You’re leaving for eight days. Your eBay listings don’t know that. Without a plan, buyers keep ordering, your handling time keeps running, and you come home to late shipments, cancelled orders and unhappy messages.
eBay’s vacation mode, now called Time Away, is built for this. It lets you keep selling with later delivery dates, or pause your sales completely until you’re back. This guide covers both options, the exact limits, what Time Away doesn’t cover, and what to do if you also sell on Etsy, Shopify or Amazon. Every eBay rule here comes from eBay’s own help pages, mainly the Time Away help page, checked in November 2026.
What is eBay Vacation Mode?
eBay vacation mode is now called Time Away. It’s a setting available to all sellers that lets you either keep selling while you’re away, with delivery dates pushed back automatically, for up to 15 days, or pause your sales and hide your fixed-price listings for up to 30 days. You set it in your Time Away settings, choose your dates, and can add an automatic reply for buyers.
If you’ve heard of eBay “vacation settings”, that was the old version. According to eBay’s seller guide, it was renamed Time Away in September 2020. The old vacation settings were only for eBay Store subscribers. Time Away is open to every seller.
Should You Allow Item Sales or Pause Item Sales?
Time Away gives you two options. The right one depends on how long you’re gone and whether you can ship anything while you’re away.
Allow item sales
Pause item sales
Maximum length
15 days
30 days
Fixed-price listings
Visible and buyable
Hidden from search and can’t be bought
Auction-style listings
Visible and buyable
Still visible and buyable
Banner on your listings
Yes, telling buyers you’re on Time Away
Yes, on auctions; buyers trying to buy a fixed-price item see a note
Delivery dates
Pushed back automatically, so you don’t ship while away
Updated on auctions
Best for
Short trips, when a few days’ delay is fine for buyers
A simple rule: if you’re gone for a long weekend, allow sales and let eBay move the delivery dates. If you’re gone for more than two weeks, or you really can’t touch orders, pause sales. Allowing sales keeps money coming in, but every order waits for you when you get back, so plan time to ship them.
How to Put eBay on Vacation Mode, step by step
Go to your Time Away settings. On a computer, that’s My eBay > Account settings > Time Away settings. Select Schedule time away.
2. Choose Allow item sales or Pause item sales.
3. Set a Start date and an End date. To start straight away, choose today’s date. Select Apply.
A few timing details matter:
Scheduled dates run from 12:01am on your start date to 11:59pm on your end date.
Starting today: the banner on your listings appears within minutes, but updated delivery dates take a few hours. If you pause sales, hiding your listings also takes a few hours.
Add a day at each end. eBay recommends starting Time Away a day before you leave, to cover last-minute orders, and ending it a day after you’re back, so you can catch up on pending orders.
Here’s an example. You fly out on Friday 11 December and get back on Monday 21 December. Schedule Time Away from Thursday 10 December to Tuesday 22 December. That’s 13 days, so both options are available. If you were away for three weeks, only Pause item sales would cover it.
Setting an automatic reply while you’re away
Buyers still send questions while you’re on holiday. An automatic reply tells them when you’ll be back, so a quiet inbox doesn’t look like you’ve disappeared:
Go to Time Away settings.
Select Automatic response, then Message when on time away.
Set the start and end dates for your message.
Type your message, then select Apply.
Keep it short and specific: “Thanks for your message. I’m away until 21 December and will reply then. Orders placed now will ship from 22 December.”
What Time Away doesn’t cover
Time Away isn’t a full pause button. eBay is clear about what still needs your attention:
Orders placed before your start date must still be shipped on time.
Open buyer requests on those orders, such as returns or questions, still need a response.
Fees keep running. Listing fees and any eBay Store subscription continue while you’re away.
Auctions don’t pause. Even with sales paused, buyers can still see and win your auction-style listings.
Whichever option you choose, eBay also doesn’t update delivery dates for these:
Not covered by Time Away
What to do before you leave
Second Chance Offers
Don’t send any during your break
Auto-accepted offers
Turn off auto-accept on Best Offer listings, or raise your handling time
Pending counter-offers
Accept, decline or let them expire before you go
Offers you send that buyers accept during Time Away
Hold off sending offers until you’re back
Local pickup or in-store pickup items
Change the shipping option, or end these listings
Digital items
Change the delivery method or end these listings
Athletic shoes eligible for Authenticity Guarantee
Raise the handling time, or pause sales
List from eBay’s Time Away help page. eBay suggests changing the shipping format or handling time on these items while you’re away.
