search is unuseable

[lasantino]

 i don't know what is going on.

anything i search for,  the results will show  for example

that my search did return 453 results.  but none of them are showing up..    the search result number is immediatly followed  nothing other than ads that usually are at the bottom of ebay pages.  no wonder sales are in the dumps.. literally,, not a single search i have done in the last hour is showing any results..  

i can browse using ebays storefront.  but i can't search using my own  search terms.. this is ridiculous

[dhbookds]

I'm not seeing any problem.........  have you tried closing the browser and restarting? or trying a different browser?

[celidilec]

Any chance you're using an Adblocker?

(And if so, which Adblocker are you using?)

[eburtonlab]

Any difference if you use another browser? Or the eBay app?

What browser are you using?

[lasantino]

i went and checked on another computer in the other room, the listings were showing up ok. 

however. these glitches are serious.  My sales are nonexistent and then in one day, i'll have 4 or 5 in a row. then nothing for two weeks..

[eburtonlab]

Another user reported that using the "darkreader" browser plug-in can cause this issue; disabling that allowed results to appear once again.

There may be alternative dark theme plug-ins available that do not cause this issue.

[watrwest]

Same thing here.... "We Looked Everywhere"
on all category browses as well as specific searches'
all of which worked fine on Tue 6/1 at 4pm.

I have tried stripping a browse down to its most basic part
(the ebay category number)
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/m.html?_sacat=41187
without any other modifiers and still got the error message.

I run AdBlockPlus 3.5.2 and NoScript 10.6.3
disabling either or both does not help.

Firefox 89.0 or Safari 14.1.2 or Google 102.0.5005.61
no difference.

I have no idea what a "darkreader" is
but again nothing changed between
on my machine from 5 pm W & 8 am Th.

[eburtonlab]

@watrwest 

Try editing your searches to change the ebay.com/dsc to ebay.com/sch instead.

That seems to work with your test search.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_sacat=41187

[watrwest]

OK, changing dsc to sch works in the basic search
(it changes the layout of the results page sometimes,
but I can live with that).

Thank you eburtonlab.

However by trial and error I found that the
&LH_TitleDesc=1 (search both Title & Description)
seems to be a problem.
If you include it without any specific search terms

(which was my default for building ebay urls)
ebay used to just ignore it.
Now it seems to cause the error message.

The same error also comes from searches with specific terms ..
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_osacat=37958&_sacat=37958&LH_TitleDesc=1&_odkw=pocket+map&_nkw=%22po...,

Is there newer grammar for the TitleDesc modifier?

Also as an aside, ebay seems to have shortened its maximum url length again.

Which for me means weeding out blocked sellers in some categories.

All in all this will be a wasted day trying to fix an ebay "improvement."

Is it any surprise that ebay buyers throw up their hands and walk away?

[eburtonlab]

If you are not using any keywords, why are you trying to search by title and description? Was that a trick to allow you to create a search without keywords? If so, I am not familiar with it. That sounds as if it might have been quite handy, and if it no longer works that is unfortunate.

Looking at your search URL, it has keywords from a previous search embedded, though they are not being used in this particular search. If I change the _odkw= term to _nkw= and leave everything else the same, I do get a working search again, though I do not know if this is the same search you were trying to use in this case:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_osacat=37958&_sacat=37958&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=pocket+map&_nkw=%22p...

Presumably the parameter names refer to old keywords and new keywords, or something like that. There is another set of parameters called _osacat and _sacat for old search category and new search category, I believe.

Many older searches contained old keyword and old category information from the prior search; newer searches no longer include that information, making the newer search URLs much shorter and less likely to run into length-related problems, particularly when using multiple exclusions or excluded sellers. Deleting the old keywords or old category information from the URL should not affect the operation of the search (unless the search URL is too long, in which case deleting that information may allow the search to run correctly again).

If you have old searches that are breaking because the URL is too long, deleting some of the old parameters might help. But it appears you need to have at least one keyword specified for the search to work.

If you have general category searches without obvious keyword choices, you may want to try using a keyword taken from the name of the category; in many cases that may find all the items in that category (though there are exceptions). This can allow you to turn a keywordless category browse into an actual search.

I had thought that seller exclusions were limited to only ten at a time, but you appear to have more than that. Previously using more than ten would result in an error and no results found, but your search appears to be working and excluding all those sellers, as near as I can tell. Perhaps eBay has raised the number of sellers that can be successfully excluded.

[watrwest]

Actually you did change something else.
You set TitleDesc=0
I need to search both Title & Description.
Resetting TitleDesc=1 in your url still results in an error.

That even though this search includes both a search term (Pocket Map) and exclude filter terms (cd,eyewitness....
&_odkw=pocket+map&_nkw=%22pocket+map%22+-(cd,eyewitness

Maybe ebay no longer wants to search descriptions, just titles?
It would reduce the drain on their resources.

It does appear that the _osacat & _odkw
are redundant and I can delete them with no loss. thank you.

I have not found a seller exclusion count limit. One map category search I run has a list of 315 filtered sellers and it appears to be working just fine.
On the other hand that search also includes a search word "map" and a list of 13 filtered words. The results count today seems much higher than in the past so maybe the filter words are no longer working there though the search at least goes through.

If that url gets too long, ebay just returns an utterly blank page and I go in to the url and delete some of the sellers from it until it works again.

The last time I actually tested ebay's url length limit in 2019 it seemed to be 4540 characters.
I think it may dropped to around 3500.
Somewhere on the net I read that ebay user names were limited to 64 characters.
The longest I've ever come across was "only" 45. At that rate to doesn't take many sellers to break the limit.

I used to think that kid in the parka looking "lost" was cute... now I hate to see him.

[intuitive]

eBay's Description Search function is broken.    It appears to have broken over night.     Any title/description search now brings you to a page that says "We Looked Everywhere ..."   I called this morning to report it.   The customer service rep said they're aware of the problem.    9 hours later, it remains broken.

My sales have plummeted by 50% in the last two months.    Decreased functionality will only make an abysmal situation worse.

[eburtonlab]

The following works for me to search title and description:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_osacat=37958&_sasl=sfnyartist%2Cgeographicusmaps%2Clindisfarne2%2Cs...

[eburtonlab]

Any title/description search now brings you to a page that says "We Looked Everywhere ..."

Try skipping the "title and description" search option on the Advanced Search page; it seems to be broken at the moment. Just do the plain title search minus description. Then on the search results page, check the box under the search bar to "Include description" in the search as well.

[intuitive]

Thanks for the workaround.   Unfortunately, everyday buyers won't have a workaround.   They'll just keep getting that "We've Looked Everywhere" page and move on in frustration.