Craigslist got a major update today, that now allows you to hide listings from the search and automatically hides posts you have flagged, with the option to undo the hiding of the post if desired. This is a great feature update, so it’s too bad it hasn’t been publicized so more people could know about it.
When you flag a post on craigslist, now the listing that you flagged will be hidden with a notification in the bottom right that allows you to show the posts that have been hidden.
Additionally, it also allows you to hide individual posts by clicking a small “X” next to each listing in the listings page.
So now when you search through craigslist, posts you don’t want to see and posts that you have flagged will no longer display in the search results, making it easier for you to browse listings.
The feature seems to be available for both logged-in users and users who are not logged in and do not have an account. However, it’s probable that if you have an account it will save your hidden posts so that you won’t see the posts you don’t want to see even after you clear your browser cache or close your browser.
On a side note, there is a small bug in the new feature that makes it so that if the post title is too long, you won’t be able to see the “x” button when in “Gallery” mode. Until they fix this issue, you can hide the post by switching to “List” or “Thumb” mode in the top left of the page.
How do you pause an ad for a paid position? Can I “hide” the ad for a day or two.
Can you still get a pen pal and give your name and address out
How do I find a post that I’ve hidden??? It’s not showing up in my account.
It’s in the top right last time I used it.
Craigslist pretty much sucks when it comes to postings and flagging when anyone can flag a persons add for any reason. If they done like you or if they feel your add is competition, or if they have some other reason, they can flag your add and there is little to nothing you can do about it. Very ad hoc.
My husband bought a boat tracker . Then they said there was a problem with shipping needed $800 more for insurance He done sent $800 on 2 vanilla gift cards . He said no to them. So the boat has been put back on Craigslist in several States at different prices. He is not sure if pushing on the flag on each of the ads will alert Craigslist and take ad down. This scamming needs to stop. It’s a shame Craigslist would continue to let this continue unless there getting a piece of it maybe?
I put an ad yesterday in clothing and accessories
Today my ad vanished, but in my account page it is still active.
I see a red x in the top of the ad.
Why if ad is active is it not showing?
In craigslist go to the top right of the page and you will see a link showing all the ads you have hidden. Now find your ad and unhide it.
It will not affect other users, only you. Other users can still view your ad. Hope it helps!
This is nuts, because I thought I was checking posts that I wanted to see again, so I could find them again.
I have a question to ask that is unrelated to your excellent description of how to utilize the (x) feature.
Is it possible to post in Craigslist and block an individual from seeing it. For example, if an individual was being harassed and stalked by a partner and didn’t want them to see that they were looking for a place to live in “Housing Needed”
The answer is definitely not. There is no way to block an individual from seeing your posts. The only way this could even be done is craigslist blocks their IP, but they could use another IP, and also craigslist has no ability to do this, so there is no way to prevent a particular individual from seeing your posts.
What can I do if another poster stole some of my ad pics and half of my ad text to promote his/her own ad? I have been posting the same ads on and off for years so there is proof they are mine.
There’s nothing you can do, Craigslist has no real support. There is a staff, but they will not put any effort into tracking down ad theft. Scammers love to do those sorts of things, and craigslist doesn’t moderate them.
hi is there a way to reset the hidden ads counter it stop to 2000
There is a group posting fake ads for boats. I was a fool and got scammed for $2000 on a bass boat. they are using Tracker boats, pontoon boats and jet skis. They give you a fake e-mail and want you to use E-bay to do the transaction. I go on every day and prohibit these posts. It costs them $10 for every post. I have taken over 200 of their posts off but in the long run, somebody else will fall prey to it. I wish you could call someone at Craigslist to give them more information. I have sent in many e-mails to them. Everyone take care and go see your boats or whatever else they are posting. I’m sure they are doing cars and a whole lot more. I have vented now so I will go back to removing these posts.
Hope you located them & got your 2k back, shame man!
Fwiw now Craiglist has always said “Never” send cash in to people since day one. You always want to leave a paper trail on any transaction, especially online.
