topic Re: Fault with full watchlist in Technical Issues

Fault with full watchlist

memology — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:03:13 GMT

I have just had a problem with adding items to the watchlist. I click "add to watchlist" button and the heart symbol goes black, so I think it's added - great! Only it's not added, because my watchlist is already full. I've been adding to watchlist for several days, but none of them are saved. It used to be that if the watchlist was full, there would be an indication of this when I tried to click "Add to Watchlist" - it went grey or something and I didn't get the blue bar at the top of the item, so it was pretty obvious that the watchlist was full and I had to delete completed items to get it working again. Now it gives no indication, it just pretends it's now in your watchlist, but it's not - What's the point of that?! In this scenario, clicking the heart directly (to add to watchlist) doesn't work - it remains white - so it's working properly with that method (i.e. it's not adding to the watchlist), but clicking the "add to watchlist" button seems to work as normal and the heart fills black and the "Add to Watchlist" button changes to "add to list" - so you think it's saved - but it's not! Why can't we have a simple pop up like "watchlist full, please delete some items."

If anybody knows how to get this info to the coders / developers please send it on - I couldn't find a way to get in touch.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

thesmokingrunner — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 14:25:03 GMT

@memology Interesting. I didn't know there was a limit to the number of items which could be added to a Watch List - I know the maximum you can specify is 100 items but I thought anything over that went onto 'Page 2'; that certainly happens if you have the display count set to 50 but have more than that in your Watch List.

I experienced something similar to you not so long ago, when clicking on "Add to Watchlist" had no effect whatsoever - the heart didn't go black. I logged out of eBay, logged back in and it worked correctly. I just put it down to "It's not me, it's eBay". Have you tried that?

The only other thing I can think it might be - and with apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs - is that you're adding something to the Watchlist then going back to check your Watchlist using the back button. If you do that you need to refresh the screen, otherwise anything you've added won't show in the list.

There is no way to get in touch with eBay's coders/developers directly - we're too insignificant to be allowed to contact them (and in any case if direct contact was allowed they would be inundated with reports about faults. They have enough to do creating their own faults let alone fixing the ones they've previously created...).

The best you can do is try going through the Community Team - dave@ebay marco@ebay or kat@ebay - and hope they pass it on to the right team to investigate, though if there is a fault it may (or may not) be fixed at some point in the future and you will never be informed if any action is taken.

Then again this is eBay, so whatever problem you're having today may well not appear tomorrow and you'll start to question whether it actually happened or whether you dreamt it...

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:52:11 GMT

Thanks for the tag @thesmokingrunner

Hi @memology ,

We are not aware of a limit on the watchlist. It is possible there was an intermittent issue at the time you tried to add the item. If you come across this issue again can you try refreshing the page and logging out and back in again to see if it then allowed the item to be added.

If it doesn't and you are experiencing the same issue can you let me know and provide the item number you tried to add along with the number of items you have reached on your watchlist. I will then have it followed up.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

thesmokingrunner — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:17:39 GMT

Thanks for the response Kat.

No known limit on a WatchList, logging out and back in again, refreshing the page, possible intermittent issue

were all things I mentioned in my original response, so thanks for confirming all that.

Gizza job... : )

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:24:29 GMT

Absolutely @thesmokingrunner 😊

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:44:39 GMT

Hi Kat and thesmokingrunner,

Thanks for the quick replies.

My watchlist limit seems to be set at 1000 items - it was a lot less when I first joined and has increased a few times over the years, jumping from 500 to 1000 within the last year - about when the heart symbol was introduced?

Clearly, I add a lot of items to my watchlist! I've reached this 1000 items limit a few times and the behaviour is the same. It looks like I'm adding new items - I click the "add to watchlist" button, which seems to work as normal and the heart fills black and the "Add to Watchlist" button changes to "add to list" - so I think it's saved - but it has not saved it.

I access ebay from several different computers - a pc and imac at work and another imac at home, plus an ipad everywhere, so it's not a log in problem, or page refresh, or related to a particular item. The only thing which resolves it is to go to my watchlist and delete a load of the old / finished items - I'll delete 3 or 4 hundred of the oldest ones - and after that there seems to be space for new items. This has happened more than once, just this week, and again a few weeks ago when it was last full. I don't mind deleting the old items, I just wish the system would tell me my watchlist was full and / or not pretend to add new items.

