Amazon generating corrupt Open Listings Reports

April 3rd, 2011

Amazon is currently generating corrupt Open Listings Reports. The issue manifests itself as an error message ("Unable to decode Condition with a value of 0") when importing open listings reports in AMan. The reason for the issue is that Amazon is returning a value of zero for the 'item-condition' field where the valid values are 1 through 11. When AMan encounters this error, it stops importing further listings and Active Listings display in AMan will not contain the complete inventory for a seller. Not all sellers are affected by this Amazon issue. However, it is not possible to determine in advance if you are affected. However, it is recommended ALL users install this new version as the issue may occur with any user at any time.

A new version of AMan (3.3.1019) is available that provides a temporary workaround for this issue. The new version of AMan in conjunction with a new setting, allows AMan to skip bad records. It also provides diagnostics that should  to sent to Amazon seller support to report the issue.

NOTE: This is NOT a fix for the Amazon issue. You will still get error messages for each corrupt record. This is a workaround that allows importing of open listings reports until Amazon resolves the actual issue. No logs need be sent over the error messages you receive as long as all but the corrupt records are imported.

How to use the workaround:

1. Click here to Print this Page for future reference as the workaround will need to be configured each time prior to generating an open listings report.
2. You must first install the new version of AMan as per below.
3. Generate and import an open listing report using Amazon Reports->Generate Open Listings Report (or by using the Task Wizard).
4. If you do not get any error messages, you are not impacted by the Amazon issue and do not need to do anything further.
5. If you get the error message "Unable to decode Condition with a value of 0", do the following:

1. Click on Configure->Amazon Settings->Import Options.
2. Check the box labeled "Ignore invalid Item-Condition values".
   
   
   
3. Generate and import an open listings report using Amazon Reports->Generate Open Listings Report (or by using the Task Wizard).

Please note:

1. Once you have turned the above option on, each listing that is corrupt will cause AMan to display an error message and will then be skipped.
2. If the issue is encountered, AMan will display messages at the end with the number of listings that had the issue and the number of listings that were skipped.
3. If the issue is encountered, a file will be displayed with the error records as well as the report/batch id for the report. This should be provided to Amazon seller support so that they can diagnose the issue. You should save this file to a known location (e.g. your Desktop). It is VERY important that the issue be reported to Amazon seller support.
4. The above setting is automatically turned off once the report is imported. Therefore when generating a later open listings report or if uploading new inventory using Upload New/Modified, the setting will need to be turned back on again.
5. If you have previously encountered the issue, you should turn on the setting above and generate an open listings report.
6. Because AMan will be skipping the error records, Active Listings displayed in AMan will be missing these listings until Amazon resolves the issue.

Installing the new version:

The version you are running on may be verified using Help->Help Menu->About AMan Pro. The required version is 3.3.1019 or later.

Both US and UK customers should install this update on ALL PCs that Open Listings Reports are generated on.

The latest version of AMan Pro is available at https://spaceware.com/Downloads/AManPro/setup.exe (1.51MB in size) . If you are having issues (primarily firewall issues) please try using https://spaceware.com/Downloads/AManPro/setupfull.exe (45.5MB in size). The latest version of AMan may also be downloaded from our support page at https://spaceware.com/support.htm .

Please download and install after closing down AMan (and Outlook if you use it). If using IE, you may either select Run if prompted when downloading or, if you elect to Save the setup file to disk, you will need to locate the file and Open it to start the installation. If you use Firefox as your browser, you will need to display your downloaded files and select it to Open it.

Installation will not affect your data or settings. Upon restart, you may get a message that AMan Pro is migrating your database. This is normal and must be allowed to complete.

After installation, you may need to configure your firewall to ensure that AMan (Amazon.exe - version 3.31019) has got full access to the internet.

If you get a message stating that the downloaded file "is not a valid Win32 application" or "Unable to locate CAB file", this indicates that the download was interrupted and should be retried. Please download again and save to disk. Then check the file sizes which should be 1.51MB if using setup.exe and 45.5MB if using setupfull.exe.

After the setup file has been downloaded, run and installed, you should see that the version of AMan Pro is 3.3.1019. Any earlier version will need to be upgraded . You may check the version you are currently running by clicking on Help->Help Menu->About AMan Pro.

Please visit New Version Updates for a list of the new features in this release.