Any small item unless I pay with Paypal or buy directly through corps like wally/Amazon etc I avoid all 3rd party sellers without Amazon itself shipping the item as those 3rd party sellers arent forced to refund/return at all. My boy lost $250 for wrong carb clearly advertised on there as direct fit OEM. It was neither, seller got carb back for refund he offered “tracking shows that!”, he never refunded! He got both!!, we got, well you know?
Now’ large items boat/ car/ATV/Bike etc.. I only send a couple hundred to hold the vehicle with the remainder of my cash be given in person at the nearest police staion. If they dont want to meet “Runnnn Forest Runnn!!” Any legit seller will gladly meet there.
Most city police stations will even run free/low cost history reports on your new vehicle/item to verify its not stolen property, just call ask officers ahead of time so the right person is there for your report. At the very least they are their to protect you during the sale.
Expensive lessons are always painful, trust no stranger alone with your cash/property. Sadly, its our world today. Peace
How do you get the liitle garbage can off your post on craigslist so people can’t delete it and have to leave it alone?
Not possible
Im glad i found your site describing the function of the “×” beside craigslist ad’s.
I was beginning to think that because I started hiding all the unwanted ad’s I had no interest in,
that was the problem starter for me.
I rarely ever flag an ad.
I’ve used craigslist for years.
Here recently I have been blocked from responding to an ad for something I want to buy, etc…
Everytime I try I get this message:
Something has gone wrong_check again later.
I’ve tried to do as craigslist “help section” says do,
But I cannot find “Tools or Preference” on my internet browser to check for “ad-ons”.
I’m using my Samsung Note 8 (Android) cell phone.
And with Samsung Internet.
I’ve also tried using “Google Chrome Browser”.
Same problem when trying to respond to ad.
What I found to stopped this problem so I can respond was:
Under my browser settings / privacy section >
Turn Off “Accept Cookies”.
Then clear Cache / Browsing History / Delete Cookies.
It’s FIXED_ I can now respond to ad’s I’m interested in, and communicate with seller.
The Downfall for turning off “Accept Cookies” is >
You cannot access many websites you use.
And you cannot use settings on Craigslist .
It always returns to a default setting such as_ If I select to view in a “Thumbnail View” _ it always returns to a “Gallery View”.
I want Thumbnail View.
This is a Huge Hassle evertime I view an ad_then I have to change it again and loose my place where I was at in Craigslist . Everytime !
It’s not my internet modem causing the issue,
Cause I can use my wife’s smartphone to search search Craigslist _with No Issues.
Why I’m being blocked by Craigslist Cookies_ I Don’t Know.
I follow their guidelines completely.
I Closed my Account _ That Did Not Help Either.
Does Anybody Know How To Correct This Problem ?
Craigslist Is Not Responding To Me In Help Section.
Someone PLEASE HELP… I’m going crazy !
Every time I post an ad on craigslist it is removed immediately?
If you use a VPN craigslist will usually ghost your listing. Or, if your IP is blacklisted then craigslist will ghost your listings. When it is removed immediately without even being posted this is called ghosting. I recommend to create a new account – or better yet just don’t use craigslist since it is now dead since they now charge $5 for every post (which is really about $150 or more per month). If you are spending hundreds per ad, there are far better sources for advertising with far higher quality traffic. It’s just not worth it anymore especially since they lost all their traffic after charging for all services ads. It’s only good anymore for getting rid of items you have at a loss.
But how do you flag an ad? Did they get rid of the flag button? I am trying to flag an ad and can’t find anywhere to do it anymore.
I figured it is the word “prohibited”. I have flagged posts using that. It seemed that it worked like flagging did.
The tech forums on craigslist may have a post about this. You can search.
What does the hidden post mean? It says “cat_Id”
I hate that you can’t remove an ad that is inappropriate. For example, CL does not allow a person to place an ad for a pet in the “Free” category. Back in the day, if you flagged one of these ads, it was removed. Today, these inappropriately placed ads are merely hidden from me, not removed.
