Did you know that ebay deletes your inactive items after a while? In order to not lose your items you should backup your inactive items once in a while. With dewabit you have the possibility to save items as drafts ebay independently and use them for a later use. However, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that your items are fulwly preserved.

In this post I'll explain how to archive/backup your drafts correctly and what to look out for.

Item folders

Before I show you how to archive your items, I would like to explain the folder structure of items in dewabit. The folders are divided into 3 categories:

  • EBAY: This folder reflects all your items on ebay. If the items are deleted from ebay, then these are also deleted in dewabit.
  • LOCAL ITEMS: Local items are ebay independent and are only on your computer. These items are not deleted automatically and can be additionally saved in a backup.
  • SYNC-ITEMS: Items in this category are ebay independent like the local items, but they are managed by the dewabit servers and can be used by multiple workstations. These items cannot be backed up within the program. This is done by the dewabit server for you.
Item folder in dewabit

Archive items

As mentioned in the Item folders section, items from the LOCAL ITEM  category are not deleted and can also be saved in a backup. You should therefore copy all items that you want to back up into the draft folder. Here you also have the option of creating your own subfolders so that you do not lose the overview!

Do I also have to back up my items from the EBAY category?

If you manage items on ebay which you would like to reuse at a later date, then you should also copy these into the drafts. Sold or unsold items are deleted by ebay after 90 days.

Can I also save my items in the sync drafts?

This is possible, but with local items you have the advantage that you can manage an unlimited number of items and determine the number and interval of backups yourself.

Create a backup

The most important point to archive your items is to create a backup. You open the backup window in the main window under Import / Export => Backups (otherwise you can also press the key combination CTRL + B).

Create a backup in dewabit

The backup window opens.

Backup window in dewabit

In the Backup tab you can then select the backup data, choose a directory on your computer and create the backup via the Start Backup button. In the picture above, only the local drafts and the item folders are backed up.

Auto backups

If you don't feel like creating your backups manually, we offer you the possibility to have them created automatically when you close dewabit.

To do this, go to the settings on the Backups tab.

Auto backups in dewabit

Here you can give the backup a file name and, if necessary, a timestamp. To activate the automatic backups, you only have to activate the checkbox Create automatic backups when closing dewabit. Then you can enter a target directory and determine the interval at which the backup should be created.

The image problem

Within the item, only the reference to the item images are backed up. If, for example, you move your active ebay items to the local drafts, then the items are ebay independent, but the reference to the online pictures, which are on the ebay servers, remains. The problem here is that ebay deletes these images after a certain time and your drafts no longer contain any item images. So that you do not have to download the images for each of your items individually and link them to the draft again, there is the image management function. With the image management function, you can download all online images in a bundle and automatically link them to the local drafts.

To do this, simply select all items in the local drafts (or only the items you want) and use the right mouse button to select the option Image management.

Open image management window in dewabit

Now this window opens:

Image management window in dewabit

Here you have now to enter a target directory where you would like the images to be stored. Subfolders with the name of the item id of the item are then automatically created within the target directory. Once you have selected the storage location, further options are available.

  • Variation images: When activated, the variation images are also backed up
  • Only manage images that are online: If you activate this option, only the online images are managed and stored in the target directory. Local images are then ignored and not copied into the directory.
  • Link exported images to the item: Here, the processed images are linked to the item. Manual linking is therefore no longer necessary.

To archive your items, you should select the options Variation images and Link exported images to the item. You could activate the option Manage only images that are online, but I think it makes sense to have all the images of an item in one folder. So if you leave the option deactivated, local images that are located elsewhere on your computer will also be copied to the folder.

Let dewabit manage your images

Up to this point you have now learned that you should copy the items to be archived into the local drafts, you can create a backup for this and if necessary you can bring all images (incl. those which are online) to one place at once.

Even if you have now moved all the images to one place, only the reference to the image is still saved within the item. If you move the folder with the images on your computer, dewabit can no longer find the images. There is also the problem that if you restore the backup on another computer, the images are not found. You could now move all the images from the 1st computer to the same folder area on the 2nd computer, but here the path to the images must be exactly the same.

Is there a solution for this?

Yes! You can let dewabit manage your local images. To do this, activate the option Let dewabit manage local images in the Settings under Listing.

Let dewabit manage local images option

If you have activated the option, the item images will be saved in the dewabit database after a revision so that there is no longer a reference to the original image.

Are all images automatically copied into the dewabit database after activation?

Unfortunately this is not the case at the moment, you could use the image management once here. If you have activated the option in the settings, you can select all your drafts in the table and open the image management as already described above. Now you see that you have another option (Archive images only in the item and do not export additional images). If you activate this option, the images will only be imported into the dewabit database and not additionally stored in the target directory. This way you would import all images into the dewabit database with one action.

Using the image management in dewabit with Save images to database

If all images are now managed by dewabit, you can include them in the backup. To do this, activate the option Local item images. In this case, your backup file will of course become larger because all the images are there.

Save item images with in the dewabit backup

If you now import the backup on another computer, the item images of the drafts are retained.

Conclusion / TLDR

In this post, I showed you how to archive your items and what you should pay attention to. Here is a summary of the most important points:

  • Make sure that the items you want to save are in the drafts folder.
  • Check regularly whether you have created a backup for them. If not, you also have the option of activating automated backups in the settings.
  • If you want to keep item images and manage them in one place, use the image management feature
  • If you want to import the backup to another computer or have a backup that contains everything, then let dewabit manage the local images so that you can also save them in the backup.