Repeatable Image Quality & Small Size Issue on Mobile App, Cause and Workaround

[treasure_trove_bay]

• Special Note: This issue has been reported to eBay tech support and I was advised by eBay support to post it here to help others in the community.
• Please note the date of this posting as in the future it may be out of date if support has resolved the issue.
• This is meant to be positive constructive feedback.

Here is the following problem I have had and the work around that works for my hardware / software. Please note I can repeat the issue at will now. So it is definitely a bug of some kind. 

MY HARDWARE

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 with latest updates.
• Camera App and/or eBay App Camera. It does not appear to matter which is being used.

PROBLEM:
When using the eBay app on an Android mobile, uploading images from gallery or taken from camera to a new listing results in small image size and bad quality images as compared to the original photo on the phone.It is hard to see on mobile app but very apparent on desktop app. The image is very grainy and blurry as well as being very small.

PROBABLE CAUSE: 

• When using the main search area for an item using either the camera or recent photos (aka picture search) creates a search result.  
• Selecting an item and then selecting “Sell Similar”. This creates a new listing. 
• Doing this somehow triggers image compression so if you upload a picture from your photo gallery the image or use the camera it is compressed both in size and quality. 
• When this occurs the image appears grainy, blurry and small on zoom. 
• This is a major image quality issue.
• All listings afterwards no matter how they are added (bar code, image, manual) either in the Main Search area or in the Seller Area listing all result in the same image compressed size and quality issue while using the mobile App after compression has been triggered.

TEMPORARY WORK AROUND / REST:

• To reset (aka turn off image compression issue) go into the “Selling” area and scan something with a barcode.  Not sure why this works. It somehow triggers an image non compression reset.

• Do not do anything else. 

• Then save the listing. 

• Close the eBay Mobile app by swiping. (This Action completes the reset)

• Re-open the eBay app. 

• Edit the listing and upload the images. 

• If the images are slow to upload then that is a sign of success. Slow meaning like 1 second per image. 

• You can check on the desktop app by editing the image and then right clicking select open image in the new tab. 

• If it displays as a larger clear image then success. 

• If it is small and pixelated and small then it was a failure, try reset again.

ADDING LISTINGS WITHOUT TRIGGERING COMPRESSION

• On Android mobile app, just do not use Sell Similar when doing and image search
• Adding a new listing in the Seller area does not appear to cause the issue.
• If an issue is already occurring then adding a new listing in the Seller area will also result in the bad image issue. 
• You must do the above work around to rest the compression to allow normal adding.

WHAT HAS NOT WORKED:

• Clearing App cache does not fix this issue for me.
• There are no settings that I have been able to find for image compression to turn it off.

• It is not a camera issue because original photos are fine. 

APPEAL:

I hope eBay App Dev’s get to see this and investigate it further. It has cost me days of banging my head and hundreds of hours having to correct photos already uploaded that were all bad on hundreds of listings. Sometimes all worked fine and other times all was bad and I didn’t discover the issues until I started editing using the desktop app. 

ADDITIONAL WORKFLOW REQUESTS

• Using the eBay App is the fastest way to list for me.
• Fixing the image compression issues would be a great first step.As there is no image search when in the Seller’s Area to do a listing. Items with a barcode or you do not know what it is called, the image search is a life saver. 
• Add Image search in the Seller's Area to aid in listing non barcode items.
• Add the same image contrast and brightness control on mobile app that are on the desktop web app.As it is there is only a brightness control and no contrast. To correct lighting issues you need both controls. The desktop app works perfectly, but the mobile app does not with certain images.
• Add an image saved filter that could be applied to all images to brighten up the images. The native cameras tend to not have control over brightness and make all images dark when taking the image, which requires additional time to edit the photo and slows down the listing a lot. Having a saved filter would also result in hundreds of hours of saved time editing images.

I hope this helps the dev’s and possibly helps others troubleshoot their issue.

Happy Listing!

Cheers!

Hunter

[kanel-6786]

I am having this same issue.  Not with all listings, but enough to drive me crazy! I've tried your work around and it doesn't seem to work for me. Any other ideas you've discovered since posting?

I ended up getting a new phone, thinking it was just my S10 with the issue. I upgraded to the S23 and obviously still having the same issue. 

Also, talk to me like I'm dumb...  I use "sell similar" 99% of the time based off of Google image search. Are you saying I should stop that, or just that don't use "sell similar" if you're scanning in a barcode? 

The mobile app is the only way I list, so I'll have a real hard time, if I can't get it figured out!  Thanks for your post and your efforts at remediation! 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

In spite of the fact that you have a high quality device to take your pictures, your problem may be related to your camera.

Many sites recompress images and generate low quality images on their website. Jpeg files are compressed files, they can be compressed to a variety of levels. When they are overly compressed the quality drops.

The software on many devices compresses to a level which generates small files which are not suitable for further compression. Many camera software program allow you to set the level of compression of the images you capture. You need to increase the quality of your images by reducing the compression.

Images from smartphones and related devices often show issues when uploaded, these bad images, and images rotated 90 degrees.

It is common to have to adjust smartphone settings for this sort of problem, and issues with white scale. The default settings on many devices including some digital cameras will underexpose.

