Auctioneer Classic and Auctioneer 4.0.5 FAQ - Last updated: 11/30/2007

Current status of Auctioneer Classic: As of April 2008, Auctioneer Classic has been placed into maintenance mode by its developers.

What this means to Auctioneer Classic users:

* At some point down the road (likely at the release of WotLK), Auctioneer Classic will no longer be available for download, and no further support for it will be provided here at norganna.org.
* Effective immediately, no further enhancements or improvements will be made to Auctioneer Classic
* Critical bug fixes will be attempted - e,g. if new Blizzard releases cause problems which completely break Auctioneer Classic, we will attempt to provide a bug fix release on a timely (but not immediate) basis.
* Minor bugs will be logged, but will likely not be addressed - i.e. any bug which does not affect core functionality, is cosmetic, or has a workaround, will be logged to our issue database, but will likely not ever be addressed and fixed.

What should Auctioneer Classic users do now? If you are an Auctioneer Classic user, you are welcome to continue using it, but we ask you to understand that it is now in maintenance mode, as per the above description.

Having said that, we wholeheartedly suggest that you consider installing and using Auctioneer Advanced, either in parallel with Auctioneer Classic, or as a replacement for Auctioneer Classic.


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** IMPORTANT WoW 2.3 UPDATE for Auctioneer 4.0.5 **

Summary: Auctioneer 4.0.5 is no longer available for download, and is no longer supported by the Auctioneer team.

Details: WoW 2.3 includes changes to the auction durations (from 2, 8, and 24 hours to 12, 24, and 48 hours). As a result, Auctioneer 4.0.5 appears to no longer be able to reliably post auctions. There are some reported workarounds, but also some reports of lost items and mis-priced auctions. We have now removed Auctioneer 4.0 from the release download page, to prevent any more users from downloading this malfunctioning version. Please note that we do not intend to release any more updates to the Auc4 line. As such, it is our strong suggestion that all users now install either Auctioneer Classic 5.0 (which is most like Auctioneer 4.0.5, with only a few major differences) or Auctioneer Advanced 5.0 (which is a major re-write).

We understand and appreciate that neither of the two versions mentioned above are yet in Release status, and that this may be troubling to some of our users. Believe me, we hoped that Auc 4.0 would remain viable for longer, and that we would have been able to provide a release version of Auctioneer Classic and Auctioneer Advanced prior to discontinuing Auc4's availability. Unfortunately the AH changes from WoW 2.3 prevented this from happening.

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Please read the following Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) before posting for support here in these forums.

Here is a link to the Auc Classic wiki. It has lots of useful information about auctioneer and its related addons, please have a look at it, especially if you are looking for information, tips, etc.!

Please note that FAQ questions are periodically revised and renumbered. Please search through the whole page if you were directed to a specific number, but it doesn't seem to apply to the problem you have.

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Q: What does the advent of Auctioneer Advanced mean to me, an Auctioneer Classic user?
A: First of all, it won't have any immediate impact. Auctioneer Classic will continue to be available for download through this site, and will receive maintenance releases for some period of time. Having said that, though we will continue to try to maintain the current level of functionality for Auctioneer Classic users as Blizzard rolls out new versions of WoW, it is unlikely that this branch will see any significant bug fixes for anything but critical errors, let alone new functionality. And though no specific dates are pending, at some point we will most likely stop offering Auctioneer Classic for download.

Q: I just upgraded from Auctioneer 4.0.5, and now nothing works!
A: Please follow the directions listed in Q3 below and see if that resolves your problem.

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Q1: I have this problem...
A: First, please make sure you're running the most recent version. Download links are below.
Second, any support investigation will most likely start with a request that you duplicate the problem with only Auctioneer mods enabled. Please try this first, to see if your problem is being caused by a mod conflict.

Q2: Where do I download Auctioneer?
A: Auctioneer Classic can be downloaded from our primary download site. The preview release is currently the most stable. Allow me to recommend the Auctioneer Classic Suite, which contains Auctioneer Classic, Enchantrix, Informant, BeanCounter, and BottomScanner. Please follow the instructions in Q3 below to ensure that your install goes off without a hitch.

