I’m wondering whether anyone else has experienced this.
Over approximately the last 6 to 7 weeks , I’ve discovered that 13 uploaded images have disappeared from my Uploads library.
I verified this by manually checking my Uploads library in both Brave and Google Chrome. The same 13 images are missing in both browsers. I checked manually rather than relying on the Uploads search, as I’ve found the search can sometimes fail to locate files that are visibly present.
What makes this particularly puzzling is that these weren’t isolated uploads. I uploaded images in batches over a period of about 4 to 5 weeks , yet in several cases only one image from a batch has disappeared while the other images uploaded during the same session are still present.
Of the 13 missing uploaded images:
10 still have products in my store that are displaying those images correctly, even though the uploaded images themselves are no longer present in my Uploads library.
3 have disappeared completely, along with every associated product:
Velvet Elvis
The Rolling Tones
Bill Smithers
This is now the fourth occasion in the last 6 to 7 weeks where I’ve had an uploaded image and all associated products disappeared. On an earlier occasion (David Joey parody), I had to recreate and re-upload everything. I’ve also had a couple of uploaded images disappear and then unexpectedly reappear weeks later without me doing anything.
Has anyone else experienced uploaded images disappearing from their Uploads library, either with the products remaining or with both the uploaded image and all associated products disappearing?
Examples of products that are still live even though their uploaded images are no longer present in my Uploads library:
I’m 63 years old - I don’t have the time or energy to put hours into uploading every single product again, particularly if it keeps on happening! I’d rather put that effort towards creating the images.
My concern too is that this may also have happened to other images. Am I expected to spend days determining if other images and/or products are missing?
NOW around 40 images have disappeared along with what appears to be several thousand products missing, and that’s just those from a specific collection. I haven’t checked others.
I hope that this means the team is fixing it, rather than the problem is actually growing worse.
I made the mistake of organizing all my uploads and now so many I can’t even count are no where to be found in my image library. Geez, I wonder how long this issue will persist.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re having problems too. Are you missing products as well?
It’s ridiculous that this is happening. Shouldn’t we be able to trust that our images and every product that we’ve spent many months putting together, are safe on Zazzle?
Thank you, Miss Terry, but thinking our images aren’t ‘safe’ on Zazzle is completely inaccurate. It’s not unusual for systems as complex as Zazzles to have glitches that temporarily cause things to stop working properly and, yes, sometimes disappear from our end. Your images and products, as all of ours, are still there, Zazzle just has to figure out where the glitch is that is stopping them from properly populating and allocating into each of our image galleries and stores.
As far as whether I’m missing products, I haven’t noticed, but possibly. This is not the first time this has happened. It will get fixed. I just hope it doesn’t take weeks/months like some of these types of back-end issues do.
Perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly. I wasn’t stating that they aren’t safe, I was asking: Can I feel confident my work won’t suddenly disappear from my shop? Should I be concerned that this is an ongoing issue? Should I be worried that I’m going to have to spend months fixing the thousands of missing products? How do I explain to potential customers who have shown interest in a specific collection why they aren’t even there? These are legitimate concerns.
@MissTerry Products and images can disappear if there are IP infringements (eg - you added image/tags that infringe on somebody else’s intellectual property)
Zazzle will auto delete but they should send you an email if they have. Check your spam messages for any emails from them.
I’m not entirely sure, but I have a feeling that Zazzle might not be the easiest place to play around with brand names and trademarks, even in a humorous or artistic way. From the links you shared, it looks like you reference or imitate several “celebrities” in an ironic style. I’m wondering if some of the issues you’re seeing with disappearing uploads might be related to that.
There is probably a certain level of artistic freedom, of course. But my impression is that Zazzle may be quietly filtering more of that content out over time. Recently, I hardly see any products that lean strongly on famous names or direct celebrity references. For example, I noticed a design with a singer as a gazelle, named “Gazella Fitzgerald” — a clever pun, but also very close to a real name and persona.
I’m not sure how Zazzle handles this in detail, and I can’t say for certain what triggered specific removals. I was only able to open one of the links you posted, and the image there looked AI-generated to me, but it wasn’t tagged as such. I have no idea whether there are already clear, public guidelines on how AI artwork and parody-style content should be marked on Zazzle, or whether certain things are just being screened out in the background.
It would be really helpful if someone from the Zazzle team could share a bit more insight here — especially about how they currently view celebrity-inspired designs, playful name references, and AI-generated images on the platform.
I appreciate that you reported this problem to the technical team, but it has now been over a month since I first raised it on 10 July and I haven’t received any update.
I’m completely in the dark about what is happening. I’m still missing dozens of images, and goodness knows how many products associated with those images are also still missing.
I’ve since noticed further evidence of the problem. In one of my collections, two products associated with missing images were still listed, but the products themselves were completely blank.
Then today, when I opened another collection, it initially showed that the collection contained 53 products. When I clicked “Load more products”, the total suddenly dropped to just 18.
I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the extent of the problem, particularly as these are products I have spent considerable time creating and uploading. I would appreciate it if you could please follow this up with the technical team and let me know what is happening?