Bot test won't let me into my account. Press and hold didn't work.

[Mecpublications]

Today I was looking at a lot of products and it brought up a bot test. It said to press ad hold to prove I wasn't a bot. This happened a couple times. The last time I pressed it , it showed a checkmark but then turned into three dots that wouldn't go away. I refreshed several times. No help. I couldn't even open an email link to get an answer. I turned off phone, cleared cache, and still no help. I am locked out of my account on my phone and can only work on Zazzle if I'm home and use my computer.  I understand we don't want bots viewing stuff at hyper speeds or whatever else they do but I'm not that fast. And I wasn't just viewing, I deleted some things, modified a few, stopped and looked at another person's products because I liked them. And it's always my finger pressing the d**m button and it fails. 

Okay, rant over. I'm home and will be working on my computer to make up for lost time. I'll be up till three in the morning but I'm not letting the turkeys get me down. See? I'm exhausted and using 1970s expressions. Oh well I'll just hang in there. Ugh. 

[Zorinda]

The problem is getting worse. The bot test is showing up every few minutes. I click on a page tab, bot test.  I try to click on a design. Bot test.  Try to edit the design. Multiple bot tests. Some bot tests cause lost work, some are changes are saved. Try to submit a design, bot test then freeze. Lost everything entered. Lather, rinse, repeat. THIS IS NO WAY TO WORK. 

[BevStuff]

(I am working on a desk top)The press and hold bot test was unresponsive to me pressing on it with curser. (desk top computer) I wanted to share a new product, but was locked out of my store. 
I tried to come to Forum to report, but there it still was, though it worked this time.
Yesterday, I was designing and it kept popping up if I clicked to add text or after clicking so many times to add an image or replace and image.  That bot frequently got stuck on running the dots and did NOT promptly return me to my design work. 
I think the bot check should be exempt from the design board. 

[NHW]

I've been experiencing this issue for a few days now.

[MissRhoadie]

Yes, I am experiencing the same "press and hold issue" also.  I'm editing my titles, descriptions and tags on old products and uploading mockups and noticed it happen three times in the past hour.  

[AlissaJones]

Yep, I'm also getting the  "Press and Hold"; it happened to me multiple times yesterday(Jun 11) and again today. Glad I'm not the only one. I was worried that something was wrong with my account or computer.

[AirTwin]

I have reference ID number (June 12th 2025). I am on desktop computer and was using the new pink line to line stuff up, and I got the you are a bot - bot hold. Thankfully my mouse didn't flake out, I don't know why this is coming up on desktop because I cannot press a thing with a wireless mouse.



Scott, Can you remove this post if I'm not supposed to post this?

[busymomtina]

As a slow, inexperienced creator, I got this when I was right in the middle of creating a product and I lost the whole design. It reverted back to before I started creating and nothing was saved. Very frustrating!

[carmenp1]

I keep losing the edits I am in the process of finishing off when I have to press and hold the Bot.  After I successfully prove to zazzle that I am a human, the bot does not take me back to my edits but to the original version I was trying to edit.  It did it to me this morning and I was so frustrated with the loss of all my work that I just logged out.  I stupidly tried to edit a product again later today, and yes, the Bot lost all my work again.

If this continues, there is really no point in trying to create any new products.

I hope tech works out what is going on quickly.  

Carmen

[mgdesigns]

Same here. It's impossible to create any design. I'm in the design tool creating something, the bot appears, and it takes me out of the design tool losing everything I had done before!

[cationa]

Same here, I also lost my edit.. almost done but lost after I pressed and hold the button to prove I was human. I clicked on my profile and the design was in my saved designs but when I clicked it, I got an error page. So I decided to start the design over. I'm confused as to why the edits would trigger the bot to think I'm a robot.

[PLdesign]

I happened to me just now. Bot threw my design out (after pressing and holding) but thankfully it was in saved designs. 

[CherryLane]

I was locked out of my account for over 3 hours yesterday because of this.  Finally gave up.  Couldn't log in to Zazzle, couldn't even log in to Zazzle forum.  Today I was able to log in to Zazzle, but after working on a design for a whole 20 minutes the **** bot came back up and bumped me off my design.  Still able to work on it but for how long?  How many times do we have to prove we are not a robot?  Once should be enough!   ZAZZLE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

[CrazyMermaid]

I had not been plagued by the cursed bot until today. This morning bot has tossed me out of the Design Tool three times today without saving first. I guess I should be grateful, it allowed me to log in though. 

[mgdesigns]

I tried to make a few designs because so far, with all the Zazzle problems, I have not been able to work this month. In an hour, the bot took me out of the design tool 5 times. Luckly, thanks to the comments, I saw they are in the saved designs page but this makes no sense. Please fix it asap so we can work, thanks!

[migned]

Same here 😕

[Sea-Change]

The "Press and Hold" bot has become unhinged today. It's kicked me out of a design 5 times today, sometimes saving my work in Saved Designs and sometimes not. It's also sometimes reverting to previous iterations of a design. I've given up hope for now for productively designing.

