Turn off automatic filter in search

[yesterdays_treasures_44]

When I search for something, it will filter it and only show me show me listings from that one category. I want to filter my own results. I don't want ebay filterng it for me. I need to turn this feature off. I never turned it on to begin with.

[pajo_16]

I have the same issue.

I searched for "12 volt interior lights" and eBay automatically applied a filter for 2012 Chevrolet Volt vehicle.

I cannot see how to remove the filter. I hit reset but no luck. I would appreciate any help.

[partial*eclipse]

AFAIK there's no way to turn off this "service," but you can click on "All" at the top of the list of categories, at the upper-left of the search results page.

[the-viking-king]

Clicking on “all” in the top left corner of the search results page simply shows both auction and buy it now. You can choose all auctions , but it now only , or regular auctions. It has absolutely nothing to do  with the filter. Anybody have an actual well thought out and effective way of removing the category filters that are automatically placed on some searches ? 

[eburtonlab]

@the-viking-king 

I believe the previous poster was suggesting changing the category shown in the field to the right of the search bar once the search results page loads. If any category other than "All categories" is shown there, you are only looking at a specific category; you can manually change that back to "All categories" and search again to see more results.

If you want to avoid eBay steering your results into a particular category to begin with, try adding a nonsense exclusion term to your search terms. For instance, if you are searching for cash register and finding that eBay steers you into the "Point of Sale & Money Handling" category, try searching for cash register -octopus instead. You should notice many more results from "All categories".

Using an exclusion term (such as -octopus) is one way to prevent the automatic category switching, but that technique also disables other search expansion features such as keyword substitution, so your results will only match your exact terms and will not include any matches that instead use synonyms for your search terms.

eBay has not kept their help pages up to date, so to see more information about how Search Expansion works, see these old pages from eBay Ireland:

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/search/expanding.html

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/search/search-commands.html