Still getting " We found non-secure HTTP content " after updating 3000 listings

[4hearts]

I sell identified antique photos, and include the image in the body of the item description as well as the gallery.

Yahoo just recently provided https functionality on my server, so to meet eBay's requirement, I did mass changes on all my listings to change all occurrences of http:// to https://.  A week later, I'm still getting emails from eBay saying all my listings have non-secure HTTP content - and all my listings are still broken into 2 pages with the first page saying See Full Item Description - so I'm investigating.

If I select an image from the item description and do a  right-mouse-click >view image - it shows a path with https - but if I look at the html code in the listing by doing a revise item, the code still shows http, NOT https.

Why does this happen? 

Why doesn't eBay know all my listings are updated?

Why aren't my mass updates applied to the html code?

 I've been coding https since it's been available to me, so for recent listings there is no issue. This is only for 3000 old listings - here's an example of an older one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/361827643491

Here's the html for the 2 photos in the description of that listing

<br><br>
<img src="http://www.bonniemiller.com/ebay/
p1119_beem_franklin_me_lewiston.jpg" hspace="5" border="0">
<img src="http://www.bonniemiller.com/ebay/
p1119_beem_franklin2_me_lewiston.jpg" hspace="5" border="0">

[vegasclassicparts]

I think it is because you are linking to your own website for the pictures.  Links to image hosting sites are only allowed for "ebay approved sites".  We had the same problem with our WHI listings which were linking to their pictures host from before they were owned by ebay.  Once they switched those links to the ebay picture host links, they stopped showing up as non-secure content.

You can run a scan using the ISDNTEK active content website to look at single listings or the bulk scanner and it marks up your html to show you what to fix.

[4hearts]

Hi - thanks for your reply.

I'm pretty sure that's not my issue because they aren't complaining about new listings that I create with https path for my photos. For example, this listing is OK

https://www.ebay.com/itm/G18-1168-9-Unidd-Photos-from-Ohio-Album-Foltz-Sager-families/202355895841?h...

And if I manually revise an old item description, changing http to https, it immediately converts to a one-page listing with no flag for non-secure http content.

What I don't understand is - after I run the mass update utility - if I can view the image and the path begins with https, where is that coming from? Apparently the eBay mass update utility isn't changing my html code, so what is  it changing? and why doesn't it qualify as secure http content?

[berserkerplanet]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/361827643491

That listing description contains the link to findagrave.com - links to non-approved external sites are no longer permitted (and not that it matters as it isn't permitted, but that link is HTTP not HTTPS )

The src URLs for the images in the description are HTTP not HTTPS.


What "mass update utility" are you using? The eBay bulk editor (BEAR tool) ?

If so, what search and replace terms are you using to try and change the HTTP to HTTPS?

The BEAR tool is usually limited to 250 to 500 per pass. so if you tried to do all 3000 at once it may have failed. Also, it doesn't provide any indication of success or failure, so you have to spot check to be sure it actually did replace something.

[dollybeauty]

@4hearts

This tool will find and show you the markup (location of the bad links/http in the listing)...http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentEditorBeta.htm

You can ask any questions you may have, on this board...https://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

[dollybeauty]

Did you move your images to a secure images server? I am not sure, but you may be able to purchase a SSl certificate for your own site. Ask @shipscript. She knows if that is enough.

[4hearts]

No - Yahoo offered SSL, I followed their instructions and looks like it worked, i.e., I can specify a path to my images that starts with https://.

I'm not sure if purchasing an SSL certificate is another step in the process or if that is provided by Yahoo.

[4hearts]

Thanks - I guess I don't need it now that the bulk editor is working. Thanks for the link to the discussion.

[dollybeauty]

If the https worked for you, no other step (except editting to use it) is needed.

[4hearts]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, it is http - I was wondering why if I "view image" it shows https - but maybe that's just my server showing the path correctly. OK so now my only question is, why didn't mass update work.

In Seller Hub, I have a box at left labeled Tasks. In that box is "Remove non-secure HTTP content from listings" and a link to 3187 listings. If I click on the 3187 link, I get a screen that allows me to select 200 listings at a time for edit. Then I select Edit Item Description, then Edit Listings in Bulk - find and replace. (I guess this tool is what you call BEAR).

Initially I entered find http:// and replace with https:// - then yesterday I saw a post that recommended leaving out the //. Today I used find http: and replace with https: - and happily, that seems to work.

[berserkerplanet]

When I looked at the image URL's in that listing in the browser before (not in the page source) they showed as HTTP. It appears you fixed that listing, they are now HTTPS in the source, and I can't tell what was going on.

One very probable possibility is that yahoo transparently redirects the HTTP requests to HTTPS on their servers (which still doesn't satisfy eBay - the links need to be HTTPS on eBay pages because Chrome browser will throw a fit if it see an HTTP link)

I don't use seller hub, so not much help there. You'd have to ask shipscript about the various bulk editors - she has a much better handle on the editors, differences in them, and possible terminology (and explains it way better than I do).

Using // in regular expression searches can be problematic, and totally depends on the syntax of that particular find and replace engine, since / is a special character in most RegEx  syntaxes.  / usually has to be escaped with \   (ie: http:\/\/), but I have no idea what the seller hub bulk search and replace is doing internally these days - sounds like they may have changed things)

If you have some time to experiment, I'd be curious to see what happens if you do a bulk replace of https:\/\/   with    http:\/\/    on 2 listings and if that syntax works (and then change them back)

[4hearts]

Yes, I think Yahoo is doing that.

Sorry, I guess I did fix that listing - I've been doing bunches of 200 since I found it would work without the slashes.

I just tried 2 listings with find http:\/\/  and replace with https:\/\/ - didn't work.

[berserkerplanet]

•I just tried 2 listings with find http:\/\/ and replace with https:\/\/ - didn't work

Well that's good to know, but disturbing. Not being able to use /'s (or who knows what other characters), severely limits the useability of that search and replace on HTML content. For one thing, that means links can't be added or removed in bulk.

I'm going to have to play around with it (I got opted into what I think is seller hub for my active selling page, so will take a look at it and see what I can see).

[shipscript]

@berserkerplanet

@4hearts

eBay's bulk find/replace editor (BEAR) does not work with trailing slashes, but will work with internal slashes.  So find http: and replace with https: will work, as would  find http://myoldhost.com  and replace with https://mynewhost.com.

[berserkerplanet]

•eBay's bulk find/replace editor (BEAR) does not work with trailing slashes, but will work with internal slashes.

Thanks. Good to know.