Q3: When I try to post auctions, I see options for the old times (2, 8, and 24 hours), not the new times (12, 24, and 48 hours), and/or posting causes all sorts of errors.
A: Depending on the version you are upgrading from, different errors might crop up if you don't completely remove previous versions of Auctioneer from your directory prior to installing Auctioneer Classic. You should first exit the game, then delete any and all of these folders if they currently exist in your interface/addons folder:

!nLog, !Swatter, Auc-Advanced, Auc-Db, Auc-Filter-Basic, Auc-Filter-Outlier, Auc-Match-BeanCount, Auc-Match-Undercut, Auc-ScanData, Auc-Stat-Classic, Auc-Stat-Debug, Auc-Stat-Purchased, Auc-Stat-Simple, Auc-Stat-StdDev, Auc-Stat-WOWEcon, Auctioneer, Auc-Util-Appraiser, Auc-Util-AskPrice, Auc-Util-CompactUI, Auc-Util-Mover, Auc-Util-PreceLevel, Auc-Util-ScanButton, Auc-Util-ScanFinish, Auc-Util-ScanProgress, Auc-Util-SearchUI, Auc-Util-VendMarkup, Babylonian, BeanCounter, BtmScan, Configator, DebugLib, Enchantrix, Enchantrix-Barker, EnhTooltip, Informant, LibTooltip, SlideBar, Stubby

Once those files are gone, re-install the latest preview release from the download site.

Once again, if you're seeing old times on the Post tab, you have old files hidden somewhere that need to be deleted prior to reinstalling. Follow the directions above.

Q4a: Auctioneer and/or Gatherer will not load for some reason!
Q4b: Auctioneer loads for some of my characters, but not all of them!
A: Follow these steps:
1- Exit the game completely, install/reinstall the Auctioneer files if necessary, and restart the game.
2- Go to your character AddOn screen. Ensure that the auctioneer mods are listed (Stubby, and EnhTooltip are also required for all other auctioneer mods). If not, you didn't install something correctly. Go here for installation help, then start this list again.
3- Ensure that each Auctioneer mod (including Stubby and EnhTooltip) are listed with a gold checkmark. If not, uncheck and recheck the addon. A gray checkmark indicates the addon is only set to load for some characters.
4- Log into the game. Scroll up through your main chat window and make sure no error messages appear here. Also check any error handler you might have installed.
5- Go to the AH. Are there 6 tabs shown, or just 3? If just three, close the AH, type "/auc load always", and reopen the AH and check again. If still 3, and there are no error messages anywhere, then go post a new thread, because something weird is going on.
6- Mouse over an item. Do you see the auctioneer tooltip information? If no, type "/auc on" and mouseover again. If this doesn't show your tooltips, post a new thread, something weird is going on.
7- If all else fails, you can try "/auc default all" to reset all your auctioneer options, and try again. Fair warning, this will reset all your options, so be sure to go through and write them all down first, if needed.

Q4c: Auctioneer and/or gatherer recently stopped loading, or the data keeps getting deleted every time I log in. I got the most recent version, made sure all the checkmarks were gold, etc. Help!
A: First, please check and make sure your SavedVariables file (Auctioneer.lua in one of the subdirectories of the WTF folder) isn't somehow set to be read-only.

Second, are you running several Ace2 mods, and updating them using the automatic updater? In the past (April/May 2007) a number of problems like this were caused by having several mismatched versions of Ace2 libraries in your addons folders. These conflicts cause all sorts of havoc with other mods as well. You can test for this by disabling all non-auctioneer mods first, and seeing if the problem fixes itself. If so, you need to disable one set or the other, and try to update them all so that they are all using the same library versions.

Q5: Clicking the scan button / typing "/auc scan" isn't doing anything!
A: Make sure you have at least one category checked (using the checkboxes for each category) before reporting this as an error, please.

Q6: I start a scan, and sometime later, during the scan, WoW just closes and there is no message after the fact. Is this auctioneer related?
A: If WoW is actually completing the scan, but then "crashes" afterwards, you probably have just set the "/auc finish" option to either the "exit" or "logout" setting. See the wiki for more info.

Q7: I just started seeing this message in my chat logs, what does it mean? Your Auctioneer SavedVariables file is XX.XXX% Full
A: That message tells you how close your auctioneer saved data is to the maximum number of "keys" allowed by Lua, the script language used by WoW. When that number gets to 100%, you will be unable to load your Auctioneer data any more (getting a "constant data overflow" error on logging in). A value of 70% or lower probably means you don't need to worry about anything for the moment. (Always make backups, though!)

For the moment, the only thing you can do to help keep this number low is try to scan a smaller number of realm-factions on any one account - our experience has been that you are less likely to reach the limit if you only scan a single server-faction, though some users do go over even scanning just a single server-faction.

