Intermittent PayPal Checkout failures

Resolved alewando
(@alewando)

1 month ago
Hi there,

We are experiencing intermittent PayPal Checkout failures on our WooCommerce store using Payment Plugins for PayPal.

Environment
- WordPress 6.9.4
- PHP 8.3
- WooCommerce 4.3.2
- Payment Plugins for PayPal 2.0.19
- PixelManager 1.6.1.0, MC4WP 4.13.1, CookieYes 3.5.1,
- YooThemePro, Wordfence, Really Simple Security
- Low traffic store (approximately 20 new visitors/day, 5 orders/day, 2 products)
Symptoms

Some customers see the PayPal popup with the message:

“Something went wrong. Please go back to [store] and choose another way to pay. PayPal isn’t available at this time.”

When this happens:
- no WooCommerce order is created
- no errors logged by the plugin
- WooCommerce error logs are empty
- PHP logs contain no related errors
The problem has been reported by customers in the US, UK, Germany and Finland.

PayPal REST API logs

The PayPal REST API logs show a very clear pattern.
- Successful payments:
```
POST /v2/checkout/ordersGET /v2/checkout/orders/{id}PATCH /v2/checkout/orders/{id}POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/capture(GET /v2/checkout/orders/{id})
```
The payment is captured successfully and the order is completed.
- Failed payments:
```
POST /v2/checkout/orders
```
Only the initial Create Order request is made.

There are no subsequent GET, PATCH or CAPTURE requests.

Additional observations
- PayPal credentials are correct.
- Successful payments work normally.
- There are no REST API errors returned by PayPal.
Any ideas or clues?

Thank you,
Arkadiusz

The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

Plugin Author

(@mrclayton)

Thank you for contacting Payment Plugins. The message you’re seeing in the PayPal popup is usually the result of a network error or server issue on PayPal’s end and wouldn’t be the result of a plugin issue.

Once the PayPal order ID is created and communicated to PayPal, control is handed over to the PayPal popup and the plugin isn’t influencing it beyond the shipping address and shipping option calculations.

Kind Regards

Thread Starter

alewando

(@alewando)

1 month ago

Hi Clayton,

Thank you for your reply.

It does seem to me though that the problem is not on the PayPal side. The initial POST request sent to PayPal is successful (200) and somehow the payment process cannot go further, therefore PayPal probably breaks the connection. Attached please find a log of such an initial POST that did not have a follow up:

Request:

{
"intent": "CAPTURE",
"payer": {
"name": {
"given_name": "xxxxxx",
"surname": "xxxxxx"
},
"address": {
"address_line_1": "xxxxxx",
"address_line_2": "",
"admin_area_1": "QC",
"admin_area_2": "Mtl",
"postal_code": "A0A 0A0",
"country_code": "CA"
},
"email_address": "xxxxxx"
},
"payment_source": {
"paypal": {
"attributes": {}
}
},
"purchase_units": [
{
"amount": {
"value": "39.84",
"currency_code": "EUR",
"breakdown": {
"item_total": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "39.84"
},
"shipping": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": 0
},
"tax_total": {
"value": "0.00",
"currency_code": "EUR"
},
"discount": {
"value": "0.00",
"currency_code": "EUR"
},
"handling": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "0.00"
}
}
},
"items": [
{
"name": "Pulsar 23 HHT",
"quantity": 1,
"unit_amount": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "39.84"
},
"sku": 2291,
"description": "Product ID: 2289. Variation ID: 2291"
}
]
}
],
"application_context": {
"shipping_preference": "NO_SHIPPING",
"return_url": "https://huntinstruments.com/wc-api/ppcp_checkout_return/?_checkoutnonce=ef71a70a0f",
"cancel_url": "https://huntinstruments.com/checkout/?ppcp_action=canceled",
"brand_name": "Hunt Instruments",
"locale": "en-US"
}
}

Response:

{
"id": "3RY66125SV261120R",
"intent": "CAPTURE",
"status": "PAYER_ACTION_REQUIRED",
"payment_source": {
"paypal": {
"email_address": "xxxxxx",
"name": {
"given_name": "xxxxxx",
"surname": "xxxxxx"
},
"address": {
"address_line_1": "xxxxxx",
"admin_area_2": "Mtl",
"admin_area_1": "QC",
"postal_code": "A0A 0A0",
"country_code": "CA"
}
}
},
"purchase_units": [
{
"reference_id": "default",
"amount": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "39.84",
"breakdown": {
"item_total": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "39.84"
},
"shipping": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "0.00"
},
"handling": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "0.00"
},
"tax_total": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "0.00"
},
"discount": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "0.00"
}
}
},
"payee": {
"email_address": "xxxxxx",
"merchant_id": "SFP2MWCEGMZKA",
"display_data": {
"brand_name": "Hunt Instruments"
}
},
"items": [
{
"name": "Pulsar 23 HHT",
"unit_amount": {
"currency_code": "EUR",
"value": "39.84"
},
"quantity": "1",
"description": "Product ID: 2289. Variation ID: 2291",
"sku": "2291"
}
]
}
],
"payer": {
"name": {
"given_name": "xxxxxx",
"surname": "xxxxxx"
},
"email_address": "xxxxxx",
"address": {
"address_line_1": "xxxxxx",
"admin_area_2": "Mtl",
"admin_area_1": "QC",
"postal_code": "A0A 0A0",
"country_code": "CA"
}
},
"links": [
{
"href": "https://api.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders/3RY66125SV261120R",
"rel": "self",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "https://www.paypal.com/checkoutnow?token=3RY66125SV261120R",
"rel": "payer-action",
"method": "GET"
}
]
}