Stuck PayPal orders. Why?

Hi,

Today for the first time I noticed some orders in my PayPal account but not in my admin.
Then inside my admin, I clicked on "View Stuck PayPal Orders", and yes the missing orders where there. Also, There were some orders that shouldn't be stuck.

Then I clicked on " Move To Orders Database", but I get the following error.
PAYPAL_PUSHORDER_PASS is not defined! TIP: read readme.txt!

Questions:
1.Why do these orders get stuck and how to fix that?
2. Which Readme.txt file is it referring to ?

Thanks as always.

samar777:

1.Why do these orders get stuck and how to fix that?
Why? because the PayPal IPN/Standard relies on waiting for PayPal's server to find a way to communicate to your server to save the completed order.
If anything goes wrong in that process, the order will never show in your store.

Options:
a) Change to using Express Checkout instead, since it doesn't have all the technical dependencies that IPN does. This is the RECOMMENDED approach.
Express Checkout is FAR more reliable.
b) and/or fix all the possible communication problems between PayPal's server and yours. Some tips can be found here: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

I think it was a one day thing. possibly my server wasn't responding well.

I use both express checkout as well as PayPal Payments Pro.

how about the answer to that second question? I would like to send those stuck orders to my admin, but the error mentioned above shows up. Which readme.txt file do I need to read to configure Stuck PayPal option> Send to Orders Database.

Thanks DrByte.

If you're not using Website Payments Standard, then you don't have any "stuck orders" to push to the database.

yes I using all 3 of paypal payment options. Express, Standard, and Payments Pro.

DrByte, Thanks I got it working.

I figured out that I had installed PayPal Sessions Viewer module, and read it readme.txt file again, and did some minor adjustments.

Its working now for the most part, except that a couple orders are still missing.

I just emailed my customers to find out what they had ordered. hopefully it wont happen any longer.

Have a good weekend.

samar777:

yes I using all 3 of paypal payment options. Express, Standard, and Payments Pro.

Frankly, that's dumb.

Standard is archaic.
Express is recommended, and provides the same functionality as Standard, but in a much more reliable way.

Having both installed at the same time just leaves customers confused since they end up seeing TWO PayPal choices on the checkout_payment screen, and then they wonder which one they should choose.

It is STRONGLY advised that you go to Admin->Modules->Payment, and click on PayPal Website Payments Standard, and click the Remove button.
Your customers will be less confused during checkout, and thus more likely to complete purchases, and you'll have less administration, and you won't have any "stuck" orders anymore.

Payments Pro is a different category altogether, and is unrelated to this discussion, so should be left alone.

Thanks for this post. I've been using Standard for a long time & didn't realize the benefits of Express. And Express wasn't nearly as hard to set up as I thought it would be.

Took PayPal Standard off.

Number of orders increased by 8% in two days.

Thank you!