ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
I don't have an answer, just a comment.
Since this is a question about an issue affecting a seller's ability to sell....the question would probably get more input from SELLERS if it were allowed to be left of the SELLERS board.
Sometimes the moving of discussions is far too heavy handed. This is just one example.
@dhbookds thank you for the tag.
What you are describing sounds like eBay was unable to fetch your externally-hosted photos from your server. This can happen if the server is unable to respond quickly enough to ebay's request for the image. When that happens, eBay abandons its attempt to rehost the image and allows the externally hosted image to display in the listing instead of creating an eBay image gallery.
When an externally hosted image appears in the photo lineup at the top of the listing, it will not have the zoom feature because the image is not in eBay's database of photos. Instead it may be downsized as appropriate to fit into the page, with no ability to enlarge.
I bulk scanned your listings here:
https://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/BulkPhotoScanner.htm
and found only two listings (which is not that significant) that failed to transload (184603677406 & 184648015518), and that were still hosted on ImageShack. You can upload them again.
However, I also found many listings with undersized photos.
Photos must be:
• over 800 pixels on the long side to zoom,
• over 640 pixels on the long side to open the supersize overlay,
• and over 500 pixels on the long side to be acceptable to eBay.
I found two listings that contained photos that were too small for eBay (your File Exchange report would have flagged them):
184663766288
184663766339
Another 513 listings contained photos that will supersize, but that are too small to zoom. Most of those that won't zoom are 576x768, just a bit shy of the 800 requirement.
When undersized photos appear first in the lineup, it may appear that zoom is not available, but when selecting a different photo in the lineup that is an appropriate size it will zoom, and the supersize overlay can activated.
In general, a camera setting of 1 MP or more is adequate for zoom. It is important to note that sometimes images can be made too small when cropping in an image editor.
It wasn't intended as a hijack. It was part support and part frustration.
In your ImageShack selection of sizes, any of these sizes should provide the zoom option:
800 x 600
1024 x 768 (large)
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
Since you are asking eBay to fetch them, the lower sizes might help avoid transloading failures. However, if ImageShack can keep up, then I would recommend the 1600 size.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184860989132
The two images in this listing are 576 x 768, which should be large enough to open the supsersize overlay, but not large enough to zoom.
For the past few months, eBay's latest scripts have not worked in my 4 year-old Firefox browser. I can no longer zoom any photos, although the message to zoom covers the images when hovered. I can then click that zoom message and the popup supersize overlay will appear instead.
In your listing, I can't click anything. I don't know if that is related to the scripts not functioning in my older browser or if there is some issue with the way eBay is managing mid-sized images that are large enough to supersize but not large enough to zoom. If we can get another browser to test, we'll know if its our browser or eBay.
This listing has no zoom, but when you click the images at the top does the supersize overlay appear?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184860989132
Sounds like you are seeing what I'm seeing. Normally there would be a hover to zoom option and a click option for the popup overlay (that black page that hides the listing and shows a gallery of photos).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184860989132
I would not expect zoom because the image is not large enough. But the supersize overlay should work for images above 640 on the long side.
Are you using a current browser?
Could you tell me what actions are available in my test listing?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/38064761439
The first image is undersized, so there should be no action.
The second image (red rose) won't zoom, but clicking should open the supersize overlay.
The remaining two flowers will hover-zoom or click-supersize.
@eburtonlab Can I also ask what you see in both listings?
Thanks.
Thanks! Then it is either a Firefox/eBay conflict or eBay has demoted images under 800 to non-status.
Let's see if we can get any other browsers to weigh in.
@pwnd_games What browser do you use on desktop?