If you have previously scanned data for realms/factions you no longer care about, you can purge that data by doing the following: (1) first <a href="http://wiki.norganna.org/Auctioneer/Backup">back up your saved variables data</a>; (2) then log onto a character on a server-faction you wish to delete (creating one first if necessary); (3) do an "/auc clear all"; (4) log out and repeat for any other server-factions you no longer need.

You can also type "/script AuctioneerTransactionDB = {}" which should free up some space. This should be safe - we don't actually do anything with that data at the moment.

You can also try manually editing some data out of your data file, but this is a very delicate operation and is only recommended if you've already reached 100% and can no longer even load Auctioneer. BE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR DATA FILE FIRST!

If all else fails, you'll have to start over, I'm afraid. Please note that Auctioneer Advanced should be much more resistant to this issue (as in, we don't think anyone will ever run into this problem if they are running Auc Advanced).

Q7a: I've started getting a "constant table overflow" error every time I log in with Auctioneer, and all my data is missing!
A: Bad news, you just got your Saved Variables file up to 100% full, as described above in Q7. If possible, restore a backup and try trimming off some of your extraneous server-faction data you don't need. If not, follow the advice at the bottom for manually editing the file. Good luck.

Q8: Why don't you guys figure out a way to ignore really high scam values? Here's one way to do it...
A: We already do, using a fairly sophisticated method called IQR medians. Unfortunately, if a scammer is willing to flood the market with a ton of bogus auctions, there is no statistical way to know that they are outliers and to discard them (they may even be the majority of auctions). This situation is especially prevalent for disenchant reagents, as they have no deposit costs, so scammers can try this for free.

Q9: Help! Blizzard just released a patch, and now Auctioneer isn't loading! What do I do?
A: Every single time blizzard downloads a new patch (i.e. every time you have to agree to the EULA again), you will have to log in, go to your character selection screen, hit the AddOns button on the bottom left, then enable the "Load Out of Date Addons" checkbox in the upper right. You have to re-enable this checkbox EVERY SINGLE TIME there is a new patch, no matter how minor it is.

Otherwise you have to wait for your favorite mods (including Auctioneer) to release a new version which is "certified" for that new version release - but fair warning, that release is never coming for those minor patches which don't break Auctioneer in any way.

Q10: ZOMG, I just went into Booty Bay/Everlook/Ratchet, and now all my auctioneer data is gone!
A: Relax, no it isn't. One feature of auctioneer is that it keeps all realm-faction data separate - this means the neutral auction house data is stored separately from your home faction data. And when you move into a neutral auction house zone, auctioneer automatically switches over to that set of data. There is no way to stop this behavior, but you can make it so that it always shows your home faction data, even when in the neutral cities. Just type in "/auc also home".

Q10a: All my auctioneer data just disappeared, and now every item says "Never seen at auction before"!
A: Please re-read Q10 above and make sure it doesn't apply to you before posting a support request.

Q11: I'm installing a new version of auctioneer. What do I need to do to save all my old data?
A: In general, nothing. Updating auctioneer shouldn't affect any of your data.

Having said that, you should be backing up your add-on data periodically, in case your data file gets corrupted and you have to revert to an earlier version. To back up data from all your add-ons, make a copy of your "World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\<AccountName>" directory. To back up just your auctioneer data, make a copy of the "Auctioneer.lua" file in the "World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\<AccountName>\SavedVariables" directory. Note: there is another file called Auctioneer.lua in your Addons directory - this is not the file you need to back up.

A more detailed tutorial can be found <a href="http://wiki.norganna.org/Auctioneer/Backup">here</a>

Q12: What is this swatter thing? It is causing me lots of errors!
A: Swatter is an improved error catching addon. Rather than popping up the big red box on your screen when addons break or do bad things, swatter pops up a nice dialog box that includes not just the error, but also lots of helpful debugging information (called the stack trace). If you're seeing the swatter dialog, it usually means SOME OTHER addon is causing an error, not that swatter is. Try to read the beginning of the swatter data for a familiar name to get some idea of what addon is causing the problem. If it looks like an auctioneer file, you can try clicking into the dialog, which should highlight the whole text of the error message, then copying (with ctrl-c) the data and posting it here in the forums, and we'll try to take a look at it. It's even better if you can duplicate the problem with just auctioneer addons loaded, by the way. Depending on the error, that may be one of the first things we ask you to do before spending any time trying to figure out what happened.