Cannot Download or View Attachment to eBay Message

[dbrick1947]

I see a paperclip next to the message title, indicating there's an attachment. And the text of the message (from a Seller) says there's an attachment. But clicking on the paperclip only generates pages and pages of HTML. In my eBay Account Settings, my Communications Preferences are set to allow HTML.

The same thing occurs with Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. My setup is macOS 10.13.6, usually using Safari 12.0, Multiple quits-and-restarts of the OS and the browser had no effect.

[ferncliff-39]

@dbrick1947

I see you haven't gotten any answers here  - are you still experiencing this problem with attachments?

[dbrick1947 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for checking in! The issue still exists on the eBay message system, but the seller and I found a workaround: I sent my actual email address, and the seller sent the attachment to me using conventional email. 

[ferncliff-39]

@Anonymous tyler@ebay  - do you have any other reports of this happening?

I found some older similar posts that you replied on that required an eBay fix, but not any recent posts.

[dbrick1947]

I had the same research results you did.  

My computer geek friend (he's a lifelong tech expert and works in the field; preferring macOS for his own machines) came by and looked at it as well. He thought that it wasn't a Flash issue, as the same behavior manifested when I used Chrome instead of Safari. He faulted eBay's message system, opining that the eBay server had dropped the ball in not actually accepting the attachment, or perhaps in not presenting it correctly in its mail program.  

I must say I was disappointed that I found no way to ask this question of eBay; eBay's Help system limited one to making enquiries in specific areas, mostly regarding disputes with other parties (sellers or buyers). Oh well.

[ferncliff-39]

I must say I was disappointed that I found no way to ask this question of eBay; eBay's Help system limited one to making enquiries in specific areas, mostly regarding disputes with other parties (sellers or buyers). Oh well.

@dbrick1947- I probably should have given you this article - for some reason I thought you would get answers here instead.

But...this can be helpful for Tech Issues, although maybe not yours specifically:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Commonly-Asked-Questions/What-do-I-do-if-I-experience-a-technical-issu...

[dbrick1947]

Thanks, I didn't find that page.

The steps suggested are the ones a reasonable user would take to attempt to isolate the fault. I did those things to no effect. GIven what we tried, I think the fault was somewhere in the eBay message system. My friend said that this wasn't the first time he'd seen that system manifest a failure to perform as it should.

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for the tag @ferncliff-39!

Hi @dbrick1947, I'm not able to recreate the issue I'm afraid. Would you be able to post screenshots of what's happening when you try to view attachments? I can take those to tech and work from there. Thanks!

[dbrick1947]

Sure.

The first screenshot is the message list:

The message I'm interested in is the one from drhomeimprovement with the paperclip, (I presume) signifying an attachment. Clicking on the paperclip brings up this:

Scrolling down on that same page, there's more HTML:

And the HTML goes on for another eight or so pages.

Good luck! I'll be interested in what you can discover.

[tombeetz]

the isssue appears to be easy to solve / account settings - communication preferences - delivery options - html / 

... but who knows ...

[dbrick1947]

You'd think so...but no, no reasonable approach worked. The workaround on this particular transaction was having the seller send me a .pdf of the return shipping label by regular email, not eBay messaging. He did so, I printed it out, and the article went back into the UPS system.

[berserkerplanet]

Your screenshot seems to indicate a frame (likely) on the page wasn't being rendered by your browsers and your browser was just displaying the raw CSS/HTML. There may have been a link to the attachment buried in that 8 pages of code that could have been copied and pasted in the address bar to obtain the label. May have been a transient glitch, but looks like eBay wasn't able to replicate it. Water under the bridge.

For future reference, your seller could have converted the label PDF to a high resolution jpg image which eBay messaging does permit, which you then could have printed (might have required a bit of cropping and scaling on your part depending on the conversion on his end and your setup). That also assumes that the image part of messaging is functioning. 🙂

[bon_kewl41]

ebay email attachemnt not opening not able to view is still not fixed.

[kh-gary]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here: https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/tools-apps-db.

Thanks.