an image. And any subsequent failed attempts (failed because your server might have been too busy to respond promptly) can be submitted yet again by appending more to the name, like "?a" then "?ab", and such, so that each upload is uniquely named. But, test one first to see if you need to rename, or if it works without renaming, and then please let us know.
The reason those photos are not always appearing when the page loads is because they are still hosted on your own web server, and your server is not responding quickly enough. eBay was not able to successfully retrieve them when you uploaded the items (your server was busy), so eBay's fallback position is to display them directly from your server.
I should also note that "zoom" is not supported on externally hosted photos, so once you get those rehosted on eBay, you should see the zoom feature reappear.
This is **bleep** explanation. I can go out and try to repair the image through Sixbit, see this in the image since I resent the photo, Gallery-Fix-Issue-2018/02/1259, and the problem persists. The problem resides at ebay.
Item: 362384179620
Same with this item: 362384991839.
I cannot fix it at my end. The problem resides at ebay.
Every so often I go out and check my auction listings and I did not have this problem till recently. I noticed on the boards someone complaining about gallery issues so I started checking and yes I got them again.
I'm sorry I misread your first post because I thought you meant the gallery photos within your listings were intermittently not appearing. And that was the case when I looked at your two listings. There were no photos in the listings. But, they did eventually load, which is an indicator of self hosting. Why were they so slow to load?
So I checked and found the photos had never transferred from your server to eBay. That usually occurs when listing in bulk and overloading your own server.
It happens quite frequently. I see lots of high volume sellers with a mix of eBay hosted and self-hosted due to timeouts, and the missing search photo has often been the first clue. I've had to advise some sellers to reduce their image sizes or to upload in smaller batches to give their server a little time, and that usually resolved the issue. I also suspect there is a difference between uploading during a busy period when eBay retrievals are spaced across more demands versus uploading during off hours when eBay can hammer the seller server mercilessly, although I don't have enough data on the differences.
But I do notice that your two listings were created during eBay's Thursday night maintenance period. That could be the problem.
If eBay can not retrieve photos from your server, they won't be able to make the gallery photo in search. If you can get your images to upload to eBay, then the gallery photo in search should repair as well. Have you tried uploading with a "?" in the URL? The photos in those two listings are still not hosted on eBay, while the successful listings surrounding those two have eBay-hosted photos.
Most of the missing gallery photo complaints that I have seen on the forums have been due to unlinked EPS photos, which is a different issue than yours because you don't have EPS photos in those two listings.
I normally schedule listings to list every 10-15 minutes. I can only assume Sixbits sends them up to ebay that way. I never do a mass bulk listings and the photos normally are 250K or less since I max out at about 1250-1000 pixels on the longest side per image.
I tried to update these two items today and resend the images. The results were the same, gallery image problem, and I haven't got a clue what ? is. I give an exact URL and it should be sufficient.
You might ask SixBit how they schedule. They could either connnect to eBay every fifteen minutes and send a listing, or they could connect just once and give ebay a schedule. I think scheduling is now free, so SixBit might be taking the latter path.
Here is the "?" deal:
There is a long-standing feature of uploading self-hosted photos through automated listing tools that may affect some tools (I don't know the extent). eBay accepts the initial set of image URLs and keeps those URLs on file. If photos are subsequently uploaded through automated processes, and those images have the same URLs as the prior upload, eBay will not bother fetching the photos. eBay assumes they already have those photos. It reduces their server processing load by avoiding redundant work.
You might ask SixBit if this is an issue they see with their tool. The developer should be well aware of this old problem, and should know whether his tool is affected by it.
So, the workaround is to send eBay a different URL when replacing a photo. One way to do that without changing image names on your server is to add a "?" to the end of the URL, since it should not affect your server's ability to return the true image. If more attempts are required, the suffix can contain additional letters or numbers with each attempt.
For instance, here is one photo in your listing 362384991839:
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg
Any of these suffix variations will also fetch the same photo
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?a
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?ab
Each of those suffix variations will look like a new image to eBay, so eBay will try to fetch the image instead of considering it a duplicate.
Adding a ? mark at the end of a URL has solved the issue.
I have started a trouble report with Sixbit over the issue and I am going to provide them a link to this thread.
I am not sure I want to always put a ? at the end of a URL since I do not know all the ramifications of doing so with Sixbits.
You would only add the suffix when the first photos fail to rehost on eBay and you want to resubmit the photos. You would not do so for an original upload.
I have successfully toggled between two formats when making multiple failed attempts because each attempt puts a new URL on eBay.
For instance, the original might be
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg
And the second attempt might be
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg?
while a third attempt can reuse the original format
https://nky-photos.com/2018/02/1251.jpg
The main purpose for uploading substitutions is when the first set failed to transload to eBay. But an alternate use is when you might upgrade a photo on your server and want eBay to use the upgraded image. If the replacement image carries the same name as the original and eBay refuses to fetch it, you would need to change the URL to a new unique name by adding the suffixes as described above.
Previously, I posted a scan of your two listings that showed self-hosted URLs and missing gallery photos. I also posted a link to the scanner to help find similar listings.
Below is an updated scan that shows your photos are now eBay hosted and your gallery photos have appeared.
I went through all my listings.
It seems as best as I can tell this problem started around July 13th and applies both to my Fixed Price and Auction listings.
I am not able to find anything earlier.
I have been doing this way for several years and I am not aware of any change with my web hosting service.
I guess it is back to like it was several years on ebay where I had to go out every day and fix listings. Ebay has their timing set to short. I would bet someone is tinkering with it.
This item is unfixable unless I go into the item and modify it directly on ebay. Using a ? in the URL is of no use.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/362389547542