Default settings attempt to meet average picture taking needs, but they need to be changed when you are trying to provide the best images for many sources of income.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

---

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

In spite of the fact that you have a high quality device to take your pictures, your problem may be related to your camera.

Many sites recompress images and generate low quality images on their website. Jpeg files are compressed files, they can be compressed to a variety of levels. When they are overly compressed the quality drops.

The software on many devices compresses to a level which generates small files which are not suitable for further compression. Many camera software program allow you to set the level of compression of the images you capture. You need to increase the quality of your images by reducing the compression.

Images from smartphones and related devices often show issues when uploaded, these bad images, and images rotated 90 degrees.

It is common to have to adjust smartphone settings for this sort of problem, and issues with white scale. The default settings on many devices including some digital cameras will underexpose.

Default settings attempt to meet average picture taking needs, but they need to be changed when you are trying to provide the best images for many sources of income.

---

Fairly spot on, also takes for more time to manage images.  I take photo's with the cellphone and move em' over to my PC and with Paint.NET I've cropped six images and using Save All saved them as PNG's in less than two minutes flat then bulk upload them whilst I enter the title.  Then cut the the title and paste into my HTML template, pretty much bang done.  Yeah, phone takes images upside down, sideways but in Paint.NET that's a one second "Rotate" and done.

Managing selling on a smartphone here takes far far far more time than using a PC to be sure.

[treasure_trove_bay · Accepted solution]

I do not believe that it is the camera/phone is the issue if you are using the default settings with 1:1 square picture to match the eBay listing image format.

The "Sell Similar" at least for me is the issue on the Android phone I have.

I can do a barcode scan and or type in the item name when in the "Seller" area and not have a single issue with images. I have tested this with over 100 listings. The moment I search by photo and do "Sell Similar" and try to add photo's they all get compressed and no matter how it is added after that all images are compressed. I have to do the reset trick to get them uncompressed again that was listed above in my original post.

Work Around #1 (addition)

I still do sell similar but here is how to do them in bulk without having to do the reset every time. The current work around to do a lot of listing like say ten items and I need to do "sell similar" as they do not have barcoded is to:

• do the search and sell similar for all ten items, but NOT add any photo's.
• I have them all in drafts.
• Then I do the barcode scan trick and add a bogus item in eBay draft
• and close the eBay mobile app.
• Then I open the eBay app and select the item I did sell similar and add the images to that item.
• and all is right in the universe again.

This action allows me to bulk add images to each listing without triggering the image compression issue.

I have reported this to eBay support. However as of this email it is still an issue and I just tested it again. Since this is repeatable, it is a bug.

Work Around # 2

The other workaround I was doing because I could not figure out why the image compressions was happening on my phone was to:

• syncing my phone images with Amazon photo's.
• I then downloaded the images to my notebook computer from Amazon photo's using the desktop web application for eBay
• and uploaded them this way to the listing.
• It is a lot more steps/time, but bypasses the image compression issue on the eBay mobile app.

I disliked doing this because I typical have 12 to 14 images per items and that is a lot more steps/time. It is way faster to do everything on the phone...when it works correctly. lol.

I would keep experimenting. Hopefully eBay support will resolve the issue on Android mobile app soon.

I hope that helps!

Good Luck!!!

[cardxcraft]

Thanks a lot for posting this.  I've been experiencing this as well.  I'll report back with my results.  

[cardxcraft]

Btw, I have reported this issue to Ebay multiple times.  The image compression began with the previous Ebay app update and continued on to this most recent update.   I've been using the Android Ebay app for several years with no problems.  

[cardxcraft]

This may be the case but I have my doubts.  

The image compression began with the previous Ebay app update and continued on to this most recent update. I've been using the Android Ebay app for several years with no problems.  

[cardxcraft]

Ok, I followed your advice and it worked.  

Just in case, I created five listings from scratch and images are of identical quality, from scan to upload. 

I'm very appreciative for this.   

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

eBay images are WebP files which is essentially a Google invention, they tend be smaller than JPEG files... Yes they are lossy but generally result in very similar image quality given compression ratio's and a considerably smaller file size.

[validusdss]

I would like to add, I have been seeing this issue also - BOTH in browsing others listings (ie to make a purchase/ as a buyer),  as well as when listing my own items via the iOS ebay app (on an iphone 13 pro + iphone's camera).

anecdotally when browsing on a Windows 11 PC with a large high quality 4k monitor, it does seem that over the past few months photos across ebay seem to be MUCH lower quality (seem to be higher compression  AND lower resolution -  i mainly notice this when i zoom in or mouse over on a listing's photo).  I cant say whether this is an issue on the seller's upload side, or if it's something ebay is doing to reduce file size on listings regardless of how the photos were posted.

while we can find possible workarounds, the real solution has to come from ebay themselves and ebay developers as they have the tools and ability to properly troubleshoot and fix this issue (Regardless of the source of the issue-  its somewhere in ebays code / control ).

[thread_therapy]

Appreciate the post. Ive been experiencing this as well after ebays newest mobile app update especially. Sigh. I hope they fix this issue

[aspire_ltd]

Does anyone know if there is a solution to this issue other than the workaround that is highlighted as the best answer?

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.