Unable to 'Create a Copy' drafts

[popch3]

Unable to 'Create a Copy' drafts

In Seller Hub, after I've created a 'draft', I used to be able to click on the square box to the left of 'Resume draft', then click on the box 'Create a copy', then click 'Copy catalog product information', change the number of copies I wanted, and then 'OK', it would create the number of copies that I wanted.

Now, I'm getting 'Something went wrong. Please try again'. I've been 'trying again' for a few hours...still getting the same error. Is there a issue with eBay's servers?

[weauction4you]

Finally fixed late last night. Thank you. 

[cuttingedge138]

The same is happening again, only this time no error message when trying to resume a copied draft.

[deus-ex-machine]

hi, here is a fix that workedfor me.

1) make your draft page list 200 items if you want to copy up to 100 items      [more than 100 will go onto the next page  - I have not tried that].

2) tick the bottom 4 items on your list      [you can if you have the nerve tick all of your items on your draft list - I have done it in batches of 4 for 2 reasons - first, it allowed me to easily check that the selected items actually have been copied - second, I was nervous of a failure which might lose the lot, in my case it would take me 30 hours to re-construct my drafts from memory]

3) make a note of the 4 items  [this makes it much easier to check for copies, as the 4 originals & the 4 copies migrate to the top of the list - jumbled ]

4) go to top of list

5) click 'resume draft'

6) tick the 4 items

7) click 'copy a listing'

😎 type in number of copies required [if you want 1 of each, type '1' ]

9)  click 'copy'  [all of the 4, or however many you have selected, will be copied]

10) click 'save for later'  [DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT !! unless you want them listed.]

11)  click 'done'

12) go to top of list

13) check the top 8 drafts for old & new 'expiry date' [right-hand column]  They will be jumbled

14) if all ok, repeat with next 4  [no need to delete the expiring original - ebay will do that for you]

15) happy listing

[tambob2002]

deus-ex-machine - Thanks for posting this solution!  This allowed me to bypass the broken copy function for an individual drafts and use bulk editing function where the copy draft still works.   

For those who are not copying many drafts at a time, these steps can be used to make a copy of an individual draft if that is all you need -- just check the box of the draft you want to copy along with the box of any other draft before pressing 'resume draft' in step 5.  Then in the bulk editing screen that appears next, only select the draft you want to copy before clicking on 'copy a listing'.  Step 10 'Save for Later' is an important step.  Any copies made will not be saved unless you do this. 

Thanks again!

[deus-ex-machine]

hi, ok. I think the secret is - you can only 'copy' a draft if you 'edit' it first.

so it's easy to do the  [  resume - copy - save for later ] routine.

it isn't even neccessary to actually edit anything,  like adding a full stop to every title.

each { resume - save later ] counts as an edit.

also it is easier to do 2 or more, than a single, as the entire draft comes on screen with a single and has to be worked through, but 2 or more show as a list.

happy listing.

[pbarker7]

Frustratingly this has not worked. Out of a list of 48 drafts that are about to expire, only 20 have been copied  successfully. I have tried all the suggestions listed above and there seems to be no pattern whatsoever as to why some are failing and some are copying ok.  I'm tempted to give up and give everything to the charity shop as ebay are most unhelpful it seems.  If anyone here can help at all I'd be most grateful. Thank you

[hipshotfactoryoutlet]

This issue has lasted over a year for us. Building off deus-ex-machine's helpful suggestion, we stumbled onto the following variation:

1) Resume draft and Save for later. **Add an extra space somewhere in Draft before saving.**

^We're convinced changing the draft, not just re-saving it, is key.

Some folks have said there's no need to modify your draft... our thinking is, it can't hurt and might help. Maybe it makes the server read the file as changed (rather than identical), so forces it to overwrite/update.

What we do know is, if we skip this step, we get that same error message... and any later attempt to copy the file fails.

2) Select checkbox for the item you want to duplicate and choose Create a Copy.

3) Select "Copy catalog product information". Wait a few seconds. (This may be unnecessary & is probably superstitious, but if their server or our connection is slow... who knows.)

4) Select "Copy photos" if applicable. Wait a few seconds.

5) Click "OK".

Have not tried for multiple items, because once this attempt fails, it seems no amount of saving beforehand will help with additional attempts. Don't want to risk a batch then having to re-do pix, and cutting and pasting for each item. At least for now, this has been working for individual items.

Hope that helps!