Suddenly Failing PayPal Instant Payment Notifications

Having the same issue as this post, http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178385, where PayPal sent an email saying:

"Please check your server that handles PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN). IPNs sent to the following URL(s) are failing" and referencing the ipn_main_handler.php file.

It just started, has been trouble-free till the last order, just received same type email from PayPal. ZenCart is 1.3.9, and according to the tools/server version, curl is enabled.

I don't know if this is related at all, but recently - we just began also having trouble viewing the https side on macintoshes - slow loading, images don't always show, timeout errors, though PCs have no troubles. Have cleared caches, flushed DNS's on both macs, cleared proxies, checked for firewalls (none aware of), contacted host numerous times to see if anything at all changed on server (no), also contacted SSL provider, and possibly this has nothing to do with the other, but the timing of 2 things that used to work fine going wrong is suspect, and not sure where to look.

The PayPal IPN message is of real concern. PayPal received the payment ok for the order, but I am not sure what the email means, or what notification it is talking about.

Noticed there is an upgrade for ZenCart, and would look to upgrading (per the advice of copying, testing on another server before implementing), though am still new at this and with much help here have some customizations I need to make sure work out in the new version, and possibly updating will resolve both above issues, but would appreciate any advice on the IPN, thank you!

The email means there was a failure when PayPal attempted to notify your store about the purchase.
When you have IPN/Instant Payment Notification enabled in your PayPal account, PayPal sends an IPN to your store EVERY time there's activity in your account. That includes purchases, sales, refunds, voids, fraud holds cleared, echecks cleared, address-holds cleared, etc.
PayPal makes re-attempts for up to 2 days on each transaction if it fails for some reason.

PayPal will keep sending those emails as long as your site doesn't properly acknowledge the IPN, whether it uses it or not. A properly configured Zen Cart site will take care of that automagically. But if your server is having problems responding to PayPal, or using CURL, or serving SSL requests reliably, then PayPal may have troubles doing what they normally do.

If PayPal finds failures for 2 weeks or more (or some other duration they determine themselves) then they might turn off the IPN checkbox in your account simply to minimize wasted load on their systems.

You need to sort out your "sudden" communications problems with your hosting company. And/or whatever might have been damaged on your hosting account for some yet-unknown reason.

Thank you, will go back to host, appreciate the explanation, it's very helpful, especially when going back to them. Should curl be enabled or not?

Update, host says: "Please contact PayPal and ask for more information on how to configure PayPal correctly. This seems to be the issue with your ZenCart as well. Please contact ZenCart and PayPal and ask if there is any issue." It did not seem to help I had started the support with host by saying have already checked with ZenCart . . . . will try PayPal tomorrow, any advice very welcome, thank you.

Seems like your hosting is the real problem. And so is their "help" if you call it that.

PayPal isn't going to tell you anything we haven't already told you.

You said you're having SSL problems for visitors OTHER THAN PayPal. Get your host to fix THAT consistently and your PayPal problems will probably take care of themselves.

And/or you can go troubleshoot things following this article too ... but keep in mind that if you go changing all kinds of things that have NOTHING to do with the REAL problem (your host) then you won't know what you've done or why and it'll just make maintenance and future upgrades more difficult for you.
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

Is you host "Hostmonster"? I am having problems with emails as well.

perspitcher:

Is you host "Hostmonster"? I am having problems with emails as well.
Um ... this thread is talking about PayPal issues.

Thank you, DrByte, I will check out that link, and am using the PayPal express, so I jumped to the Express instructions and that link looks very familiar, I remember going through all those steps and getting the API signature, etc., and will check through it again.

