eBay alerts not working? Check your searches

When your eBay alerts are not working, the cause is usually in the search itself. A search typed as Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401 needs all three model numbers in the same title. A price range of $500 – $600 skips a camera listed at $620. Neither shows up as an error. The search just stays quiet.

Check Searches reads each search’s keyword and settings, flags whatever would stop it finding items, and gives you a button to fix each problem.

Check one search from its card

1. 1Tap ⋮ on the search card, then Check Search
   PauseEditDuplicateCheck SearchSend TestDelete
2. 2The check opens on that search

   Check Search

   Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

   Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

   Search keyword

   CURRENT KEYWORD

   Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

Check Search is in the middle group of the card’s ⋮ menu, above Send Test. If nothing needs changing, you get This search looks good instead of a step (more on that below).

Check all your searches at once

1. 1Tap ⋮ at the top of Searches
   Show LimitsSort OrderCustomize CardsCheck Searches
2. 2Pick the searches, then Check

   Check Searches

   Select All3 of 3

   Barco ProjectorActive · New Listings · $100+

   Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

   N64 Video Games (sealed)Active · New Listings · $0+

   Check 3 Searches

3. 3Go through them one at a time

   Check Searches2 of 3

   Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

   Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

   Search keyword

   CURRENT KEYWORD

   Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

Check Searches is the last row of the menu on the Searches screen, under a divider. The first time, every active search is already ticked. After that, the picker remembers what you picked last time. If you only have one search, it skips the picker and checks that one.

You can also start a check from two other places:

• The Found tab, when it is empty. A card reads No items yet? Check your searches. with a Check My Searches button. If Found is filtered to one search, the card says No items from this search yet and offers Check This Search. Not Now hides the card for two weeks.
• Settings → Support & Feedback → Not getting notifications? This opens the same check.

Fix the search keyword

Check Searches2 of 3

Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

Search keyword

Only the operators are changed. Your words stay the same.

CURRENT KEYWORD

Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

SUGGESTED KEYWORD

Fluke Camera (Ti480,TiS60,Ti401)

What was fixed

• •Brackets added. Without them, a list separated by commas needs every word to appear. (a,b) means either one.

Edit FirstUpdate This Search

“Update This Search” replaces the keyword on this search. It does not create a new search. Suggestions can be wrong, so read the keyword first.

PreviousNext Search

The Search keyword card puts your CURRENT KEYWORD above the SUGGESTED KEYWORD, with the characters it added in bold and underlined. Under What was fixed there is one line per fix, saying why it was needed.

In this example the fix is two brackets. Ti480,TiS60,Ti401 without brackets needs all three words in the title. (Ti480,TiS60,Ti401) means any one of them, which is what the search was meant to do. The rules are the same ones covered in eBay search operators.

Sometimes the check has more than one way to fix a keyword. Then the SUGGESTED KEYWORD label shows 1 of 2 or 1 of 3, with arrows to flip between them.

What each button does

• Update This Search saves the suggested keyword to this search straight away. It does not make a new search. The card changes to This search now uses the suggested keyword, with Undo beside it.
• Edit First opens the search editor with the suggestion already in the Keyword field. Nothing is saved until you tap Save there.

Check Searches2 of 3

Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

Search keyword

Only the operators are changed. Your words stay the same.

CURRENT KEYWORD

Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

SUGGESTED KEYWORD

Fluke Camera (Ti480,TiS60,Ti401)

What was fixed

• •Brackets added. Without them, a list separated by commas needs every word to appear. (a,b) means either one.

This search now uses the suggested keywordUndo

PreviousNext Search

When a keyword is already right, the card says The search keyword is written correctly. Tap Show Details next to it to open the Keyword Builder on that keyword.

What the check fixes

The check changes the operators and leaves your words alone. It never adds a word you did not type, drops one you did, or swaps one for another. Uppercase OR, AND and NOT are the exception: eBay searches them as ordinary words, so they are removed.

Two fixes depend on what the words are, so they have no fixed example:

• Stray comma removed. Outside brackets, a comma joins words into one phrase; these were separate words.
• Brackets removed. These were details of one item, so all of them are now required.

When a keyword cannot be fixed

If the keyword is broken and none of the suggestions keeps your words intact, the card says We were unable to fix this keyword and offers Write Keyword. Describe what you want in plain words, for example:

iPhone 17 or 18 Pro, not broken, no cases

The app writes a keyword from that and lists What it searches for: what the title Must contain, which words it accepts Any of, and what it Leaves out. It only looks for words you wrote. If you leave out something general, like accessories, it also leaves out the usual items of that kind. Use This Keyword saves it to the search, with Undo.

Write Keyword is also in the editor when you create a new search, next to Check Search under the Keyword field.

Fix the search’s settings

Check Searches2 of 3

Fluke Camera Ti480,TiS60,Ti401

Active · New Listings · $500 – $600

Settings

Search is active

Runs 14 hours a day06:00 – 20:00

Running right nowIt is 14:30, inside its active hours

Price range looks narrow$500 – $600. Items listed a little below or above this range are not found.Change Price

All categories

PreviousNext Search

Under Settings, each check shows a tick when it passes. A problem gets a warning icon, a short explanation and a button that takes you to the fix:

In the example, $600 is less than one and a half times $500, so the range is flagged: Items listed a little below or above this range are not found. With a $500 min, the check stops flagging at $750.

Unpause and Remove Missing save straight away. Remove Missing takes the missing categories off the search and offers Undo. Change Active Hours, Change Price and Change Categories open the search editor at that setting. Nothing changes until you tap Save there.

Each eBay site has its own categories, and eBay stops using some over time. It does not search a category it does not know, so it skips it. If the category list cannot be loaded, the row says Categories not checked and nothing is flagged.

Finish the run

Next Search moves on and Previous goes back. On the last search the button says Finish, and a message tells you how many searches were updated. The searches you changed are briefly outlined on the Searches screen.

Closing the check part-way does not undo anything. Whatever you already saved stays saved.

When the check finds nothing

If a single search passes every check, you see This search looks good: The check did not find anything to change in this search. If no items show up, there may be no matching listings on eBay right now.

The search is written and set up correctly. It is just asking for something eBay does not have right now. Leave it running, or widen it: accept more models with a bracketed list, or remove an exclusion you added with Refine Search.

The check looks at your searches, not at your phone. If items are arriving in Found but no notification comes with them, the search is working and the problem is somewhere else.

Check a search before you save it

In the search editor, Check Search sits under the Keyword field. It runs the same check on whatever is in the editor, saved or not. It needs at least four characters in the keyword.

From the editor, the keyword button reads Use This Keyword instead of Update This Search. It only fills in the Keyword field, and the settings buttons take you to that part of the form. Nothing is saved until you tap Save.

How many checks you get

You can check 20 searches a day. Each search you check counts toward that, and so does each Write Keyword. When you run out, No search checks left today tells you to come back tomorrow.

A search that only watches sellers and has no keyword skips the keyword part. It does not count toward the 20, and its settings are still checked.