Ads can still get flagged down. However, it is true it seems that these ads are harder to get flagged down while legitimate ads often seem to be flagged down easily.
hello I’ve ben ty to have connection with people on post but it seem your yahoo connection is gone and have no contacts with people please fix problem
Why does Craig’ list have such a hard time clearing out the spam and bogus ads in the Personals section. 99% of the ads in the casual encounter section are scammers. Most all of them usually have a large blank space at the bottom, A lot will include either a text number or an email adders that is so poorly disguised a first year programmer could write an app to clear them out. The women 4 men section has become just another casual encounter section so why bother. Cl needs to spend a little more time on monitoring their personal ads and get this cleaned up or shut this section down completely.
This site was… how do you say it? Relevant!!
Finally I have found something which helped me. Cheers!
How many people have to flag a post in r&r before CL deletes the post? There is a gang that flags anything they don’t agree with even if nothing in the post is in violation of CL TOS and they get deleted. It’s usually about political topics. Thanks.
I’m not sure how many. Yes I know about the evil craigslist flaggers, some evil businesses do it to kill their competition also.
Why did they change it? I hate the overflowing red trash can teetering over the listings, souring my experience, waiting to be accidentally knocked over spilling out all the junk I wanted to forget from last time. I have to empty it now or something? That sucks.It doesn’t feel like the post was flagged either like before when the button is pushed, no redirects, just a lit up garbage can.
If you log into your account, it does save your trashed items forever. If you are not logged in, there would be no way for craigslist to know you wanted it trashed after you cleared your browser cache. So log in before you trash items if you want to keep it trashed forever.
What I really hate lately is the, usually businesses, multiple same ads that can cover an entire page or so of craigslist. Some times the same ad shows up over half the pages, multiple pages in a row. I wish Craigslist would ban these companies from posting for 3 months for the violations. These people/businesses are abusing craigslist and annoying its users.
i second that notion
I agree with you 100%, i am from the Jersey Shore and in the Community section there is some kind of ride/share company that post’s around 60 or so ad’s ! They just seem to word each of them a little different, some are the same, but ALL are the same company ! This is so unfair for anyone competing for the same opportunity ! I found out there is a trick to this, all you have to do is keep clearing your cookies, and you can post multiple ads, so it will appear like different people or account’s ! I don’t think anything will be done about this, so i won’t be using CL anymore ! Peace !
i agree, in michigan we have a trailer company with many locations,, they post 20 ads a day in general, hogging the page and bumping 20 ads to the second page,, i alone cant get these voided,, the process of sending the id to craigslist would take a hour of copy paste to send, and who knows if that would work,, they need to kill the ads that get flagged routinely, and let the poster wear himself out if he wants to,, but one jerk shouldnt effect a thousand peoples day on here,, whew,,
I have an old acquaintance who likes to post free ads with my phone number. I don’t know how to get the adds down. I don’t care if I can see them, I care about the other 3 million people. There should be a text confirmation before posting any number to the website.
You can’t take them down but you could take them to court and have the court order them to stop using your phone number as well as have the courts force craigslist to take down existing ads with your phone number not posted by you.
How do I Clear hidden posts, they don’t show on iPad
You have to click on the red icon in the top right, then it will show only your hidden posts, then you remove from hidden then go back by pressing back in your browser.
I totally agree withe folks that disapprove of this feature – ads that are obviously inthe wrong category should be allowed to be removed by readers with 3 flaggings at max-Craigslist is doing a real disservice to their system by letting all the clutter accummulate
How do you remove hidden posts? Now I cannot do a post.
does this allow you to hide ads you don’t want to see in your search or does it hide the ad so no one can se it?
It only hides for you.
Hi TechReader Please Help. I run many ads on CL and on my account page it shows 14 hidden posts but I have never hidden anything. Does this mean people are hiding my ads? If someone clicks to hide my ad does it just hide in their search or does it hide the ad so no one can see it?How do if find any negative posts about my ad on CL if there are any?
Hi, actually every time you flag an ad it also hides it. So you flagged 14 ads. If an ad is hidden then it is only hidden for that person, it still shows for everyone else.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time hiding garage sale ads only to have them back in the morning. Very frustrating!
