"There was a problem paying with PayPal. Please try another method."

Hi John,

My initial thought is that your API credentials are probably incorrect in the settings. If you make sure logging is enabled in the plugin you’ll be able to look at the logs under /wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/logs/ to see what the exact error that came back from PayPal was so we can confirm this.

There’s also an option to enable detailed errors in the settings page so that the actual API errors would be displayed on the cart page instead of that generic error.

Let me know what your logs show and what exact you’re getting and then I can help you figure out what the problem is.

Hi angelleye, I went to WooCommerce > Settings > Checkout > Paypal ( this is where I also have my API credentials, API username and API password). In there I set “Activate logs”, then tried to buy the product and received this email.

There is a problem with your PayPal Express Checkout configuration.

SetExpressCheckout API call failed.
Error Code: 10002
Error Severity Code: Error
Short Error Message: Authentication/Authorization Failed
Detailed Error Message: You do not have permissions to make this API call

I think I entered my API credentials right, but apparently I’m not?

EDIT: I may have to create a new API? Should it be a REST or Classic API? I’m using WooCommerce Subscriptions, but I’m also accepting manual payments (majority are manuals).

It sounds like you’re in the wrong section. To setup the Express Checkout you need to make sure you’re in WooCommerce -> Settings -> Checkout -> PayPal Express Checkout. The “PayPal” one is for the standard PayPal that comes with WooCommerce by default.

Make sure you’re in the Express Checkout settings page and that’s where you need to add your API username, password, and signature. There is a link in the settings panel that loads a tool where you can grab these values easily.

Yes, I was in the wrong settings.

EDIT: It works, thanks. Just retrieved my sandbox API username, password and signature and it took me to paypal for a test.

By the way, I noticed[…]

EDIT2: Yes, I cut it off so I could edit the post quickly, so that you wouldn’t spend time looking for something that was my error. I edited this post previously writing that it “still didn’t work”, but then I FINALLY found my sandbox credentials here: https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/applications/accounts and had to come here to edit the post.

EDIT3: Ok, so I noticed a warning that I’m using both Paypal and Paypal Express Checkout (after enabling Paypal Express Checkout in WooCommerce Settings). Is it ok to have both? It seems to be working for me.

Looks like part of your last response got cut off..??

Yep, see above ??

It is ok to have both, but it’s sort of redundant if those are the only two gateways you have enabled. If you just enable Express Checkout alone it’ll skip the checkout page altogether for a quicker checkout experience.

With both of them enabled then the checkout page comes into play, but the Express Checkout button at the top of it would again skip it anyway. If they were to go ahead and fill out the whole form and then choose PayPal at the bottom that would really just be wasted time for them (and could result in lost sales if they don’t feel like doing it).

My recommendation if you’re using PayPal only would be to setup Express Checkout and disable the other one.

Technically, though, it really doesn’t matter. It will function fine.

Ok, thank you for the clarification.