A Quick Checklist Before You Turn to eBay Vacation Mode
Ship every open order and upload tracking.
Deal with running auctions. Let them end before you go, or plan to ship them when you return.
Clear pending offers, and pause any you might otherwise send.
Change local pickup and digital items, which Time Away doesn’t cover.
Answer open messages, returns and cases, then set your automatic reply.
Schedule Time Away to start a day before you leave and end a day after you’re back.
Open cases matter most. A return or item-not-received request that goes unanswered while you’re away can turn into a case against you. Our guide to eBay seller protection explains the deadlines.
Returning Early? Here’s How to End Time Away
Back sooner than planned? Go to Time Away settings and select Cancel time away, or set an earlier end date and select Apply.
Either way, listings take a couple of hours to reappear in search after Time Away ends. They come back on their own, and you don’t need to edit them. Spend your first hour on messages and the orders that waited for you.
eBay Vacation Mode Not Working? Check These 5 Things
It hasn’t started yet. Scheduled Time Away begins at 12:01am on your start date.
It’s still updating. Hiding listings and changing delivery dates can take a few hours, even when you start today.
It’s an auction. Auctions stay visible and buyable, even with sales paused.
The order was placed before your start date. Those orders keep their original handling time, so eBay still expects you to ship them.
It’s one of the exceptions above, such as an accepted offer or a local pickup item.
Selling on More Than eBay? Pause Every Channel
Time Away only pauses eBay. If the same stock is also on Etsy, Shopify or Amazon, those shops keep selling, and you’ll come home to orders you couldn’t ship. Each platform handles a break differently:
Platform
How to pause
How long
What to know
eBay
Time Away
Up to 15 days (allow sales) or 30 days (pause sales)
Shopify has no vacation setting. Customers can’t view products or order. Charges continue.
Amazon
Vacation settings in Seller Central, which set listings to inactive
Until you turn it off
According to Amazon’s seller forums, listings Amazon fulfills (FBA) stay active.
If you use a sync tool, check how it behaves while you’re away. Here’s how QuickSync handles it:
Leave stock syncing on. If a sale happens on a channel you left open, your other shops still need the new count. Turning syncing off and back on doesn’t replay what changed in between, as our inventory syncing docs explain.
Etsy on vacation: if Etsy blocks an update because your shop is on vacation, QuickSync pauses the Etsy store and emails you. When you’re back, turn vacation mode off in Etsy, then switch off “Vacation mode on” in the Etsy store’s Review settings in QuickSync.
eBay’s out-of-stock option: turn on “Listings stay active when you’re out of stock” in eBay’s Selling preferences, under Multi-quantity listings. Without it, eBay refuses a count of 0 on listings you created there, so a sold-out item can stay on sale at its old count.
Go to Time Away settings (My eBay > Account settings > Time Away settings), select Schedule time away, choose Allow item sales or Pause item sales, set your dates and select Apply. It works for all sellers, with or without an eBay Store.
How long can eBay Time Away last?
Up to 15 days if you allow item sales, and up to 30 days if you pause item sales.
Can buyers still buy from me during Time Away?
Yes, if you choose Allow item sales. eBay shows a banner and pushes back the delivery dates. With Pause item sales, fixed-price listings are hidden and can’t be bought, but auctions stay open.
Do I still have to ship orders while on Time Away?
Yes, for orders placed before your start date. Orders placed during Time Away with sales allowed get later delivery dates, except for the exceptions above, such as accepted offers and local pickup items.
Do eBay fees stop during Time Away?
No. Listing fees and any eBay Store subscription continue while you’re away.
What’s the difference between eBay Time Away and vacation settings?
They’re the same feature under a new name. eBay renamed vacation settings to Time Away in September 2020 and made it available to all sellers. Before that, only eBay Store subscribers had it.
Can I pause just one eBay listing?
Time Away applies to your whole account, not single items. To take one item off sale, set its quantity to 0 with eBay’s out-of-stock option (“Listings stay active when you’re out of stock”) turned on, so the listing stays in place, or end the listing. Our guide to cancelling an eBay listing explains the second option.
Can I end Time Away early?
Yes. In Time Away settings, select Cancel time away or set an earlier end date. Your listings reappear in search within a couple of hours.
Connect your shops, review matching SKUs and choose your source store and locations. Start Syncing aligns stock from that source; check the first update before relying on the connection.
