Questions about using picURL

[ltcsells]

Hello,

I have created some upload files for File Exchange that use the picURL field.  The photos do show up in the listing when I've added them.  Couple of questions:

1) Do the photos need to remain on the server where I imported them from?  Or can I delete them after I've completed the Add?  I tested one listing -- deleted the picture files from the server and they still showed on the listing.

2) Listings that I added using the picURL field, when I tried to do a Sell Similar on that listing, the new listing has all the item specifics fine but doesn't have the photos (eBay tells me the picture files are corrupt).  The photos are still on my server but they don't carry over to new listings I create with Sell Similar.  Is this expected?  Or is there something I should be doing differently?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi @ltcsells,

Thanks for posting.

1) They do not need to stay on your server long term. Within the first 24 hours of listing, we copy the image to our servers, and reference that copy moving forward. After 24 hours, you can remove the photos on your side without issue.

2) Tying in to the above, the Sell Similar function is designed to reference the copy of your image on our servers. It's hard to say for certain what is happening without seeing a listing/example, but there are a few likely causes: A. The image never copied over to our servers properly, so when the Sell Similar function was used, it was referencing a URL that is no longer valid. B. The image on our server is corrupt, which is uncommon, but possible. Again, it's hard to say without seeing the listing, but I'd bet it's one of those two things.

Hope this helps!

[ltcsells]

Thank you for your help @Anonymous .

I'm glad to hear that I can delete the photos after a period of time!

Here's an example of one that I created 4 days ago with picURL -- the pictures show up fine in the current listing.  When I sell similar, it tells me the pictures are corrupt in the new listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/402780331945

[ltcsells]

Also, the picture files are still on my server, I have not deleted them yet.

[shipscript]

When images fail to transload to eBay's servers, those images will continue to be delivered in eBay listings directly from your own server., and they will display URLs from your own server. In those cases, you need to continue to host your photos or try uploading again.

I scanned your active listings using the Bulk Photo Scanner, and it shows that ALL of your server photos were copied to eBay-hosted images (they all carry an eBay URL).  So, in that regard, your own server images are no longer needed.

I did not see anything wrong with the nine images in listing 402780331945.

However, listing 402659073282 shows that one of the ten images failed.  And there are four listings (402770371983, 402770372517, 402770372794, 402770375682) where one of the uploaded images (the fabric closeup, at only 250 px on a side) was below the size limit that eBay allows.

[ltcsells]

Thank you @shipscript for your response.

And that's a helpful tool that I have not seen before. Thank you for sharing it.

If the pictures are stored on the server for my listings, I still don't understand why I cannot Sell Similar from those listings.  I didn't do anything special to them... just took the photos on my phone, edited them on my phone, copied them to the web server and added them to listings using picURL.  And it seems that eBay does this with every listing I've created this way (CLERR002 Invalid Photo) when I try to use Sell Similar.

[shipscript]

@ltcsells 

Can you specify the item numbers (perhaps three or so) that you have attempted to sell-similar and that say the photos are corrupted? Make sure they are not any of the five listings that we found to have undersized or broken images.

Since we have confirmed that the photos did transfer to eBay hosting and since they also still reside on your server, there really should be no photo issues when you sell-similar.

In the past, there were issues mixing externally uploaded photos with locally uploaded photos in the same listing, but I think that has also been resolved. 

[ltcsells]

@shipscript  Here are some that I have tried with sell similar that tell me the images are corrupt: 402785003892, 402785003890, 402781995834.  But it's any of the ones that I created with picURL and file exchange.

Some other things in case they are relevant:

- When I create my listings, I'm scheduling them so they're not actually live after the import yet.  When I've tried sell similar though it's on the live listings.  I have not yet tried sell similar on a scheduled listing.

- When I edit these listings that I created with picURL, in the photo section I see this message "Only 1 photo allowed with Self Hosting option." This occurs both when scheduled and when live.

[ltcsells]

And to note I'm not mixing local vs server images.  All the images that I used came from the server in the picURL field for the aforementioned listings (402785003892, 402785003890, 402781995834). These listings were all created via import with file exchange.  I imported them as scheduled listings, reviewed them, and then made them live.

[shipscript]

---

@ltcsells wrote:

... Here are some that I have tried with sell similar that tell me the images are corrupt: 402785003892, 402785003890, 402781995834. 

- When I edit these listings that I created with picURL, in the photo section I see this message "Only 1 photo allowed with Self Hosting option." This occurs both when scheduled and when live.

---

@ltcsells 

All three listings show successful eBay hosting of 5 or 6 images each when I check them with the photo scanner tool. I don't see any issues.   Which listing tool are you using?

The message that "only 1 photo is allowed" is a very old message.  eBay changed the single-photo "self-hosting" to multiple-photo "web-hosting" at least 8 years ago. File Exchange was slow to catch up and would not accept multiple web-hosted photos for a couple more years. Both the single-photo and multiple-photo mechanisms co-existed on eBay servers for several years (and perhaps they still coexist).  The single photo method started as externally hosted and remained externally hosted for years, but eventually (perhaps around 2008), eBay began attempting to fetch that image in the listing process and rehosting on eBay servers if the fetch was successful.  The multi photo (web-hosting) method was interactive on the listing forms, and eBay would not accept an image that could not be transloaded immediately to eBay servers.   The multi-photo uploading option was extended to the API and File Exchange, but was, and is, a different API call than the single self-hosted method. Third party listing forms were slow to convert to the multi-photo option and we continued to see externally hosted single photos as recently as 4 or 5 years ago due to those tools using the older API call.

To add to the confusion, File Exchange would not upload "self-hosted" photos where the URL was an eBay image. This was later changed so that the eBay URL was accepted, but the URL was not assigned to the new listing and not rehosted on eBay with a new eBay photo URL.  The listing had no chain of custody for that photo. Thus, if the original owner listing expired, so did the URL that had been patched into a subsequent listing.

So, back to your issue, since you uploaded multiple photos through File Exchange, it sounds like the error message addresses an arcane issue.  We have seen this sporadically reported in the past few years. Perhaps  @Anonymous  can find out why this is happening.

[ltcsells]

I don't use a listing tool.  I just have a spreadsheet in Excel with headers and data that I save as CSV and then upload via File Exchange on the eBay site.  I used the downloaded templates from File Exchange to create the spreadsheet.  It's all very basic.  

I made a small test to illustrate.  Here's the CSV upload file I tested:

https://tntcarolinas-82f4f7.ingress-bonde.easywp.com/wp-content/uploads/TestExport041321.csv

You can try it yourself but will need to modify the business policies for shipping etc.

Here's the upload results:

https://tntcarolinas-82f4f7.ingress-bonde.easywp.com/wp-content/uploads/TestExportResults.txt

And here's a screen shot showing the scheduled listing in edit mode:

[shipscript]

Your screenshot shows the Business Lister. Is that always where you begin your "sell-similar" process? Is sell-similar always from an active listing, or do you start sell-similar from a scheduled listing?

[huntfor]

Have you tried to use an Excel spreadsheet saved as CSV for variations?

[Anonymous]

Hi @ltcsells,

Thanks for all the info. @shipscript is correct that the "one hosted image" error was eliminated years ago, and that all images appear to be copied to our servers properly. Everything appears to be correct, on the surface.

I ran some tests and was able to recreate this, and I've raised a ticket with our technicians to get this looked into further. For images copied to our servers, this should not be an issue.

[ltcsells]

Thank you for creating a ticket John.

Shipscript, yes I always use that method for listing. I think I've only done sell similar on active listings. I don't believe I have tried it while scheduled.

Huntfor, no I have not tried variations yet.