Facebook Marketplace is a great platform for buying and selling locally, allowing you to connect with people in your community. However, sometimes listings fail to publish for a variety of reasons. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the top reasons your Facebook Marketplace post may not be going live and provide troubleshooting tips to help get your listing up and running.
Your Listing Was Flagged as Inappropriate
One of the most common reasons a Facebook Marketplace post fails to publish is that it was flagged as inappropriate by Facebook’s automated filters or by users reporting the post. Facebook Marketplace has guidelines prohibiting certain items, content, practices, and behavior.
Some specific things that could get your listing flagged include:
- Selling illegal, banned, or regulated goods
- Selling or promoting adult products and services
- Using profane, defamatory, abusive or offensive language
- Violating intellectual property rights
- Engaging in deceptive practices like artificially inflating an item’s price
If you receive a notification that your listing was removed for violating Marketplace policies, you’ll need to modify the listing to comply with the guidelines before trying to post again. Review Facebook’s Commerce Policies carefully to ensure your listing does not contain prohibited content.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Carefully review your listing title, description, images, and any other content for prohibited items or inappropriate language.
- Make sure you are not selling brand name or trademarked items without authorization or claiming an inaccurate affiliation.
- Avoid using sensationalized or exaggerated descriptions aimed at artificially inflating interest.
- Review Facebook’s Commerce Policies and stay up-to-date on any policy changes.
Following Facebook’s guidelines and listing rules will help your posts avoid getting flagged or removed. But if your content does get flagged in error, you can appeal the decision within Facebook by selecting “I think this was a mistake”.
Your Account or Listing Privileges Are Restricted
If your Facebook account is in bad standing, you may lose the ability to create new Marketplace listings. Some reasons your account privileges for Marketplace could be restricted include:
- Past violations of Facebook’s terms of service or commerce policies
- Suspicious account activity
- Accounts deemed inauthentic or fake
- Multiple violations or repeat offenses
Restrictions can include anything from temporary posting bans to permanent loss of privileges. You’ll need to resolve any outstanding issues or violations on your account before access will be restored.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Carefully review any notifications sent to you by Facebook for details on violations.
- Confirm your account and contact info meets Facebook’s authenticity standards.
- Remove any prohibited content that may have triggered violations.
- Appeal restrictions if you believe Facebook made a mistake.
- Wait out temporary restrictions without further violations to have privileges reinstated.
Keeping your account activity within Facebook’s rules can help avoid severe restrictions in the future. But if your account is limited unfairly, be sure to go through the appeals process.
You Have Unpaid Facebook Marketplace Fees
Facebook collects fees from sellers for vehicles, real estate, and seemingly new items sold through Marketplace. If you have any outstanding or unpaid fees owed, Facebook may restrict your ability to publish new listings until those are paid.
Some common situations where you may end up with unpaid Marketplace fees include:
- Forgetting to pay fees after selling an item
- Facebook not being able to process your fee payment at time of sale
- Disputing the fee payment through your payment provider
- Refunding a buyer their payment after a sale
You’ll need to log into your Facebook account and pay any outstanding dues before your publishing access will be restored. Facebook will notify you if fee payment is the specific cause of your Marketplace post failing.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Check your Facebook notifications for any alerts about unpaid fees.
- Go to your Marketplace payment settings and look for pending or failed payments.
- Contact Facebook support if you believe the unpaid fee amounts are inaccurate.
- Pay any outstanding balances via your payment method on file.
Staying on top of your Marketplace fee obligations is key to maintaining steady selling privileges. Set payment reminders if needed to avoid future publishing disruptions.
You’ve Hit Your Listing Limit
Facebook imposes caps on how many active listings each user can have at one time in Marketplace. The exact limit depends on the category, but typically ranges from 100-500 live listings.
If you try to exceed the limit for active listings in a category, any newly published posts will automatically be taken down by Facebook. For example, you may be able to have up to 500 active listings for fashion items, but only 100 for vehicles.