If you can be in touch with the developers, it would also be really useful to have the "hearts" on the 'recently viewed' page - that way I could see if they were being watched or not. To go back and re-watchlist the various items I thought I'd added during the last couple of days (when my watchlist was full), I had to pull up the recently viewed items, then click them all one by one to go to their pages to see if they were actually being watched - most of them weren't so I had to watch them again. Having the hearts on the recently viewed page would mean I could watch them directly from there, by clicking the heart.

Like I said before, the bug applies to the "add to watchlist" button, but not to direct clicking the heart, the heart won't go black, it stays white so doing that a few times makes you aware that there's a problem. But clicking the Add to watchlist button turns the heart black and you think everything is ok. There should be a popup saying "Watchlist Full!" or something.

I said my watchlist is full at 1000 items, but actually it only ever goes to 999 or 998 items - I don't think I've seen it at 1000 - I was just rounding up as it feels like that's where the limit would be set.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:55:29 GMT

Hi @memology ,

Thanks for the reply.

That is a good point about a pop up to let you know if the limit has been reached. Let me follow up to get clarification on there being a limit. I will share your feedback on the points raised. We cannot guarantee changes based on the feedback but will make sure to share with the development team.

Once I get an update on the limit query I will post back to let you know.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

davidninetynine — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:59:08 GMT

A 1000 item watchlist is extraordinarily large. I'm not surprised the system isn't designed to deal with it.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

thesmokingrunner — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 07:59:30 GMT

Morning @memology

I don't think there's much I can add to what I've written previously and it's probably best to let Kat deal with things now; hopefully her response will provide the answers.

The one thing I would say, however, is that I suspect you are one of only a few users who have such an extensive WatchList and that's very probably the reason this issue has arisen.

Without access to the actual code to confirm it I can only surmise but I would guess that the counter for the number of items on a WatchList is defined on the database as being 3 digits long. That number is displayed as 'Status: All (number)' at the top of a WatchList and the drop-down arrow next to it allows for a further choice between Active and Ended items on the list.

A 3 digit field would explain why you are limited to 999 items in the WatchList. Attempting to add another item, as you have established, does nothing and I strongly suspect that the reason it does nothing is that the process has not been coded for exception handling - it was simply never expected that anyone would have more than 999 items in a single WatchList so why code for something that will probably never happen? Yes, a competent programmer would, but this is eBay...

This does need to be confirmed but I suspect this explains the bother you've been having: eBay's system is designed with a maximum number which can be added to a WatchList. You're trying to exceed that limit but there is nothing in the code which alerts you to that fact.

I'll leave it to Kat from here on in.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:12:39 GMT

Hi @memology ,

Thank you for your patience on this. I have had confirmation on the limit for the watchlist and it is set at 1000. I understand you would like it to be a higher amount but there won't be any change to it right now. It will remain at 1000.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:55:50 GMT

Hi Kat,

Thanks for looking into that and getting back to me, but I think you have misunderstood my query:

1. I didn't ask for or need confirmation that there was a 1000 item limit for the watchlist, I already knew that from experience - see my previous messages.

2. I have not asked for the limit to be higher.

3. My reason for getting in contact was to report a fault / bug in the way the system handles the Watchlist being full - I've explained this a couple of times above.

Essentially, there exist 2 ways to add an item to the watchlist a) Click the [Add to Watchlist] button or b) click the heart directly.

When the watchlist is full, method b) works as it should - clicking the heart does not result in it going black so you are aware that the item is still not in the watchlist.

But method a) is now faulty because it does result in the heart going black and the [Add to Watchlist] button changes to [Add to list] so it gives the impression that you have added the item to the watchlist. But this is not true.

It's possible to go several days in this state, seemingly adding items to the watchlist, with positive visual feedback from the item page telling you that you've just started watching that item, but it's a lie - the watchlist is full and none of those items have been added.

Please forward this info - it's a bug report - to the development team so they can fix it.

My other suggestions: a "Your Watchlist is full" popup and the inclusion of Hearts on the recently viewed page could also be forwarded to the team as possible system improvements.

Thanks again for your help with this - ideally, there'd be section of the website for sending Bug Reports.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:28:54 GMT

Hi @memology ,

Thank you for the reply.

Does this start happening when your watchlist is at a certain number. I understand its below the limit but can you advise what total number you tend to have when it continues to allow you to add but the items are not being added. Can you also share some screenshots to show the view when you add the item to your watchlist? For example showing an item you tried to add and then showing it not being added. This is helpful for the report.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:12:45 GMT

Hi Kat,

I think my descriptions so far should be enough info to go off. For me, it's not going to happen again until I get to 999 items - and I don't fancy artificially adding items to my watchlist just to get there to take screenshots of something I've described in detail. I hope it gets fixed so it doesn't happen again, but if it does I'll get screenshots or a video.

