Etsy Item "Unavailable In Your Region" Glitch Stiffles Sales During Discount Event
UPDATE 9-17-23
While there has been no official update or acknowledgement from Etsy, some impacted users report they have spoken to support and been told it is a known issue that is being worked on, but there likely won't be any resolution until at least tomorrow.
Hi Everyone, I just spoke with Etsy on the phone about this.
I sell activewear. I'm located in the USA and sell only in the USA. I'm not using a VPN. My region settings are for the USA and I'm using the one and only same "Free Shipping" profile that I've been using for years. And it's the same shipping profile that other items in my shop use, and these items show up fine.
He spoke with the tech team and they said they are being "flooded" with support tickets about this starting this weekend. I told him about this forum thread and also other threads I've seen regarding this issue. Some of the other threads are old, and I saw people who gave up waiting for Etsy... they opened a shop elsewhere. I told him "Please, don't leave us sitting here waiting for nothing." He assured me they know about the issue and it's a new flood of people experiencing it. He said he'd get back to me tomorrow.
I asked if I should try some of the trouble shooting tricks that people mentioned on the forum. For example, changing around the photos, not using words such as flower, plant, nude, skin, hair, or deactivating the listing for 5 minutes and then re-activate it. He said that for my shop in particular, he recommends I leave it be for a couple days because he's having the tech team look at it. But for others, if they don't have a support ticket out, there's no harm in trying these trouble shooting examples.
I'm having the same problem: I added a new coloring page to my account yesterday, someone tried to buy it and got that same error message. She was a repeat customer and noticed that when she looked at other items in my shop, including ones she'd purchased in the past, she also got that error message. I went to look at it myself, and I also got the same error!
So I jumped on a call with Etsy customer support - they called me back almost instantaneously! - and they confirmed that it's a known problem, it's happening to a lot of people, and it won't be fixed until tomorrow at the earliest (as it's a Sunday today.) So they'll send me an e-mail update tomorrow. Wish I had better news, but at least they know about it?
Etsy users report major glitch with items showing "not available in your region" in desktop and mobile browsers.
Hi, I have had my shop for three years now. I was gearing up for my Halloween sale this year and was very excited. I added new listings. I noticed that two of my listings were saying "Sorry, this item is unavailable in your region."
I have never received this message before. I contacted Etsy support, but they were very little help. Now I'm noticing some of my older listings are doing it too. I'm very disheartened because I put so much time into my work. If anyone one can help me I would be most grateful.
Having the same issue today!! I opened a support ticket. I hope this gets fixed asap for all of us!
I'm an author who recently set up a shop to streamline my process for selling signed paperbacks of my books. I got in a shipment today and went into my Etsy listings to update my inventory counts. Now one of my listings says "Sorry, this item is unavailable in your region" when I click on it. I asked one of my friends to test it and he got the same message. I even tried making a new listing for that book, figuring I'd just eat the fee, but I'm still getting the same message. My other books/listings are fine.
I'm in the USA, and I'm pretty sure my shipping information is set up correctly. I've only had one sale so far since I just opened, but it was actually for this book/listing. I did try searching the forums, but all I saw were issues about live plants and knives? How can I fix this?
This is a huge issue right now. My affected listings all have swimsuits or lingerie Barbie images. I cannot imagine what is it, but it is a BOT and Etsy is very slow to respond. I would wait until the issue is resolved. I deleted one of my listings and added it as a new listing, but I loose the reviews associated with that listing. So frustrating.
One Etsy community member was able to narrow down the issue and confirm that impacted listings still show on the mobile app, just not in desktop or mobile browsers.
Many posts about this glitch - I haven't seen this in my shop yet, but in doing a bit of research on shops with listings affected, I've found the following -
- These listings show in shop search, as well as Etsy search - so they are not "deindexed" in the the usual sense.
*Once clicked on the thumbnail, it shows the error message "Sorry, this item is unavailable in your region"
All the ones affected that I checked still show in the mobile Buyer App (the orange icon) - and you can click to view, add to cart, and (presumably) purchase.
The glitch / bug applies to the mobile browser / desktop site - still shows "not available" when trying to view.
There doesn't seem to be anything Sellers can do, but if you happen to get a message from a Customer who intends to purchase, ask them to fave the item, and try viewing it on the mobile Buyer app.
Some sellers are speculating the issue may have something to do with the updated child photo prohibited content policy that recently went into effect and/or simply AI bots gone wild flagging items.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
I just researched further. It seems to have only been 3 nude Barbie dolls that this has happened to so far. The rest of the dolls are fine. I would edit them if I could only get there!
Results of my testing..... It appears to have something to do with thumbnails and body detention which it does not like. Zooming in via adjust thumbnail does not work, you have to actually crop the thumbnail image to remove as much 'body shape' as possible. Body shapes can exist in other images, but not the thumbnail. This explains the issues with so many items it swimwear/lingerie categories. If you change the thumbnail it should work
Maybe this is some kind of "soft block" on listings the bot programs may see as inappropriate, or contains keywords like nude or sexy.
So far, I've seen nude (vintage) Barbies, other doll-related items, vintage book covers with shirtless men, vintage posters and art with semi-nudes, even exotic dancewear shown on mannequins.
My Dad has the same issue with a few vintage bikinis sold in his shop, they're displayed on an adult mannequin.
I just checked the details, I don't see any keywords that could be a problem.
But it could have something to do with bots wrongly seeing something inappropriate?!
It's possible the bots are going off images alone, if that's what's happening. I've seen the "unavailable" error on bikini tops on manniquins. Just saw a manga art type shop that had some listings unavailable with scantily clad cartoons.
Then again, search for "nude stockings" showed lots of kinky stuff that was unaffected.
All my swimwear items are having this problem. Checked after seeing a comment about body shapes in the images. Smfh...
A few impacted sellers said changing their main thumbnail image seems to have worked to correct the issue, possibly confirming that whatever is going on here may be related to Etsy's AI image recognition for policy enforcement incorrectly flagging items as policy violations.
Okay, I found that when I replace the main thumbnail image of the affected listing it immediately fixes the issue.
I tested putting the original thumbnail back on and it got restricted immediately. So something to do with the thumbnail.
It's particularly bad timing for an AI enforced drag net snafu as Etsy is running a $5 of coupon sale this weekend to encourage sellers to enroll in the new Share & Save program and promote their listings across social media.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Sellers who hoped to capitalize on the event may be out of luck of their items are being incorrectly flagged due to this error and of course buyers will be extremely disappointed to receive a message saying "sorry this item is not available in your region" when they try to use the coupon.
Are your Etsy listings affected by this error? Let us know in the comments below!