Please let us know when the developers believe this issue is addressed. I totally understand the need to protect the site against bots, but the tool is throwing way too many false flags, especially when people are designing. Some of us real human designers make multiple and quick mouse or pen movements in the course of designing, so the bot detection algorithm needs to account for that. Thanks in advance!

[AlyssaErnst]

I've been unable to access my account as well. I do the "click and hold" but get stuck with the blue dots...it's been going on an hour and no matter how many times I restart my browser or clear my history it's still not allowing me access. I'm working on time sensitive items that I need to order for an event and this is so frustrating.

[plumb4me]

I have the same issue.

[Mecpublications]

It's getting worse.😩 

[Mistica]

As part of designing, elements need to be moved.
Often it takes me lots of quick tiny taps to get it just right.

Dragging does not work so well for me. Maybe it's my laptop or maybe it's the software.
Too many times lately I will be quick tiny tapping to get it just right and wham...the bot checker shows up and I am thrown out of the design tool and after passing the not a bot test I am sent into the prepare to sell it page rather than where I was last interrupted. Help please.

[Baylee]

There is already a forum thread with other people noting the same problem. You are not alone..lol.

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/press-and-hold-to-confirm-you-are-a-human-while-log...

[Mistica]

Thank you. I will stay tuned 🙂

[Connie]

It has nothing to do with the quick tiny tapping- it's happening to most of us doing all sorts of things in the design tool.

[Anne]

I am trying to create new products, but while LOGGED IN AND IN THE DESIGN TOOL I constantly have to press and hold to confirm I am a human. Am I now suspected of being an alien or what?
Can this please be fixed? Thank you.

[Anne]

Edit: now also happening when trying to add a product to a collection.

[homespuncottage]

This bot is beyond annoying. It really slows me down. So, I have a two monitor set up, probably like most designers, I usually am working in two windows, an now the bot won't approve the second window. OMG! Please do something about this. 

[Jadendreamer13]

I’ve been having the same issue.

[Cat]

I agree it's SUPER frustrating, especially when it kicks you out of the design tool. BUT it does make me wonder if they've been dealing with some sort of hack or attack that has caused all of the recent problems. While I'm certainly not a fan of having to be interrupted again and again while I'm trying to work, if it's preventing more chaos on the backend then it's well worth it.

[Connie]

That chaos on the back end wasn't nearly as disruptive as this stupid bot popup!

[mgdesigns]

When the last Zazzle problems happened, I reported strange behavior with views so I think it might be related. But this is not something we can live with as they implied. They have to find a solution or it will be impossible to work here.

[Connie]

Yes, I complained about this awful bug a few days ago! There is no need to have it repeatedly pop up after we are already logged in and working. We can't suddenly magically change into a bot after being a human!

[Cat]

Maybe, but what if somebody has created a bot that creates bogus accounts and then auto-generates a million products that fill the marketplace with garbage so none of our designs can be seen? Remember the solid black designs that were filling up all of the searches a week or 2 ago? 4th of July Mugs Spam Attack - Zazzle

I'm not denying that the hold and press thing is disruptive and frustrating, but I don't think they're doing it just to make our lives difficult. I'm sure there's a good reason. 

p.s. I'm saying all this as much for myself as I am for anyone else - I just have to keep repeating "there's probably a good reason for this" when what I really feel like doing is screaming into the void because I got kicked out of the design tool AGAIN when all I'm trying to do is get a little work done! 😉

[Mistica]

If there is a reason, it would be nice if we were told there is a reason....and what the reason might be.

[Cat]

It would be nice, but it would probably be imprudent for them to do so. "Loose lips sink ships" as they say - if it is an attack of some sort, you don't want to tip off the hackers and inadvertently give them info that they might be able to use to circumvent your efforts to stop them. It's probably not even wise for me to speculate about it on a public forum!

[Connie]

They don't have to go into detail. Just let us know it's not a bug, but a feature, and we have to deal with it from now on. 

[mgdesigns]

-

[Connie]

It would be easy enough to weed out the bogus accounts compared to our Pro accounts that we've had for years! Even if they have to pay somebody for a week to manually approve all our real accounts and whitelist them so that the bot doesn't disrupt us. 

I'd far rather see the spam in the marketplace, which would soon be pushed to the very back by the algorithms, than deal with this nonsense. Can you imagine how frustrated customers are when they get kicked out while trying to purchase something? If I was a customer, I'd never even bother coming back! And that is far worse than just having to wade through pages of spam.
Another solution would be to start charging for new stores and new accounts, like Etsy does. AND manually approve the new stores. They could always return that fee with your first payout, so that Zazzle essentially remains "free" for creators. But no spammer is going to want to pay that fee on multiple fake stores.

[plumb4me]

I finally gave up several times this week trying to work in the design area.

This is so frustating and time consuming, kicking you out of the design area, reverting to the product page and not saving any of the changes you made.

[NHW]

This has happened a few times before and, if I remember correctly, it was a bug. I'm sure it will be sorted out on Monday. But yes, it is annoying.

[Connie]

I'm pretty sure this time it's a feature, not a bug.