Products Need Optimizing BUT Get deleted within minutes of the Notice coming through

[CreativeLeahG]

I've been noticing this a while now and wasn't overly concerned until some of MY favorite best designs got deleted.

I only got the notice re these items needing optimizing 6 minutes ago and when I go to see the products they're already GONE.

Is this why half my inventory has disappeared?

I am trying my hardest here, but this is too much. 

I can't find ANY of the products listed within the last few minutes (never mind the many I can't see as I wasn't checking the last few hours). They're gone.

Being here at this moment is like trying to paddle upstream.

[idraw]

@CreativeLeahG 

Trying to think outside the box, could this somehow weirdly have anything at all to do with what you were doing when you were deleting? Maybe the indexer decided to get overambitious? (You posted this thread:   Time for a Spring Clean - Deleting Is Cathartic!)
Thinking about it a little further,  it may just simply be the indexer gone awry.
Hope the mods    @James    @Scott   chime in to help. 
BTW. thanks for posting about this issue, and letting the rest of us know about it.

[CreativeLeahG]

I never deleted 'lovely' designs that took a good amount of time to put together, so no. Hopefully they will return but given I apparently have several thousand missing and my top sellers are flatlining, despite in 1 case over 100,000 sales. I am not optimistic. But ... I am not the only one affected. Hence trying to be helpful .... but for  now I'm not feeling like the love is going two ways.

[PenguinPower]

I'm pretty sure they aren't deleted - but there's always been a bug with the "needs optimizing" notice... Items that you get notified on don't ever seem to appear when you click on the "needs optimizing" filter in your product back end. If you look a day or two from now, you will find them in your "hidden" items. 

[CreativeLeahG]

They aren't showing in my store but yes I hope they do reappear. I also hope the other 19,000 missing items reappear.

[Scott · Accepted solution]

Moving forward, I'd appreciate it if everyone can hold off on mentioning me or the moderators (@scott, @James, etc) unless it's an emergency, or unless we haven't responded in more than 24 hours. When people are mentioned in this way an additional email is sent to the respective individuals, and too many of these emails can make it difficult for us to find notifications that may require a more timely response. As always, the Z team do our absolute best to be here, but we must balance our time here with a variety of other tasks, including helping customers, and reviewing bug fixes.

Notifications about product optimization mean that the product will be hidden because of APO (link), These products are not deleted.

We have a LOT of indexers running, so they can sometimes get out of sync. In this case, the notification for optimization arrived before the product stats are updated and the respective products are hidden. I'd check your "Optimization Needed" filter in your 100x store in about 24 hours.

I'm working with a few folks on getting these notifications synced a bit better. It's all a work in progress.

[idraw]

@Scott  and the other mod who I will not mention....
I was the person who tagged you, my apologies, was just trying to assist CreativeDesign.
Thank you, Scott, your post just now was EXTREMELY helpful, btw.

[CreativeLeahG]

Scott, when people are complaining vigorously about missing products, might it have been helpful to let us know when you DO know why things appear to be missing? I have spent a very distraught evening, wanting to throw in the towel. Because it is all getting a little too much, and your response is first to reprimand user for things they have NO way of knowing. This lacks compassion for the stress we are under due to the enormous amount of 'missing items' and flatlining sales. Please be aware many of us full timers are at this 14+ hrs a day 7 days a week. We are tired, exhausted and wondering why the bottom suddenly fell out of the boat.

[Scott]

I think that I understand where you're coming from because I've read all of your recent posts here. The challenge for me is that you're posting at a rate that absolutely outstrips my/our ability to provide a reasonable response. We (all of us here at Z) totally appreciate the time that you put into your store(s), and the time that you spend here on the forums, but speaking for myself I simply do not have the ability to provide substantial responses to every one of your posts at the rate that you may be expecting. I think that I've covered all of the concerns that have been mentioned in this particular conversation. If not then please let me know.

Moving this conversation to Technical because that's a better place for it.

[CreativeLeahG]

Scott, I wish Zazzle had the resources to have full-time mods, I don't believe it is fair you have to multi-task like this, I never have. And yes I apologise for my 'time spent here' on these issues. As I said 14+hrs a day 7 days a week. And it's worse than ever for most of us here now because things are changing and it's affecting us in ways that are unprecedented. I honestly don't think I can carry on with it. That will music to the ears of many I am sure. And I am still doing exceptionally well! But I see the bigger picture here, and wonder how long before the sword falls on my head and chops it off. As well as being deeply concerned for my fellow Zazzlers.

[Harmony]

The way mine seems to work is that the preview that is shown above shows me products that will then show up in the hidden section around 24 hours later. It seems to give an alert a day or so before the products show up