Item Description Bulk Find and Replace not working.

[odditiesandantiquities1]

I have tried many times to use the bulk find and replace in the item description to change some things that I have on all of my items. In this case, it refers to layaways.

There are a couple of different ways that I refer to them, but I've tried over and over again and it doesn't change at all.

This last time I put in the Find "I also offer layaways for that very purpose."

I left the replace field blank. This should erase that sentence but it doesn't. Is this a known bug?

[springfieldspecialties]

It is known to me, but I can't find any help on it.  I have tried it in Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Explorer, and Opera with no success.  I am doing my edit at the HTML level, and it still does not work. I have been using the bulk edit find and replace feature for several years (Since the day after they released it), and it has always worked fine for editing the HTML.  I have not been able to get it to work at all for about 5 weeks now.  Very frustrating to make changes individually to a couple thousand listings instead of 500 at a time.  Hopefully someone has a fix.

- Paul

[berserkerplanet]

Couple of thoughts.

You are, I'm sure, aware that it must be an exact match. Case sensitive, and no extraneous HTML (ie:   instead of plain whitespace, etc) And I assume you didn't include the quotes and that they are only for clarity in your post.

Additionally, I believe there is a max limit per pass of 200 listings, so if trying to operate on more it will fail.

Do you have an item number for an example listing with what you are trying to get rid of? Never mind. Found one. The find string you quoted in your OP should have worked for 202144572983. I looked at the source of the description iframe and there's nothing odd there I can see.

I ran a quick simple text bulk replace on 3 of mine and it worked fine - 2 of the 3 listings I processed had "please don't hesitate to ask!" replaced with nothing (the third failed because there were 2 spaces between don't and hesitate in that one).

At this point I can only think that maybe you are trying to operate on all 228 of your listings at once (beyond the presumed max of 200), or there is something about your account that jinxes the bulk editor.

One other thought: I don't know if there is a difference between the bulk editor in seller hub, and the bulk editor in Selling manager (which I use), or if it is all the same and just initially accessed from a different starting point. If using SM bulk editor, you might try starting from plain old SM (if it will let you) http://k2b-bulk.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ListingConsole&currentPage=LCActive and see if there is any difference. And work with maybe only 50 at a time.

@shipscript  200 or 500 limit? Different bulk editors for SM and SH?

[shipscript]

@berserkerplanet

The seller hub BEAR (bulk edit and revise) tool has a 200-listing scan limit.  Selling Manager (Pro?) has a drop list before starting the scan that allows up to 500 listings per scan (as reported by some sellers). Some sellers also report that selecting the 500 option does not always work for them and they have to select a smaller range for the scan to work. Others say 500 works fine.  Some say the replacement field can not be left empty, when it can be left empty, so they may have found adding a space as a replacement is a workaround to something.  I can not verify any of this because I don't have SMP.

@springfieldspecialties

The BEAR tool also seems to ignore scan phrases that end with some types of punctuation, like slash or quote.  

@odditiesandantiquities1

Hidden HTML codes and hard non-breaking spaces are what usually fail in a scan.  If your search phrase includes a space at the end, it would fail because there is no space at the end:

I also offer layaways for that very purpose. Please

I also offer layaways for that very purpose.&nbsp;</span>

However, I performed an Active Content scan of all 228 listings and my bulk scanner found 204 exact matches for:

I also offer layaways for that very purpose.

So one would think that BEAR would find the same exact matches.

For thousands of listings that won't edit in BEAR, the Bulk Active Content Editor is an alternative for making all revisions in one pass.

[berserkerplanet]

@shipscript

I'm still unclear. I use Selling Manager (not Pro) / My eBay - so which tool am I seeing?

I'm guessing the BEAR tool (same as Seller Hub?) since the URL is of the form https://bulksell.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BEAR&SessionId=nnnnnnnnnn#GoTo315 when I select EDIT from my Active Selling page. Or is that called something else?

[shipscript]

@berserkerplanet

I think the item selection screen differs a tad between Seller Hub and Selling Manager basic and Selling Manager Pro. But after the selections are made, the same BEAR tool opens for all those listing tools, as shown in the URL you posted.

[berserkerplanet]

@shipscript

So the only difference is the front end interface, and how many listings can be fed to the BEAR tool at a time (500 for Selling Manager Pro and  200 for Seller Hub and Selling Manager?)

[shipscript]

@berserkerplanet

That's my best guess. I had subscribed/unsubscribed to Selling Manager basic numerous times before being switched to the new Seller Hub. I haven't been in SM for about 6 months, but I did a lot of BEAR testing from SM before the switch, and now that I am in Seller Hub, BEAR still looks the same.  I have never been able to personally test the BEAR limits (200 vs 500) because I don't have enough listings.  I do have the drop list to select number of items in Seller Hub, but unfortunately, all it offers me is "Edit Selected" and "Edit all 20 listings", since I currently have only 20 listings. 

When I was testing with Selling Manager, I had to first set the Items Per Page view to 200 in order to select a full 200 items. If the page view was set any lower, I could only select the displayed number of items because there was no drop list to choose quantity.  I'm not sure how that works in SMP or if it has changed in SM.

[berserkerplanet]

@shipscript

The My eBay Active Listings interface still uses the checkbox method for selection with a select all checkbox at the top left. That method only selects the listings visible on current page as you described.

The Selling Manager interface does have the dropdown on the EDIT button to "Edit Selected" or "Edit All NN listings". Selection via checkboxes with optional "Select All" checkbox same as always. Select all behaves same as My eBay selection does - "ALL" is however many are visible on current page.

Aside: tagging me as you have done is a good idea. The way I read forums (no email notifications except for PMs) it's easy for me to miss if someone is trying to converse. If in the middle of an exchange like this maybe not necessary on every one since I'm there, but that's a tough call from your end. Do you need to be tagged, or are you "wired in"?

[shipscript]

@berserkerplanet

Thanks for that update on the selection process.

Yes, it is always best to tag me because I'm not always scanning my prior posts and only monitor the Active Content forum, where I am "wired in" through my community settings.

I've become accustomed to tagging others because I'm typically dealing with first time posters who can't find their way back, and the tagging seems to reach them. So it's a habit now for me.