Is Paypal IPN necessary?

I am running ZC 1.3.9h using Paypal Express. In my Paypal logs, the IPN history shows the status as Failed for each transaction. The orders are posted to the admin, the money is deposited in the Paypal account, and I receive an email from Paypal confirming the payment.

In the Paypal Express setup in ZC, the instructions show to place a specific address in the Paypal setup and that is done as instructed. Does ZC use this notification or is it simply for another function of a back office? It looks like it could be turned off and not be a problem or does anyone have any idea how to fix it?

I've seen similar posts but none seem to be exactly like my issue. Thank you in advance.

the instructions show to place a specific address in the Paypal setup
What is yours set to and what is the title of the field?

Thank you for your help. In the Paypal Express configuration in Zen Cart, configuration instruction #3 states:

3. In your PayPal account, enable Instant Payment Notification:
   under "Profile", select Instant Payment Notification Preferences

   • click the checkbox to enable IPN

   • if there is not already a URL specified, set the URL to:

     https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ipn_main_handler.php

(the xxxxxxxxxxx's are where my website is inserted)

This is the URL that I have listed in my Paypal account for the IPN configuration. IPN is also set to Enabled. When I look at the History, they transaction status states Failed but everything seems to be working.

In the Paypal Express configuration in Zen Cart, configuration instruction #3 states:
What instruction?
Where are you seeing this?

While using Express Checkout prevents your store from relying on IPN notices to actually complete orders in your store, there is a secondary set of functionality which you may find important, and hence still appropriate to configure your PayPal account to enable the sending of IPNs:

• echeck alerts and transaction updates (when your store receives the IPN that the echeck has cleared, it will upgrade the order's status to Paid (aka "Processing"))
• pre-auth-only vs authorized - similarly, the order status will be upgraded if you originally only "authorized" but didn't "capture" the payment
• refunds - an order status can be downgraded when a refund is issued, thus helping keep your store more in sync with what you're doing in your PayPal account
• and more

So, yes, keeping IPN enabled is still necessary. Unless you don't want any of those benefits.

As for why you're getting "Failed", I'd need to see your logs to understand what exactly your store is seeing/doing to say Failed.

Should I post one of the logs here or should I send them another way? Thank you.

PM me with a link to a zipped copy of the logs from a few days if possible.

I have sent the link via PM. Thank you.

Those aren't saying "FAILURE". They're just plain blank, seemingly because the script is being aborted somehow.

Are you getting any debug logs in your /cache/ folder vis a vis https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82 ?

Thank you for your assistance. I apologize if I did not offer the correct assessment of my issue. The Failed statement was showing up in the profile section on my Paypal account only. The Zen Cart portion appeared to be working properly.

After following your sage advice, it appears that the culprit was the checkout_process.php file. It was apparently corrupt and restoring it from a previous backup has since allowed the IPN function to complete normally.

Many thanks.