can't see completed and payed orders

I have two online stores, one using v138a version and the other 1.3.9e
Both have been working fine for many years.

I'm having problems lately with the first version where customers order items, pay for them with paypal, I get a message from Paypal saying I got paid, however no order is shown on the store, the stock quantity does not change, the customer history does not show any order has been made.

I've tested with a dummy user, confirmed it is not working.
It does not happen with my other store using ver 1.3.9e

When I set IPN debugging I get towards the end of the log file /includes/modules/payment/paypal/logs:

IPN WARNING :: Transaction was not marked as VERIFIED
IPN FATAL ERROR :: Transaction did not validate

on 1.3.8a version I have: PHP Version: 5.2.17 (Zend: 2.2.0)
on 1.3.9e version (where it works fine) I have: PHP Version: 5.6.40

Any idea what might be the problem?
Thanks,
Amnon

FWIW, I'm quite surprised that the sites are still working:

1.3.8a ..... released in December of 2007
1.3.9e ..... released in June of 2010
PHP 5.2 ... released in January of 2011 (and I'm especially surprised that your webhost is still supporting this version)

Barring the above, while you don't identify which of the PayPal methods is currently in use, PayPal has become more restrictive over the past 16 (!) years so that could be the problem with your 1.3.8a installation.

You really, really, ***really ***need to upgrade both the Zen Cart code (currently at 1.5.8a) as well as the version of PHP (most recent released version 8.2). Many vulnerabilities have been corrected in both over the past decade.

Thank you.
I will look into it.

I have same problem, except I am using newest version. (2.1.0). I have completely reinstalled the store three times as fresh installs with no customization keeping all old customer and product data in the old database then importing products and customers into new database and still have the issue. I did a test purchase myself as a walk-in customer each install and each order came through so I assumed it was working, but then the next customer orders and I still see no orders in the database except for the ones I place myself. Using Zen for over a decade, but seriously looking elsewhere as it looks very unprofessional for me to email my customers saying I see they paid on Paypal, but we have no record of the order. Surprised I see no one else with the issue... Has worked fine for over a decade, why now... PHP 8.4 (ea-php84)

Zen Cart v2.1.x is designed for PHP 8.0 through PHP 8.3 (v2.1.0 WILL trigger some deprecation messages on PHP 8.4)
I have done a couple of dozen upgrades to 2.1.0 and have not had this issue. Your surprise that no one else has reported the issue is based on the assumption that it is just broken and everyone should be seeing the issue. More information is needed, like which Paypal module is in use? Are they using express checkout instead of going through the entire normal checkout flow? Trying to figure out what portion is not doing its job is important to even have a clue as to what may be wrong.

markflynn:

I have same problem, except I am using newest version. (2.1.0). I have completely reinstalled the store three times as fresh installs with no customization keeping all old customer and product data in the old database then importing products and customers into new database and still have the issue. I did a test purchase myself as a walk-in customer each install and each order came through so I assumed it was working, but then the next customer orders and I still see no orders in the database except for the ones I place myself. Using Zen for over a decade, but seriously looking elsewhere as it looks very unprofessional for me to email my customers saying I see they paid on Paypal, but we have no record of the order. Surprised I see no one else with the issue... Has worked fine for over a decade, why now... PHP 8.4 (ea-php84)

This seems like a problem on your end which can probably be resolved without much hassle. I'm pretty sure there's a php fatal error involved and there's a log in the logs/ directory which would show what's happening.
As barco57 said, go down to php 8.3 as per recommendation (https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/first_steps/server_requirements/). Also, more information would be helpful - which PayPal module exactly?

Actually on this database it is PHP 8.3.3. The paypal version is PayPal Payments Standard which I have been using for years.

Last order placed at 10:13 this a.m. spurred this in the error log, so I am looking into it to see if i can make heads or tails of it:

[09-Mar-2026 11:13:45 America/New_York] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Undefined constant "TOPMOST_CATEGORY_PARENT_ID" in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php:220
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(267): zen_get_parent_categories(Array, '183')
#1 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(33): Product->loadProductDetails(24653)
#2 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shopping_cart.php(1669): Product->__construct(24653)
#3 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_general_shared.php(318): shoppingCart->in_cart_check('product_is_alwa...', '1')
#4 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/modules/shipping/flat.php(26): zen_get_shipping_enabled('flat')
#5 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(112): flat->__construct()
#6 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(55): shipping->initialize_modules(Array)
#7 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/ipn_main_handler.php(353): shipping->__construct(Array)
#8 {main}
thrown in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php on line 220

[09-Mar-2026 11:13:45 America/New_York] Request URI: /hoptoit/ipn_main_handler.php, IP address: 173.0.81.140
--> PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Undefined constant "TOPMOST_CATEGORY_PARENT_ID" in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php:220
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(267): zen_get_parent_categories(Array, '183')
#1 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(33): Product->loadProductDetails(24653)
#2 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shopping_cart.php(1669): Product->__construct(24653)
#3 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_general_shared.php(318): shoppingCart->in_cart_check('product_is_alwa...', '1')
#4 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/modules/shipping/flat.php(26): zen_get_shipping_enabled('flat')
#5 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(112): flat->__construct()
#6 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(55): shipping->initialize_modules(Array)
#7 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/ipn_main_handler.php(353): shipping->__construct(Array)
#8 {main}
thrown in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php on line 220.

[09-Mar-2026 11:13:45 America/New_York] Request URI: /hoptoit/ipn_main_handler.php, IP address: 173.0.81.140
--> PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Undefined constant "TOPMOST_CATEGORY_PARENT_ID" in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php:220
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(267): zen_get_parent_categories(Array, '183')
#1 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/Product.php(33): Product->loadProductDetails(24653)
#2 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shopping_cart.php(1669): Product->__construct(24653)
#3 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_general_shared.php(318): shoppingCart->in_cart_check('product_is_alwa...', '1')
#4 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/modules/shipping/flat.php(26): zen_get_shipping_enabled('flat')
#5 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(112): flat->__construct()
#6 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/classes/shipping.php(55): shipping->initialize_modules(Array)
#7 /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/ipn_main_handler.php(353): shipping->__construct(Array)
#8 {main}
thrown in /home/dpwigl5/public_html/hoptoit/includes/functions/functions_categories.php on line 220.

See here: https://github.com/zencart/zencart/pull/5371/changes

Check if you have this in your includes/init_includes/init_non_db_settings.php - if not, make sure you uploaded the full fileset from the 2.1.0 version because it should be there. :)