Download and Payment issue

When a customer makes his/her selection on a downloadable product, and pays via Paypal, he is not redirected to the link where he can download it. I've gone over and over this, and I'm pretty sure all of the attributes for the downloadable product are correct. Is the problem with Paypal?

Site is http://avalonrisen.com and the specific product is at http://avalonrisen.com/index.php?mai...roducts_id=427

I've placed alternate instructions for the customer in case downloading doesn't happen (which it never does), so then I have to write them back with a download link, but I shouldn't have to.

a. Upon payment, if your payment modules and templates are working properly, the customer is always returned to the checkout_success page.
b. The checkout_success page shows a list of all the downloads on the current order. If the order's status is "pending" then the links will not yet work (and say so). If the order's status is "Processing" or higher, then the download links will work. Same as they do from the My Account Order History page (both pages use the same template and code).

I suspect your PayPal module isn't completing correctly.

1. Which PayPal module are you using? If using "PayPal Standard", switch to "PayPal Express Checkout" and this should fix the issue. ("Standard" has a "delay" that can cause orders not to show up, because it's built for PayPal's old legacy system where shopping carts didn't exist yet, so has to do a database update in the background, which means the customer gets out of sync with the payment/order process in your store. Express does it all in real-time and is much more reliable.)

2. When *you* have gone through a checkout, what exactly is happening after you click the final "pay" button? Error page? blank page? success page? what?

1. I'm currently using "PayPal Express Checkout."

2. When I click the pay button, it takes me to a page that says "SUCCESS!" at the top, and summarizes my order. It shows it as a download, and as processing. But there is no download button or any link showing.

Sounds like that the issue is in the setup of the product/attributes for download. How does the current setup differ from what is described in the following FAQ?
https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...s-downloadable

Here are some other areas to look at to verify that settings are as expected to support download of product:
What are your settings in the Admin->Configuration->Attribute Settings section?
For the attribute(s) that are supposed to have the file to download, what are the settings within the attibutes controller? Do you have the green circle next to the file's name?
When you said that "it shows it as a download" what information is provided to state that? Ie. is it just text that was part of the attribute or is there some additional information provided from ZC that further identifies that the product has a download associated with it.

An alternative route, though it doesn't appear that it is PayPal that is the issue, is to activate an alternate payment method and attempt processing through such a payment. Ie. could temporarily place the store in maintenance mode, activate the check/money order payment method with a default status of Processing and then go through checkout with that payment method and see if there is a difference in response. Then deactivate that payment method or restore the default status back to its previous state and take the store out of maintenance mode, though all of this really should be attempted on a development version of your site so that such issues can be worked through without affecting live shoppers...

The green circle does appear next to the filename in the attribute controller.
On the SUCCESS! page, the download radio button appears, indicating (to me anyway) that this product is a download. What am I missing?

I will also go through the FAQ as you suggested.
One thing, in the Attributes settings, "Download by streaming" was marked "FALSE." I don't know if that even applies here, but I've changed that to "TRUE."

In the case where you don't see the download links, if you go to My Account and look at your order history, and click on that specific order, do you see download links there?
If not, then it's likely that the downloads aren't linked to the products properly.

If yes, then I suspect a template issue.

Looks like I'll need to go over the Download set up step-by-step. Again. Thanks for your input.