Common reasons you may hit the listing limit include:
- Listing a popular product where quantities sell quickly
- Listing many variations of a product, like size or color options
- Neglecting to mark sold listings as sold after purchase
- Creating many draft or expired posts that still count against limits
You’ll need to monitor your total active listings and consider removing slower sellers or drafts. As you sell items, remember to mark them as sold so they no longer count against your limits.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Review your Marketplace seller account for current number of active listings.
- Check for drafts and expired listings to delete.
- Mark sold items so they do not stay in your active count.
- Avoid posting multiple variations of the same item when possible.
- Stagger posts for popular products to stay under listing caps.
Carefully managing your total active posts and trimming unused drafts helps prevent hitting Facebook’s listing limits prematurely.
You’re Posting Too Frequently
If you publish multiple Marketplace posts in quick succession, Facebook may throttle or limit your ability to keep posting temporarily. This prevents the Marketplace feed from being overloaded by any single user.
Some posting habits that could trigger excess posting limits include:
- Listing a large inventory of products in a short time frame
- Automating listing creation versus manual creation
- Reposting the same item repeatedly in hopes of more visibility
- Making many edits or changes to listings in a short period
If you receive a notification about exceeding posting frequency, you’ll need to slow down your listing creation and give it some time before trying again. Facebook’s systems will monitor and limit abuse of the reposting policy.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Avoid manually or automatically bulk uploading large inventories at once.
- Space out your new listings over longer periods for a steady cadence.
- Limit modifications to existing posts when possible.
- Wait a day or two if notified of excess posting before resuming listing creation.
Carefully pace your Marketplace publishing to avoid triggering Facebook’s safeguards against reposting abuse. Gradually ramp up your listings as needed.
You Have Multiple Accounts
Maintaining multiple Facebook accounts can complicate your ability to publish Marketplace listings. Facebook may restrict posting privileges if you are seen as abusing multiple accounts to manipulate listings.
Some scenarios where extra accounts can cause publishing issues include:
- Using separate buyer and seller accounts improperly
- Operating duplicate accounts under different names
- Creating extra accounts after restrictions on original account
- Exceeding listing limits by spreading across accounts
You’ll need to consolidate your selling activities into a single legitimate account to restore uninhibited Marketplace access in most cases. Duplicate and fake accounts are prohibited.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Choose one primary account under your real identity to manage all selling.
- Delete or deactivate any secondary or duplicate accounts.
- Link your seller profile to any established buyer profiles.
- Call Facebook support if your accounts were unfairly connected.
Centralize your Facebook presence under a single account to avoid issues when publishing new Marketplace posts going forward.
You Have an Account Block
In some rare cases, your entire Facebook account may end up completely blocked from accessing Marketplace due to policy violations. Account blocks are much more severe than restrictions on just posting privileges.
Some examples of situations that could warrant a full account block include:
- Multiple repeat offenses for prohibited sales and content
- Listing dangerous, hazardous, or highly illegal products
- Abusive behavior towards buyers or harassment
- Efforts to manipulate or falsify listings
Getting unblocked will require demonstrating the issues prompting the block have been resolved. In some cases, the block may end up being permanent with no option to reverse.
Troubleshooting Tips
- Determine if the block is temporary or permanent based on notifications.
- Remove any content, products, or information that violated policy.
- Appeal the block decision if you believe it was made incorrectly.
- Wait out temporary block duration and request reinstatement.
Prevent extreme account restrictions by keeping all marketplace behavior transparent and within Facebook’s rules. Some blocks may be permanent, however.
Conclusion
Facebook Marketplace provides an amazing platform to connect local buyers and sellers, but listings will inevitably fail to publish from time to time. Knowing the top reasons posts get blocked or restricted and how to troubleshoot them will let you resolve issues quickly.
With a mix of caution, common sense, and good account management, you can minimize many publishing obstacles that sellers face. But even experienced sellers run into technical glitches or honest mistakes now and then that limit listings. Don’t get discouraged if your posts don’t go live occasionally. Just review them carefully against Marketplace policies and these troubleshooting tips to get your inventory back up and running.