This is because craigslist stores these settings in the localstorage area of your browser. You are automatically deleting all your cookies, or using private sessions, so, they cannot store your setting. Every time your browser is closed, it deletes all settings websites store in your browser. Shut that feature off if you want websites to be able to store your preferences indefinitely.
I like the idea that it takes more than one unique prohibitions/rated flags before a post gets removed. It was too easy (via mistaken or competitors’ flags) for a post to be taken off.I experience it myself frequently in the past, but not so much lately.
Hi John, I found the hidden post feature doesn’t work on different computers. If I hide one post on one computer with one account, the post is not hidden if using the same account but different computer. Any idea how to solve the issue? Thanks, Will
This is because craigslist stores these settings in the localstorage area of your browser, not in your account. It is a browser cookie.
My post doesn’t show and says that it is hidden…..I DON’T want it hidden.. How can I make my post show ?? post #5585687601
delete all your cookies, including the super cookies. This will unhide everything, and delete all your saved searches and favorites too.
I created a listing and for some reason it comes up as hidden and I never see it on the page. I can’t deselect “hidden” either. What is going on??
You were ghosted for overposting likely. This has nothing to do with this hidden feature.
Why does c/l allow photos in personal ads? Disallowing it would eliminate all the smut in there, it’s awful and offensive posts rarely get deleted. What does only inevitably gets reposted. Some people are just plain sick!
Hi can not un hide a hidden ad HELP
You unhide hidden ads by clicking in the top right of the page.
how can I restore a post that shows hidden in my search. I keep clicking on the red x “restore” but nothing happens. It is my own post!
Same thing is happening to me right now. Did you ever figure out how to fix it?
Personally I see a ot of very important and helpful info being flagged. Info that could only help people. There are flaggers who get their kicks from depriving you of your freedom of speech. Craigslist should CHARGE 25 cents for a flag and this would reduce the foolishness . Craigslist could be an important media if it did this right now it has turned into garbage because of the sick flaggers. BUT craigslist does not listen.
Hi what is the red button that is now up in the right-hand corner on craigslist what does it mean?
Notice next to the red X it says something like “5 hidden”. This means this is how many posts you have hidden. If you click it, it will show ONLY the posts you hid. Click again to go back to normal with your hidden posts hidden.
I am wondering if you could shed some light on an issue I have been having with the “hide” feature, lately. While searching for housing, I find lots of repeat postings, often by apartment complexes and real estate firms. They will create 20-60 postings sometimes, and I try to hide them, as they are cumbersome when I am searching on the map screen. However, there are some postings that I seem to be unable to “hide” as they remain on the list and on the map, after I select the “hide” option. They’re remaining during my searches makes it difficult to keep track of the housing that I am still interested in, while weeding out those that I have decided not to pursue. Do you have any suggestions for this problem?
Craigslist recently updated their “hide” feature and I also noticed it is not always working on multiple posting when trying to hide on the map. This is a bug on craigslist, so there’s nothing we can do until craigslist fixes this bug. I agree it’s quite annoying and craigslist needs to fix this issue ASAP.
I am new to Craigslist and am taking over the ad posting duties from my Apt Manager. I was told by a prospective tenant that they read some bad reviews about my apartment building and therefore did not want to rent my unit. First, how can I see these reviews for myself? Will I be notified when a review is posted? When a user clicks “Prohibited” are they prompted to write a review? I have tried to call 3 different Craigslist numbers, but I am unable to reach a live person! How do I go about removing these reviews?
Hi owner that needs help,
Did they said they saw the reviews on craigslist and not yelp?
If craigslist, you can find the views by just searching for your own apartments on craigslist.
One you find it, you can flag, but no guarantees it will be removed. However, it is probably breaking the TOS of craigslist so you can go into craigslist support forums and post it there, and an admin might remove it, but be aware that there is no guarantee it will ever be removed.
Lastly you can contact craigslist abuse over the web form and post the link to the post and a brief description of why the post should be removed. Still, no guarantees.
Please be aware you will never be able to contact craigslist by phone. Unfortunately there is absolutely no way.
I accidentally marked a post as prohibited – did I mess things up for the seller – will their post be removed from everyone? If so, can craigslist contact them?