When we first started having trouble recently with the MACs (OS 10.2 & 1.4) not going to the https side but NO issues with PCs (both XP), host said there was a permission problem and said they ran some tool to fix them. Then, for a few minutes, my cart folder in FTP disappeared and I couldn't even see it, so I went back to them and they did something to permissions again and I could see it. Long story short, I am having a very hard time getting help, as they keep sending me around elsewhere. In this thread, http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184234, where you helped me, too, and with yours and others help I was able to get enough info to go to the SSL company where they were able to figure it out and give me a link and instructions to give to host, as ultimately, it is the host's server, their settings, etc., where it seems things must be worked out, so am hoping to find as much info as possible to go back to them with.

They also have told me it might be firewall issue - have checked that, not finding any, but if it was a firewall issue, would that not affect all the machines connected to the same router/DSL? I am very ignorant on connectivity, and have even talked to the router support, DSL support and Modem support was next on my list . . .

Don't know if visitors are experiencing the same thing, so far the issues have been with separate MACs connected by wireless router, and we did have a recent purchase from a MAC user in CA, but that purchase seemed to be just under the wire of before when the trouble started - site is still partially in production/testing, so don't have a good feel for other visitors but the PayPal was a real concern to get straightened out. Thank you!

Update, have gone back to host, they've elevated the support ticket up to another level, so hope to have good news soon . . . !

And why is it you're still with this host?

Have been with host for many many years, way before expanding with ZenCart, and when seeing others post similar emails here that they received from PayPal, hoped there was something on the ZenCart side that could be corrected. I can see I let my frustrations at the issue vent too much, and am working with host on this now, and have provided the link you gave so they can check things out further. There is alot to learn about all this, that is for sure, thank you for your help.

I just stated getting these too. I am with HostGator. I haven't changed anything with my Zen Cart either. It seems to have started with the new year.

The IPN's in Zen Cart, do I need to keep those? The ones from each sale?

Correction, I have made a change. See below..

Also, to shine a little light on my personal issue. My paypal api userID and pass word stem from a past business. This has not been an issue on any previous sale except those from 2012.

I looked at my IPN in Zen Cart and got the URL and matched it to what is in PayPal and it is a match. I had paypal resend the message to see if it would clear.

Now, since this person placed their order I have removed all products and categories and reset the category ID #'s and product id's in the database manually.

My new catalog functions without issue but the order this person placed was still in "processing" when I changed everything. Paypal having issue with this one transaction that i have now refunded through ZC seems to be the only one.

I will attempt to clear it and see if it continues.

I tried to resend the IPN but it failed. I have two failed attempts on 2 different orders, not just one. Both from 2012. One was a paypal payment that had nothing to do with Zen Cart. The customer sent payment through paypal for an auction on Gun Broker so it is not a Zen Cart issue. It looks like a PayPal issue. That or the notification is failing in the e-mail notification but I am getting the e-mails. Maybe PayPal is not getting the confirmation it needs from our host?

I am going to change my e-mail address in paypal to my personal e-mail through gmail and see if it fixes it.

Update. I looked in Zen Cart and my IPN's all show up. Even the ones Paypal says failed.

I removed my domain email address and switched it back to my gmail and they work now. I will keep an eye on it. Maybe it has to do with having multiple email addresses? My gmail was on their and set as primary in Paypal but I remove my pistol depot email and the IPN messages go though now.

Thank you for all the updates, I will check out that side of things, too.

Since IPN activity has nothing to do with email addresses, that seems highly coincidental and unrelated.

Update, hope this helps someone with similar issues. Contacted PayPal, and they have a couple of very good links:

http :// ppmts.custhelp. com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14

http :// ppmts.custhelp. com/app/answers/detail/a_id/875/related/1

Seems there are many things it could be, and according to one of the links, ensuring correct email address is one thing - in my case, turns out, after learning how to find and study the IPN history in the PayPal account and see which ones failed, the failing ones were from another non ZenCart store, so apologize for taking up time and efforts here. In PayPal, according to their support, you can only set up one return url for IPN notification, so if there is more than one source of sales involved, the ones coming from another source than the one you setup in PayPal may fail. The ZenCart notifications were coming through fine. Another lesson under the belt, and host is working on the other issue, so am good to go, thank you everyone.