Please don't wait for screenshots from me before you proceed with the report - my descriptions really do describe it exactly.

Re: Fault with full watchlist

thesmokingrunner — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 09:05:09 GMT

kat@ebay I'm with @memology on this: there really is no need for screenshots. And in any case, just how do you screenshot a heart not changing colour?...

My understanding of the issue is that there are two ways in which an item can be added to a Watchlist: by clicking on the heart directly (Method A) or by clicking [Add to Watchlist] button on the item page (Method B), which also changes the [Add to Watchlist] button to [Add to list].

Currently everything works correctly for anyone using either of the above methods. However, an issue arises when a Watchlist contains the maximum number of permitted items which is, apparently, 999 - you state in Post #10 that you have had "confirmation on the limit for the watchlist and it is set at 1000", though you haven't actually said whether the limit is coded (that is, specifically set to a number value) or whether the column size is set to 3 digits and cannot process a 4-digit number. And yes, there is a difference.

The thing is, if the Watchlist limit is coded then it really is no big deal to either increase that number or even remove it completely. After all, how many users actually have more than 999 items in a Watchlist? Very, very few I should think, so such a change will make no difference to the vast majority of users who will never get close to that number. If, on the other hand, the Watchlist column size is set to 3-digits then the solution is either to increase the column size to 4 (which would solve the issue without further changes) or to change the code to notify the user that their Watchlist is "full".

Currently, Method A - clicking on the heart - works (for want of a better expression) in that if a Watchlist contains fewer than 999 rows the item is added to the Watchlist and the heart turns black, but if the Watchlist contains 999 rows the item is not added and the heart does not change colour. What is required, though, is that if the Watchlist is "full" and the item is not added then a pop-up informing the user (something like "Watchlist currently contains 999 items - item cannot be added to Watchlist") should be displayed, because nothing happens at present and a user would most probably be unaware of the actual reason why the item has not been added to the Watchlist.

Method B - clicking [Add to Watchlist] - is slightly more involved. Currently the heart changes colour to black and the button text changes to [Add to List] but the item is not added to the user's Watchlist. The coding for this process needs to change so that if the Watchlist already contains 999 rows the heart does not change colour (in other words, the coding should be the same as in Method A) and the text does not change to [Add to list]. Additionally a pop-up, as described in the paragraph above, should be displayed to inform the user.

The clearly obvious solution to the issue raised is to either increase the permitted limit of items in a Watchlist or, depending on the current database architecture, increase the Watchlist column size. If, however, neither of these options are going to be effected then the alternative is to code for Methods A and B as described above and in future display a pop-up informing the user that they cannot add an item to their Watchlist.

None of the actions proposed above are difficult to implement and would improve the user experience of the site in a positive way. Screenshots would actually show nothing other than a page after an action has been attempted - if the development team cannot understand the issue from what memology has written then they need to replicate the issue themselves by adding items to a Watchlist until the limit is reached: they will then see the issue first-hand and reference to this Post will provide the solution.

Failing that, I'm available next Wednesday afternoon... : )

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:59:41 GMT

Hi both,

Apologies for the delay in my reply as I was out of the office.

@thesmokingrunner ,

Thank you for those details. I'll be sure to share this.

@memology we ask for screenshots as part of the process. I have already logged the report with the details. I will let you know of any updates. In the meantime it may be best to work within the 999 limit.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:13:32 GMT

Hi Kat,

My Watchlist is full again and so I've made a short screen capture video showing the bug in the way the website handles further watchlist adding requests. How can I upload a video?

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:49:43 GMT

Hi @memology ,

Thank you for the reply. You can try sending it to me here by private message rather than the thread.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:43:23 GMT

Hi, How do I do that? Is this a private message? There's an option to link a youtube video or attach a jpg or gif....... I can't see where I can upload the video off my computer - it's just under 5 MB

Re: Fault with full watchlist

kat@ebay — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 08:29:08 GMT

Hi @memology ,

Its mostly like not allowing it due to security reasons. I have sent you a pm to try that way. The ticket for the issue and alert message is logged.

Thank you,

Kat

Re: Fault with full watchlist

memology — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:00:32 GMT

Update: Still not fixed - Just bumping as a reminder...