A Practical Guide to Understanding Image Retention, External URL Breakage & Permanent Photo Stability
When a seller clicks Relist, they expect eBay to reuse everything: titles, descriptions, variations, and especially photos. But many sellers are surprised when image links disappear or gallery photos break after relisting. These problems don’t come from uploading mistakes or display/rendering bugs; instead, they stem from the way eBay internally manages item data, image retention windows, and external link persistence.
This article explains exactly why relisting affects images, how long eBay keeps photos from ended listings, and how to ensure your images remain permanently accessible… even across years of relists.
Inside this article
1. Why Relisting Can Wipe Image References Entirely
Relisting is not the same as editing your active listing. When you relist, eBay generates a new item ID and creates a new record based on a template from the previous listing.
Image files on eBay are stored as internal assets linked to the original listing. Once a listing ends, those image references are not guaranteed to remain permanently attached.
So when you click Relist:
- eBay attempts to copy the existing image references
- Any photo references that are no longer valid or attached are skipped
If the original listing has lost some or all of its image references:
- The relisted item may have no photos
- Variation images may be missing
- Externally hosted images in the description may still display
This is why sellers often say:
“My photos were there last time… why did a simple relist delete them?”
The answer: eBay relisting is not a perfect clone, it depends entirely on what the old listing still has stored at the moment you relist.
2. Why External Image URLs Break During Relisting
Even if you use externally hosted images, those URLs can disappear when an item is relisted. This does not mean the URLs are rewritten or intentionally stripped.
When relisting, eBay re-parses and re-validates the listing description using its current HTML and security rules. Any image tags that fail this validation are silently removed.
This can happen when:
- The image URL is not HTTPS
- The URL relies on redirects
- The image is served dynamically or via query strings
- The response headers or MIME type are inconsistent
- The original listing used legacy HTML or templates no longer supported
Because relisting forces a fresh validation pass, links that worked years ago may no longer be accepted, even if they still load in a browser.
Important: This is not the same as URL rejection during upload: it’s URL invalidation during duplication, which follows different logic.
3. How Long eBay Actually Retains Your Hosted Listing Photos
eBay’s official help documentation states that photos you upload are stored and can be reused when you relist an item for up to 90 days after the listing ends.
What this means in practice:
- Up to ~90 days after the listing ends:
eBay guarantees that the photos will remain available and can be reused when you relist or create a similar listing. - After ~90 days:
The photos may no longer be guaranteed by eBay to remain available. Over time, images may stop being accessible, especially if they are no longer linked to any active or recently ended listing. Many sellers report that images disappear from ended listings once they pass this threshold, though there is no further official retention timeline published.
Because a relist creates a new item, eBay will only copy images that still exist and are valid at the moment of relisting. If the original photos have been removed or are no longer stored by eBay:
- The relisted item may be missing some or all photos.
- Variation galleries can lose their images.
- Older ended listings (past 90 days) frequently show no images available to reuse.
This explains common seller complaints such as:
- “Photos are visible on the ended listing, but relisting has none.”
- “Only some of my images were preserved.”
- “Relisting an old listing dropped all photos.”
The root cause isn’t a glitch, it’s that eBay only guarantees photo retention for up to ~90 days, and beyond that period images may no longer be preserved.
4. Why Permanent Hosting Matters (and When eBay Isn’t Enough)
For long-tail sellers, multi-year inventory, or seasonal listings, relying on eBay’s photo retention is risky.
🧨 The biggest problems:
- Relisting old items wipes photos
- CSV templates that reference old eBay-hosted image URLs no longer work
- Description images become inconsistent over time
- Variation images quietly disappear
✅ External hosting solves this only if:
- The URLs stay permanent
- The host provides a fast CDN with great uptime
- Images never get deleted due to retention policies
This is why many professional sellers use an image hosting platform designed specifically for marketplaces, with:
- Permanent image storage
- Unchanging URLs (no dynamic links that behave differently over time, no expiring links, no redirect chains)
- Stable CDN domains accepted by marketplaces for years
When external URLs are stable:
- Relisting never breaks your description images
- CSV upload workflows remain consistent year after year
- Old item templates remain usable indefinitely
5. Best Practices to Ensure Permanent Image Stability Across Relists
Here is what top sellers do to avoid image disappearance forever.
❌ 1. Never rely solely on eBay’s hosted images
Use external hosting when:
- You will relist items months later
- You sell long-tail inventory (collectibles, specialty parts, seasonal items)
- You need full image control for branding
📌 2. Use image URLs that will never change
This means:
- No dynamic links
- No expiring links
- No temporary link tokens
- No links that depend on multiple redirects
Use direct-access URLs that point straight to the file.
💾 3. Use a hosting provider that guarantees permanent retention
Your photos should remain accessible for as long as your business needs them, not for 90 days.
⤴️ 4. Keep your source images organized outside of eBay
eBay is not a long-term archive.
A dedicated hosting solution acts as your “master source”.
🔎 5. When relisting, always review image blocks before publishing
Since eBay does not copy everything:
- Confirm that gallery photos reappear
- Confirm variation photos are complete
- Confirm your description links still load
Five seconds of checking saves massive headaches.
Conclusion
Photos disappearing after relisting is not a glitch: it’s a consequence of how eBay stores, purges, rewrites, and revalidates images during the duplication process. Since eBay’s retention window is limited, sellers who rely solely on old listing data eventually lose their images.
The solution is simple:
- Keep your images externally hosted
- Use permanent, static URLs
- Maintain your own long-term archive
- Avoid dynamic/temporary image links that can’t survive relisting checks
With stable external hosting and a permanent CDN-backed URL structure, you can relist an item today, next month, or five years from now… and your images will always be there.