Their post will not be removed unless many people flag it. So just one person accidentally clicking prohibited is not really going to impact the seller much, don’t worry.
This happened to me. I accidently clicked prohibited and tried to undo it I clicked the red x that was in the box. However nothing productive happened, I tried to search for the item again and it would not pop up. I really was interested in finding out more about the item but now I cannot find it. Is there a way I can see the post again ?
same… i want that post back but i accidentally clicked prohibit. now it says “This posting has been flagged for removal”is it coming back??
Once a post is flagged off the site showing the error “flagged for removal”, the ad has been removed from craigslist due to enough people flagging it and will not ever be coming back.
If “Prohibited” now means “Hide”, they should change the links name. Or have 2 links, 1 for Hide and 1 for Prohibited.
Hi KB, no, “prohibited” does not mean “hide”. When you click “prohibited”, it flags the message as spam. Since you thought it was spam, it only makes sense to hide it as well, so that is why craigslist adds it to hide automatically whenever you flag it as spam. You can always unhide if for some reason you really wanted to see the spam listings that you flagged.
Hidden ads still show up and can be opened without interference. The photos are dimmed but are still perfectly clear and clickable. Useless feature.
They do not, you need to re-click that link in the bottom right corner that says “show/hide hidden listings”. You must have clicked that and forgot about it. Click that and the hidden ones will disappear.
i like this feature when looking for jobs on my android phone using chrome browser. but it has happened twice now that the hide feature just disappears from existence. the little [x] ‘s are just not there, as if it went back to the previous version of Craigslist… why?
if i switch and go to craigslist from dolphin browser the [x]’ s are there like normal. i reboot, i go back to chrome, srill not there! when this happened once before, idk how, but the [x]’s eventually returned, but bot for over a week. ome day they just show up and i have no idea why. it’s happening right now and it’s very annoying! i prefer to use chrome. any ideas?
Have you tried clearing the browser cache? Rebooting your phone will not clear the cache, you need to go into the setting to clear the cache.
The flagging system got worse in my opinion. The purpose of flagging on Craigslist was to remove illegal ads, scams, objectionable ads, CL policy violators, etc. from the web. Now all you can do is remove it from yourself.
Obvious violations, particularly identifiable scams, remain as bait for the gullible even AFTER being flagged as prohibited. For example, in my market auto dealers regularly disguise themselves as “owners” to capture unsuspecting buyers wary of dealership tactics.
And inappropriate photos are easily found under such listings as “casual” and WSM! Kids can get to these pixs!
CL needs to return to the days when a flag meant a deletion of the offending listing!
Hi Mickey, actually you can still flag posts and they will still be removed if enough people flag them. This upgrade was something different so individuals can hide listings from the search results.
Hi TechReader, how do you flag an ad?
Click the “prohibited” link in the top left of the page when clicking an ad.
This may be so, but it’s obvious that more posts which are clearly scams or deliberately deceptive are showing up/remaining in searches. Their “upgrade” is retrograde
Craigslist’s modifications to flagging policy compromised this user checking system several years ago. They raised the number of flags required to the point that rules-violating ads would not come off. Then they prohibited use of clickable urls in ads so that an outraged user(s) could not advise others of inappropriate or fraudulent ads. Then they put a control of the RATE of flags coming in so that some (all?) flags would be ignored if they came in within a certain period of time from one another.
Private auto dealers (“curbsiders”) are the worst, but pawn shops are up there. There is one pawn shop in Leesburg VA that maintains over 150 active ads in Owners pages, all disguised as owner ads. Repeated emails to abuse [at] craigslist.org about this flagrant violator are simply ignored.
Hi Wally, thanks for pointing out these issues with craigslist’s flagging system. Sadly craigslist has continued to go downhill, making it a worse user experience. It is however a positive thing that craigslist has added the ability to hide ads which makes navigating through all the bad ads much easier. Still, I agree, something needs to be done, although sadly I doubt it will. Moreover, although there is a downside that some bad ads cannot be removed as easily, the upside is that it does seem to have helped with the flagging issue for legitimate posts to some extent.