Variations are getting deleted randomly

[aquapillar]

I just noticed some of my products had random variations deleted, when I look into it further, I found about 20% of my variations were deleted by eBay. I know it's not me or anyone who has access to it. Either eBay is deleting them or other unknown service that might have access to my account? Has anyone been experiencing this? I had just uploaded another product, it is supposed to be 70 variation but when I checked on it few days later, it went down to 30ish variation, the rest all got deleted.

[lightlily_arts]

Perhaps eBay thinks that 70 variations is a bit much for any listing.   I do see that you are selling shoes in different sizes and colors.  Best answered by eBay if there is a limitation of the number of variations allowed in a listing.

[bigdeals.etc]

I'm going to use ebay terminology to make sure there's no confusion. What do you mean by deleted? It ends up with quantity zero, or the entire variation combination goes away? Can you show an example of one of your listings? Variations are super complex mainly because of so many problems caused by ebay poor programming.

Are the attributes still there, or have they been removed too? I haven't seen any of my listings lose their variation combinations nor their attributes/options. One thing I have seen about as of a few weeks ago is that ebay screws up the sorting order of the variations as it's displayed right after you make a revision anywhere in the listing. For instance, you have it set to show Color, then size... but ebay switches it to size then color. It does this randomly and it's driving me crazy.

[ronsam-197]

I believe the maximum # of variations allowed in a listing is 60. This may be part of the OP's issues.

[ronsam-197]

What is also confusing when you're revising is that when you go to edit, ALL the variations you've ever had will come up even though they are zero qty AND you've previously deleted them.

It seems that any variation which has had a sale is there for eternity (or until the listing ends).

[aquapillar]

When I say deleted I mean it completely disappeared, in the lifting view it will show only few variants is in place.

[aquapillar]

Hi 

I don't think my variation number is the reason because my other listing has much more variants and they did not get deleted. I notice it only gets deleted with the quantity is 0, than it gets deleted automatically and completely, not just put on out of stock, but it's not in my listing anymore, I have to add it manually. Even on items that only started out with 8 variants, now it only has 1 variant left. This does not happen to every product, only recent uploads. my older products do not get their sold out variants deleted.

[aquapillar]

Hi 

I do not believe it has to do with limitation as item that started with only 8 variants are also getting deleted. I notice it's only recent products not my older products and it gets deleted when variants is sold out. it gets deleted completely

[aquapillar]

thanks for your reply, I understand the back end will show sold out variants, but they are completely deleted, I have to add them back manually

[flyingmvp]

I wonder if this issue is the other side of "Out Of Stock"  items on variations listings, that are being randomly sold Again and again?

[bigdeals.etc]

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@ronsam-197 wrote:

I believe the maximum # of variations allowed in a listing is 60. This may be part of the OP's issues.

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I'm not sure if this is dependent on the product category, but for me it says maximum number of variations is 250. From that I see the OP does clothing, which is the same category as me.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@ronsam-197 wrote:

What is also confusing when you're revising is that when you go to edit, ALL the variations you've ever had will come up even though they are zero qty AND you've previously deleted them.

It seems that any variation which has had a sale is there for eternity (or until the listing ends).

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Untrue. You can delete variation combinations, but not options in the back end of the listing. Those options  stay there forever as long as you still have the attribute. For instance if you wanted to add a color named "Unicorn pink". You can have a variation combination "Color: Unicorn Pink, Size: Small". Once you sell out of that, you can delete that combination so buyers won't see it anymore. But the option "Unicorn Pink" will stay in the back end of your listing for as long as you still have the attribute "Color" in your listing.

Although, I don't know what happens to the options once you remove the attribute "color" from your listing and re-add it. I'll probably try that soon.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@aquapillar wrote:

When I say deleted I mean it completely disappeared, in the lifting view it will show only few variants is in place.

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Okay so you are referring to variation combinations, right? Do you know if your attributes or options are still within the back end of your listing? You'll have to be more specific as I'm just guessing at what's actually happening to your listings. PM me if you want.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@aquapillar wrote:

thanks for your reply, I understand the back end will show sold out variants, but they are completely deleted, I have to add them back manually

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Sounds like you'll have to talk to CS to see what is going on. It's tough for someone with no access to your account to help in these variation issues.