Something’s up with eBay now, such that logging in with JBidwatcher consistently fails with version 2.99pre5-2. The issue began a week ago, give or take a few days. I’m running the application atop macOS 10.13.6, though I don’t believe that relevant to the problem. Prior to these troubles, I hadn’t experienced login troubles with JBidwatcher for years, though I use it primarily for tracking running auctions, not sniping.

I hope someone can remedy the problem or suggest a workaround, as eBay’s watchlist functionality is a poor substitute.

Here are the contents of the error.log, in the hopes it might help diagnose the issue:

Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: JBidwatcher 2.99pre5-2-g7251940
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Oracle Corporation Java, version 1.8.0_60 on Mac OS X
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Logging to /Users/xxxxxxxx/Library/Preferences/JBidwatcher/errors.log
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Loaded the appropriate driver.
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Connected to database jbdb (JBidwatcher DataBase)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Auction information database already exists.
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Loaded the appropriate driver.
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Connected to database jbdb (JBidwatcher DataBase)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:33 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Loaded the appropriate driver.
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Connected to database jbdb (JBidwatcher DataBase)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Loading listings from the database (58/111/167 entries, 1979/39546 auctions)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Done with the initial load (got 2 active entries)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Auction Entries loaded
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Completed loader spun off
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Snipes processed
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: findAuctions: 13.0 × 1(13)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: addEntry: 8.0 × 2(16)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: counts: 324.0 × 1(324)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: setServer: 0.0 × 2(0)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: findAll: 17.0 × 1(17)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: addEntry-complete: 8.0 × 2(16)
Sat Feb 23 10:20:34 EST 2019: Last 10 from addEntry: 15, 1
Sat Feb 23 10:20:36 EST 2019: Scripting is enabled.
Sat Feb 23 10:20:40 EST 2019: Parsing URL http://viv.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?EbayTime
Sat Feb 23 10:20:40 EST 2019: Time delta with ebay.com is -582
Sat Feb 23 10:20:41 EST 2019: Getting the sign in cookie for ebay.com
Sat Feb 23 10:20:41 EST 2019: Parsing URL https://signin.ebay.com/ws2/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn
Sat Feb 23 10:20:42 EST 2019: Parsing URL https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?co_partnerId=2&siteid=0&UsingSSL=1
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Redirecting from: https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?co_partnerId=2&siteid=0&UsingSSL=1
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Redirecting to: https://reg.ebay.com/reg/UpdateContactInfo?uci=2&flow=SIGN_IN&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Parsing URL https://reg.ebay.com/reg/UpdateContactInfo?uci=2&flow=SIGN_IN&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Redirecting from: https://reg.ebay.com/reg/UpdateContactInfo?uci=2&flow=SIGN_IN&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Redirecting to: http://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:43 EST 2019: Parsing URL http://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:44 EST 2019: Redirecting from: http://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:44 EST 2019: Redirecting to: https://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:44 EST 2019: Parsing URL https://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:45 EST 2019: Redirecting from: https://pages.ebay.com/messages/page_not_responding.html
Sat Feb 23 10:20:45 EST 2019: Redirecting to: https://www.ebay.com/n/error?statuscode=500
Sat Feb 23 10:20:45 EST 2019: Parsing URL https://www.ebay.com/n/error?statuscode=500
Sat Feb 23 10:20:45 EST 2019: Couldn’t sign in!
https://www.ebay.com/n/error?statuscode=500
java.io.FileNotFoundException: https://www.ebay.com/n/error?statuscode=500
at sun.reflect.GeneratedConstructorAccessor70.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:422)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$10.run(HttpURLConnection.java:1889)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection$10.run(HttpURLConnection.java:1884)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getChainedException(HttpURLConnection.java:1883)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(HttpURLConnection.java:1456)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1440)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:254)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.Http.receiveData(Http.java:176)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.Http.receivePage(Http.java:243)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayLoginManager.signInUsingPage(ebayLoginManager.java:271)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayLoginManager.getSignInCookie(ebayLoginManager.java:214)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayLoginManager.getSignInCookie(ebayLoginManager.java:178)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayLoginManager.getNecessaryCookie(ebayLoginManager.java:190)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayServer.forceLogin(ebayServer.java:290)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayServer.messageAction(ebayServer.java:259)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.queue.PlainMessageQueue.run(PlainMessageQueue.java:60)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: https://www.ebay.com/n/error?statuscode=500
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream0(HttpURLConnection.java:1835)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1440)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getHeaderFieldKey(HttpURLConnection.java:2995)
at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getHeaderFieldKey(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:307)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.handleRedirect(CookieJar.java:164)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.internal_connect(CookieJar.java:128)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.internal_connect(CookieJar.java:144)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.internal_connect(CookieJar.java:144)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.internalconnect(CookieJar.java:144)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.internalconnect(CookieJar.java:144)
at com.jbidwatcher.util.http.CookieJar.connect(CookieJar.java:107)
at com.jbidwatcher.auction.server.ebay.ebayLoginManager.signInUsingPage(ebayLoginManager.java:246)
… 7 more
Sat Feb 23 10:20:45 EST 2019: Did not successfully retrieve the sign in cookie for ebay.com
Sat Feb 23 10:20:48 EST 2019: MQupdate: Postponing Message: AUTOMATIC
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Saving to: /Users/xxxxxxxx/Library/Preferences/JBidwatcher/JBidWatch.cfg
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Closed connection
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Database shut down normally
Sat Feb 23 10:20:50 EST 2019: Shutting down JBidwatcher.

…and of course, after looking through the error log, it would appear the blocker is the annoying “Confirm your eBay account” page that was instituted a while back where eBay asks for a phone number to attach to the account. My mistake in ignoring that step by answering “Maybe Later” for the past year. I guess eBay recently decided to force it into the login flow that JBidwatcher has always accessed?

Problem solved. Now if JBidwatcher would only ignore eBay’s new style of presenting closed listings so as not to overwrite the original, closed auction with a related, open listings … :)

Thanks @yendor – that worked for me as well. You must give a phone number to get past it seems, saying you don’t have a mobile phone doesn’t work. However, it doesn’t check that the number is a mobile phone.