Pending Donations Issue

HI there,

Here’s our docs on this issue:
https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/paypal-standard/faq/#pending-status

There’s a lot of reasons why that might happen, but that doc should give you the best headstart. Review that and if you have additional questions let me know specifically what you’ve tried and what your current setup is like in general in terms of items that are relevant to this issue.

Thanks!

Hi Matt–thanks for the reply. Yeah I read that FAQ a few days ago, but it did not sort out my problem.

I just did test donation to myself, and I can see the page after I complete the transaction on PayPal that asks me to return to the website. Before doing so, I checked in the donations section of my WordPress dashboard, and could indeed see a pending transaction. Makes sense, as this appeared to be the issue. I clicked the button to take me back to the website, and it does…I wait 8 seconds for the transaction to process. I then check the pending status, and it is still pending.

I then check my PayPal, and I can see that my $5 test donation “hasn’t been accepted yet.”

So again, I do not think this issue is with the folks making the donation, or clicking back to the website. It seems related to something in the plugin?

Thanks for the assistance in this. If I got you a login to the site, do you mind taking a look?

I’m really hoping to get some support on this, even if I could get a developer access to the dashboard. I’m really liking what I see with this plugin, but it simply is not working as it seems to be intended. It’s probably something very simple, although the issue does not appear to be in the FAQ section of the help.

Thank you! Fingers crossed as I’d love to continue using this plugin.

Still having the same issues. Please let me know if there’s something I can do such as grant access to a developer.

Thank you!

Apologies for the delayed response. Please also check this troubleshooting doc. The IPN is how PayPal communicates with your website, and this might be the trouble you are facing:
https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/paypal-standard/troubleshooting-ipn-issues/

Hi Matt,

It seems that link is now outdated as I’m not seeing those options it discusses in my PayPal account. I did read, however, that Give does not work well with SSL Certificates? Could that be my issue?

Otherwise, perhaps I need to use a business account, but I don’t think we’re ready for a business account just yet.

Um… that’s completely false. The opposite is true. Give requires that you have a valid SSL certificate in order to communicate effectively with your payment gateway. Can you please provide a link to where you read Give doesn’t work well with SSL certificates?

My hunch is that this is related to settings in your PayPal account. Can you confirm what your PayPal IPN is exactly? Otherwise, perhaps you have security plugins that are preventing PayPal from communicating effectively with your website.

Please provide me as much context as you can, if you can paste your System Info here that would be helpful too (Donations > Tools > System Info).

Thanks!

In that most recent link you sent me:

“There are many things in a typical WordPress website that might prevent the IPN from being processed properly. Here are a few of the most common ones:

Your site not being on HTTP (meaning using an SSL certificate and forcing all traffic to happen over HTTPS).”

Perhaps I read that backwards, but that site seems to make it sound as though an SSL certificate would interfere which I agree seems odd and confusing.

Hope this helps!

I see… I can see exactly why that could be easily misunderstood, I think we worded that really badly. I’ll update that.

Look into those other items and give me more context and we’ll see where we go from there next. Thanks!

I am having two problems and don’t know how to search for the answer.
1. All donations are showing pending. This is the donations notes for one of them System – November 11, 2018, 2:23 am
Payment was sent to non-confirmed or non-registered email address. – Delete

System – November 11, 2018, 2:23 am
IPN received on 11/11/2018 at 02:23 – Delete

2. When a repeat donor visits the site, it says email already exists. How do I correct this?

Hi there, please read on our docs on common causes for PayPal Pending statuses:
https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/paypal-standard/faq/#pending-status

Regarding the email already exists notice, are you requiring a login or registration on your forms? Can you provide a link to your form so we can see it live?

Hi Matt,

I spent a good deal of time looking at documentation and forums before submitting the question. I am unsure of how I fixed the problem, but it is corrected. It that updates to GIVE create problems with my donations. I now know to test a donation after an update.

Genrally speaking, our updates will not cause problems with your donations. If problems arise, it is most likely a conflict with another plugin or your theme, or potentially how your web host handles sessions or caching in one form or another. If we have actionable steps to replicate the problem we are more than happy to continue providing free support to help you resolve the matter. Thanks!