Appeal guides

Etsy removed your listing under its Creativity Standards.

How to appeal it: where the appeal is, what evidence Etsy asks for, what to write, and what happens next.

Checked against the sources below on 10 October 2026.

What happened.

Etsy removes listings it believes break its Creativity Standards: its rules on whether an item is made by you, designed by you, handpicked by you or sourced by you. A removal shows up in Shop Manager under Policy violations.

Etsy enforces these rules at scale. In its 2024 Transparency Report it said it removed 22% more listings and suspended 1.5 times as many sellers for breaking its Creativity Standards and Handmade Policy as in 2023, and that it is deploying “LLM-based detection” to extend its enforcement. Etsy does not say which removals come from automated systems and which from a person.

In September 2024, sellers facing these takedowns had no appeal. Etsy now lets sellers appeal Creativity Standards removals, but it is rolling the feature out gradually. If the appeal status on your removed listing says Not available, your shop doesn’t have it yet. Etsy says it expects appeals for all the policies it lists to be available by the end of 2026.

Do this first.

Keep everything. Don’t delete, overwrite or re-export your originals. Working files, drafts and process photos are what proves you made it.

  • RAW or original camera files, unlocks L2
  • Layered project files with their history, L2
  • Progress shots or process video, L2
  • Device-signed capture (camera or phone signs the file), L3
  • A live capture session with two reviewers, L4

You don’t need all of it. The more you can show, the higher the level a TraceHumanity reviewer can certify.

Etsy asks for proof of how you made the item, not of the finished item. Its help centre suggests photos or videos of your raw materials, tools and workspace, and video of you making the item from start to finish. If a partner produces your design, show your design process and your messages with the partner. Etsy says a video of the finished item alone is not sufficient proof.

How to appeal on Etsy.

  1. Find the removal

    Sign in on Etsy.com in a desktop or mobile browser, open Shop Manager and select Policy violations. Etsy says this page is only on the web versions of Etsy, not the app.

  2. Check you can appeal

    If an appeal is open to you, the removed listing shows View & appeal. If its appeal status says Not available, appeals have not reached your shop yet.

  3. Gather up to 12 files

    Photos, videos or documents that show how you made the item. Photos and documents must be larger than 120 KB. Videos can be up to 3 minutes and 500 MB each, and a timelapse is fine.

  4. Start the appeal

    Select View & appeal, then Start an appeal. Answer the prompts, attach your files and paste your note. Your progress saves as a draft. When it is complete, select Submit appeal.

  5. Watch your email

    Etsy says most reviews are done within 3 days, but some take 10 to 12 business days. The decision arrives by email and as a banner in Shop Manager. If it is approved, the listing is restored.

Send your strongest evidence the first time. If Etsy denies the appeal, you can’t appeal that listing again. Etsy gives 180 days from the removal unless it states otherwise, and each listing is appealed separately. Etsy does not publish what its reviewers weigh most, and threads on its own forum, such as “Appeal Ignored”, show sellers who report appeals going unanswered.

What to write.

Your appeal note

My listing “[listing title]” was removed under the Creativity Standards. I made this item myself. I have attached [what you attached: photos of my materials and workspace, a video of me making it]. A person at TraceHumanity also reviewed my process evidence and issued a certificate, public at [certificate link], where anyone can check the signature and the file hash. Please restore the listing. Thank you.

Paste it into the appeal and replace the brackets. Attach the process evidence itself as well: the certificate link gives the reviewer a record to check, not a substitute for the files Etsy asks for. Your link is on your certificate page in the public registry.

What a certificate adds.

A person reviews your evidence against a published standard and issues a certificate. It does not replace the evidence the platform asks for. It gives the reviewer a record they can check for themselves.

  • A public page anyone can open, including the person reviewing your appeal.
  • Signed with a published key. The signature can be checked without trusting us.
  • File-linked provenance. Watermark recovery depends on the image and any transformations applied to it.

Your first three works are free across all five levels, including evidence review. No card required. Each level still needs qualifying evidence and approval. Pay only to add more works.

Start a free recordSee all plans

Take the guide with you.

Free. The evidence checklist, what to write in the appeal, and what a certificate adds. Unsubscribe anytime.

TraceHumanity is not an AI detector. We don’t guess whether something is AI. We establish, with evidence, that a specific work was made by a human.

Sources.

Other guides.