The Community forums are being phased out in favor of a new Slack group.
Add your email address below to get an invitation to join the community slack group
Paypal IPN
Hi,
I have successfully setup the Paypal add-on and it works fine. I setup IPN OK and whenever someone makes a payment through my site the IPN is received OK and all is well.
However, our Charity website has a number of recurring payments setup with paypal, that were not initiated through our website and the Formidable/Paypal add-on integration (they were just made through Paypal directly, often years ago).
I am now receiving occasional emails from Paypal, that state:
*** start quote ***
Please check your server that handles PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN). Instant Payment Notifications sent to the following URL(s) are failing:
https://mywebsite.com/paypal_IPN
If you do not recognize this URL, you may be using a service provider that is using IPN on your behalf. Please contact your service provider with the above information. If this problem continues, IPNs may be disabled for your account.
*** end quote ***
I have checked the IPN logs on Paypal and Formidable Paypal add-on and they seem to be from historic recurring payments that weren't set up through the new setup.
I am under the impression it doesn't matter what IPN URL we add in the Paypal account, as formidable overwrites it with each transaction. It therefore appears to me to be the reason why we are getting these IPN failing, because these old transactions are sending the IPN notifcations to https://mywebsite.com/paypal_IPN, which isn't the actual URL of the IPN listener. Does that sound about right?
I'm not sure how I can resolve this, as Paypal say it's a service provider issue, and Formidable are encouraging me to renew my support for over $100 just to answer a question about their product that I feel should be answered for free!
Please can anyone help and/or explain what the IPN url is doing, and whether these emails from Paypal are likely being sent because old recurring transactions are not being handled correctly, or if it's possible for me to somehow change the URL on the Paypal website so that I stop getting these warnings from Paypal, or at the very least help me understand what I need to know and say to go back to Paypal?
Many thanks,
Matt
July 15, 2018 at 2:56 pm
If you've purchased the PayPal add-on then it includes official Formidable support doesn't it? If you let that expire before getting everything set up correctly then it seems like your support would have to be renewed from the Formidable side to get their help.
Old transactions have nothing to do with Formidable. If your IPN is set up correctly now then all future transactions will work fine.
It's likely going to be difficult for anyone from this volunteer side to be of much help without digging into the details of your setup with you. For example, I'm confused by some apparently contradictory info in your post. You said that:
whenever someone makes a payment through my site the IPN is received OK and all is well.
But then you said that:
I have checked the IPN logs on Paypal and Formidable Paypal add-on and they seem to be from historic recurring payments that weren't set up through the new setup.
Did you see the troubleshooting info here?
https://formidableforms.com/knowledgebase/formidable-paypal/#kb-troubleshooting
Specifically:
Check if you have a firewall plugin that may prevent PayPal from reaching your site. If you're not sure, visit yoursite.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=frm_payments_paypal_ipn while logged out. If you see a blank page, that's good.
This type of question comes up on the main support side frequently and in many cases it's due to something on the server:
https://formidableforms.com/help-desk/paypal-ipn-not-working-invalid/
https://formidableforms.com/help-desk/paypal-add-on-ipn-notification-not-working/
Have you asked your host about it?
Discussion closed.