Item descriptions and specifics not showing on listings properly

[lord_otto1974]

I've noticed for the past few days that item descriptions and specifics are not showing up properly on listings.

I will go to a listing page that interests me, I will see the usual specifics and description written by seller for a nanosecond, then it's gone! leaving a big white empty space, and a load of other listings from other sellers - 'explore related items' and 'you may also like' filling the rest of the page.

What is going on? I want to read the description of the article I was interested in, not have that disappear and then be bombarded by tonnes of other items. 

This seems to be a relatively new problem here on ebay. I've only noticed it the past week.

[**peaseblossom**]

Others have said the same.   It has been suggested ad blocker may be causing the problem.  Otherwise it's an ebay glitch.  

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Item-description-issue/m-p/7890033#M335947

[motoringmagpie]

eBay normally shows a link in the Tasks section on our seller hub page  to the multitude of  item specifics it wants us to update. This disappeared a couple of days ago. I wonder if it relates.

[philrs3100]

I'm seeing the same issue on two separate PCs. I was blaming my antivirus (Eset) as it's just updated with a new browser safety extension. But having run various tests, including clearing cache and cookies, disabling the new Eset extension for eBay sites and then removing it from my browser completely, plus numerous restarts, I'm still seeing the same issue. So must be something else going on. I'm using Chrome, current version 138.0.7204.101 (Official Build) (64-bit). Don't know if that's a common denominator?

[bearsieboo]

My wife is having the same problem on her laptop running Windows 11 and Chrome; she asked me to check on my laptop also Win11 and Chrome - same result as hers; no description on any listing.
Working ok on Android and iOS app versions.

I had seen a suggestion in the "Selling" forum that AdBlock Plus might be the cause, I disabled the blocker, same result, I uninstalled it, same result. Reinstalled ABP - same result.

She phoned eBay at 1240BST on Sunday 13 July, the agent asked if we could try another browser - I also have Edge, same result on there. He asked for the item number of the page we were viewing, but that's not displayed.

My wife asked if others had reported similar problems - he didn't know of any and suggested two things:

1) Using Firefos - I don't have it and don't want to add yet another browser to my laptop

2) Waiting a couple of hours to see if it clears....

Fortunately he didn't suggest powering off the laptop, waiting 20 seconds and powering back on to see if it cllears.....

[philrs3100]

Pretty certain now that Adblock for Chrome v. 6.24.0 is the cause for me, as indicated in the thread linked above. I've paused it for ebay.co.uk in settings on both machines and it seems to have fixed the problem.

[bearsieboo]

I saw your post about this in "Selling" this morning - my wife was concerned that her listings had been corrupted and the natural place to check first was in the selling section of the forum.

But, as I wrote earlier, I disabled AdBlockPlus and then removed it as an extension from Chrome, with no effect on eBay's display. Another respondent thought it was his antivirus s/w, but it's not.

Forgot to mention earlier that I cleared all eBay cookies as part of the troubleshooting process, too.


Others haven't mentioned if they are using ad blockers or not.

[philrs3100]

Most people seem to have found Adblock to be the culprit in the separate topic linked to in post #2 above.

In my case I was blaming my AV that had recently updated with a new Browser Security extension. Changing the settings for the extension initially seemed to fix it for me, but the results were inconsistent, and with help from the provider on their support forum, I eventually ruled it out.

Pausing Adblock on eBay.co.uk has fixed it for me. If you are using the same Adblock extension the settings only allow it to be paused for 7 days, not disabled per site. But if you visit the site again during that 7 days, the 7 days pause period restarts from that visit.

I've now re-enabled my AV's new browser extension and everything's fine.

If you pause or disable your adblocker, try closing and opening a new instance of your browser before checking if it has worked, or preferably restart your PC before retrying.

[bearsieboo]

Can you clarify what you mean when you write "Pausing Adblock on eBay.co.uk has fixed it for me"- what do you mean by "pausing"?

As I wrote previously, I have turned off ABP, I've uninstalled the Chrome extension, I've reinstalled ABP and the extension. 
I have also closed Chrome and restarted it.

eBay still does not show Item Specifics or the Description text, even though we know they are both present.

You also wrote "and with help from the provider on their support forum, I eventually ruled it out."; so you contacted ABP, and ruled out anything from the ad blocker tool that was causing the eBay problem, but then you went on to write that  "Pausing Adblock on eBay.co.uk has fixed it for me".

So now I'm totally confused, the ABP forum convinced you that ABP has nothing to do with the ebay descriptions not showing, but pausing ABP has fixed it.???

Can you elaborate please?
Thanks.

[vtarni]

Yep I just had this. Only on Chrome not on other engines. Turned add block off for Ebay and it fixed for me. 

[philrs3100]

You can't disable Adblock on a per site basis. But when you have a page in your browser open on eBay, click on the Adblock icon in the extensions bar and select Pause on this site. The Adblock icon will turn green. Adblock will remain disabled on eBay for 7 days, but should you visit eBay at any time within those 7 days, the 7 days will start again from the time of that visit.

I was referring also to help from my AV (antivirus) provider, Eset, whose Safe Browser extension had just been installed on both my machines in a new update. I was initially suspecting that might be the problem, but they worked with me and we came to the conclusion that Eset wasn't to blame.

The other eBay community topic linked in post #2 above has been answered by several people who found that disabling or pausing Adblock fixed the issue, and I have now found the same.

After making any changes, you should try viewing other listings and/or refresh the one you were originally viewing, as the original page may be cached and if that is the case it won't necessarily appear to change.

So the bottom line is that pausing Adblock on eBay has fixed the problem for me and apparently for several posters in the other community topic.