Hi there,
Glad you reached out, I can help here!
There are a wide variety of reasons why you might struggle to get PayPal connected correctly. Some of those reasons we can solve and some are things that PayPal needs to solve, but I’m here to help you as completely as I possibly can.
The first thing you should do is confirm that you do not have GiveWP in “Test Mode.” If GiveWP is in test mode, it will attempt to connect to the PayPal sandbox instead of your live PayPal account. In live mode, GiveWP connects to your live PayPal account. You can disable test mode by going to Donations > Settings > Payment Gateways. We have an excellent step-by-step tutorial you can follow, found here: https://givewp.com/documentation/core/payment-gateways/paypal-donations/#connecting-and-testing-with-a-sandbox-account
Essentially, when you are test mode, you want to link your sandbox. But, when you are in live mode, you’ll want to connect your live account! It’s a little tricky, and Paypal doesn’t always make this very clear.
If you still have trouble connecting to PayPal, it’s possible something is cached in your browser. Some GiveWP users have had success by logging into their WordPress site in an incognito window and then connecting to PayPal there. After you make the connection incognito, you should be fine moving forward.
If neither of those two things gets you connected, then most likely there’s an issue with your PayPal account and we want to get you connected with PayPal directly to resolve it. This wouldn’t be something related to the login credentials, it would be something internal that they need to make an adjustment to. We created this intake form to give you more details about this problem and for you to get in touch with PayPal directly. Please make sure you complete the form as completely as possible: https://givewp.com/paypal-onboarding-reports/
The form on that page sends an email directly to PayPal, to a team that we have been told are aware of any issues, and can walk you thorough connecting. We’re here to help as much as we can, but ultimately they’ll have to help if none of the steps above resolve things.
As a last resort, if all else fails, I’d recommend using a different payment gateway, if possible. Where Paypal can be finicky, we’ve found that Stripe is much more user friendly. I know it isn’t always possible to exclude Paypal as an option, but I like to point GiveWP users in the direction of the best, and Stripe has been a game changer!
Let me know if you have any questions about this, I’m happy to help.
