Help!! App not working!!

[5216elisabeth]

Can anyone help please? I run my small barely a business 95% using the app but today it suddenly says unsupported.  I have uninstalled the app and reinstalled but am still getting the same message.  I urgently need the app to be working as I cannot carry the laptop everywhere with me ...

Thank you for any help.

Can someone flag this to one of the eBay staff for me please or tell me how to do that?

[clear-out-corner1]

Same here for me -Samsung S8+ with Android 9,

defo not buying a new phone - will migrate if not fixed - thanks ebay

Any recommendations for other selling platforms (mainly electronic stuff)

Still can't get over this - what a massive own goal.

[4_bathrooms]

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@5216elisabeth wrote:

Thanks for your reply.  I have a Samsung S8+ with Android 9 - so it's not something really old.  I have tried to update the operating system - took me ages to find out how - but I can't get it to go any higher.  Purchasing a newer phone to replace it really isn't an option for me just now so if you have any ideas how I can get it working I would be really appreciative.

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I'm afraid I can't really help. Samsung are notorious for building planned obsolescence into their products which is why I would never buy one of their devices. You will not be able to update the operating system on your device via any official channel. It can be done (with limitations) but I'm not going to provide any instructions on how to do so because it is technically challenging and if you do anything even slightly wrong you will brick your device leaving you with no option but to buy another one. Disclaimer: anyone who tries to do anything like this does so entirely at their own risk and I will not accept any responsibility for anything that goes wrong if anyone does! I am strongly recommending everyone against taking this route!!

You may have noticed most of the people reporting problems are using Samsung devices. Your device was originally released in March 2017 with Android 8.0 and the latest Android version Samsung released for it was version 9.0; this was released in August 2018. That's pretty rubbish if you think about it as the hardware in the device is perfectly capable of running Android 10.0 and above but Samsung have simply never released a newer version of the Android operating system for it. Unlike personal computers you can't simply install a newer operating system on a mobile device even if the device is perfectly capable of running it - the manufacturer has to provide a pre-packaged upgrade (ROM file) specifically for the device. Samsung typically elect to only provide an upgrade to the next one or two major Android versions following the one the device was shipped with - that isn't really eBay's fault.

I will however point out that I have no idea why eBay's developers have insisted on releasing the new version of their app with an Android 10.0 minimum system requirement and discontinued any functionality for the <10.0 version. It could be operating system security related or it could be because eBay simply do not want to support a legacy version of their app for a relatively small number of users; that is a question only eBay can answer. 

If you think about it you would not go browsing the internet using Windows 7 on a PC or a laptop any more; you would have already either upgraded to Windows 10 or 11 by now or bought a new PC/laptop. That's exactly where owners of slightly older Samsung devices (and some now defunct manufacturers) have found themselves. Such owners can't upgrade the operating system on their device so they are pretty much forced into buying a new device.

[5216elisabeth]

Thank you for explaining all that so well for me. It's actually the first smartphone I have had and it was a refurbished deal from ee so it seems it's a bit older than I thought. 

Well unless eBay decide to put a patch on it looks like I will just have to manage without the app for now.

I think though that the issue - change something overnight with no warning - does illustrate why so many established business users on here recommend we newbies make sure we have more than one selling channel as quickly as possible.  I feel renewed enthusiasm for a website...

Interestingly when I completely uninstalled the app last night the view on the mobile web browser completely changed!?!  It is now much more useable and looks like a mobile view which it didn't before. Clearly having the app installed affects how the web browser looks which would explain why some of us were finding it unusable whilst others were recommending it as an alternative. 

Thank you once again for all  the helpful information and for taking the time to explain it all to me.  

[5216elisabeth]

I discovered late last night that when I completely uninstalled the app the mobile view on the web browser totally changed. It's not as user friendly as the app but it's much more useable now. Might be worth a try if you still have the app installed. 

@cobwebcottage 

[londinifecit]

Thanks to all those who helped to pin down this idiocy. It helps to know you're not only one suffering and, more importantly, WHY?!! I have been using the ebay app on my various mobiles for years without any problems, so it was a shock today to find myself excluded no matter what dodges I tried. Most inconvenient. It's astonishing that ebay failed to pre-warn all those using version 9 operating systems (not that old after all). 

For the record, which may help other sufferers, my mobile is a Huawei Y6 2019 Android OS Version 9.

Londinifecit

[londinifecit]

PS What a splendid irony! I got back in to my ebay account on my mobile in posting my previous reply (but only temporarily of course!). You couldn't make it up....

Londinifecit

[4_bathrooms]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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I will however point out that I have no idea why eBay's developers have insisted on releasing the new version of their app with an Android 10.0 minimum system requirement and discontinued any functionality for the <10.0 version. It could be operating system security related or it could be because eBay simply do not want to support a legacy version of their app for a relatively small number of users; that is a question only eBay can answer. 

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For the benefit of this thread eBay have now answered that question. Well, sort of.

[joyceidris59]

Hi All

Has anyone from ebay looked at the app info on Google Play Store, I asked yesterday if they had actually made the updates live in the UK

When I look at the App info on Google Play Store it states it has not been updated since last year. For the last several months if I have been sent an offer I was unable to deal with it on the app as it stated my app was out of date, even if I reinstated the app I was still getting the same message.

I have attached a picture of the App info from the Google Play Store.

Take a look, or have I got it all wrong??

[4_bathrooms]

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@joyceidris59 wrote:

When I look at the App info on Google Play Store it states it has not been updated since last year. For the last several months if I have been sent an offer I was unable to deal with it on the app as it stated my app was out of date, even if I reinstated the app I was still getting the same message.

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Your device is running an older version of Android. The current eBay app requires Android 10.0 or newer; if you have an older version of Android installed you will only see the legacy eBay app in the Play Store which is no longer supported. The (belated) eBay announcement explaining which operating systems are supported is here.

Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of your device?

[5216elisabeth]

Yes I spoke too soon,  the web browser worked nicely for 5 minutes then went back to the very difficult to use version. As my laptop decided to stop charging late last night I am pretty frustrated. I have managed to purchase a new charger and battery so hopefully that will fix the laptop. In a day or 2.  Meanwhile the only work I have managed to do on ebay is end a few

listings.. All eBay had to do to avoid all this aggravation for it's customers was to give us a decent amount of warning that this was going to happen. Unfortunately for sellers I suspect it will have lost some buyers from the site. I'm sure it will have slowed sales for now too as I suspect it has affected more customers than eBay anticipated.  Sellers will find a way to deal with it longer term, there's no choice, but buyers can vote with their feet. 

[the-nutwood-collection]

That's exactly what Etsy did!  Bumped sellers with an Android version that was more than a couple of years old off the app. 

I didn't rush out and buy a new phone, nothing wrong with the one I've got, and I'm not a person who cares if others despise my phone.  Fortunately, I always use a desktop, so it's no problem, but I think it was rather snobby of them - and not very green.

[ghostbay-killah-420]

I got ebay working again on my HUAWEI P Smart phone that is still on Android 8. quite easy all i did was removed ebay app as it was rubbish anyway and updated google chrome browser then logged back into the browser and happy days back online.  Result rollingpapersman 1 - 0 ebay. 

[fionmurra_4]

I am not able to hold a phone above a 4” screen, so the phone I buy is iPhone SE(2016).

I also have lost EBay but will I eventually be excluded from all apps? This is so discriminatory