PayPal Guest Payments not completing

Recently any payment where the customer uses PayPal guest checkout (not signing into their PayPal account) fail. On my end it says Pending Payment.

This kind of thing is usually caused by PayPal IPN issues. However, usually it works or it doesn’t – it’s odd that it’s not working for guest accounts. Can you confirm that the order status is processing or completed for non-guest checkouts?

I recommend working through these troubleshooting steps for IPN:
https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/paypal-standard/#section-21

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for your reply.

For PayPal non guest the order status goes to processing and I can see the payment reference. For PayPal guests the status is pending payment. I have tried doing an order using PayPal guest as well as a colleague and both times the payments fail.

Thanks for confirming!

Could you please share a copy of your site’s System Status? You can find it via WooCommerce > Status.
Select “Get system report” and then “Copy for support”.? Once you’ve done that, paste it here in your response.

I’d like to know exactly which PayPal plugin you’re using, as well as what else is happening on the site.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Hannah S.L..

Hi Hannah,

Please see details below. I am not using a separate PayPal app other than the module built into Woocommerce.
### WordPress Environment ###

Home URL: https://www.mywebsite.co.uk
Site URL: https://www.mywebsite.co.uk/shop
WC Version: 3.4.5
Log Directory Writable: ?
WP Version: 4.9.8
WP Multisite: –
WP Memory Limit: 256 MB
WP Debug Mode: –
WP Cron: ?
Language: en_GB
External object cache: –

### Server Environment ###

Server Info: LiteSpeed
PHP Version: 5.6.37 – We recommend using PHP version 7.2 or above for greater performance and security. How to update your PHP version
PHP Post Max Size: 256 MB
PHP Time Limit: 3600
PHP Max Input Vars: 1000
cURL Version: 7.61.0
OpenSSL/1.0.2o

SUHOSIN Installed: –
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Max Upload Size: 128 MB
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fsockopen/cURL: ?
SoapClient: ?
DOMDocument: ?
GZip: ?
Multibyte String: ?
Remote Post: ?
Remote Get: ?

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WC Database Prefix: wp_
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### Post Type Counts ###

attachment: 311
customize_changeset: 5
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nav_menu_item: 6
page: 17
post: 4
product: 112
product_variation: 233
revision: 8
shop_coupon: 1
shop_order: 824
shop_order_refund: 8

### Security ###

Secure connection (HTTPS): ?
Hide errors from visitors: ?

### Active Plugins (15) ###

LayerSlider WP: by Kreatura Media – 4.6.0
BackWPup: by Inpsyde GmbH – 3.6.0
iThemes Security: by iThemes – 7.1.0
Google Analyticator: by SumoMe – 6.5.4
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WooCommerce Facebook Like Share Button: by Terry Tsang – 2.2.4 – Not tested with the active version of WooCommerce
WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration: by WooCommerce – 1.4.4 – Not tested with the active version of WooCommerce
WooCommerce: by Automattic – 3.4.5
Yoast SEO: by Team Yoast – 8.1
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API Enabled: ?
Force SSL: ?
Currency: GBP (￡)
Currency Position: left
Thousand Separator: ,
Decimal Separator: .
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Taxonomies: Product Types: external (external)
grouped (grouped)
simple (simple)
variable (variable)

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featured (featured)
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My account: #8 – /my-account/
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Name: Blanco
Version: 3.9
Author URL: https://8theme.com/
Child Theme: ? – If you are modifying WooCommerce on a parent theme that you did not build
personally we recommend using a child theme. See: How to create a child theme

WooCommerce Support: ?

### Templates ###

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blanco/woocommerce/cart/cart.php
blanco/woocommerce/cart/cross-sells.php
blanco/woocommerce/cart/mini-cart.php
blanco/woocommerce/checkout/review-order.php
blanco/woocommerce/content-product.php
blanco/woocommerce/content-product_cat.php
blanco/woocommerce/content-single-product.php
blanco/woocommerce/global/breadcrumb.php
blanco/woocommerce/global/form-login.php
blanco/woocommerce/global/quantity-input.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/add-to-cart.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/no-products-found.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/pagination.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/rating.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/result-count.php
blanco/woocommerce/loop/sale-flash.php
blanco/woocommerce/myaccount/form-edit-account.php
blanco/woocommerce/myaccount/form-login.php
blanco/woocommerce/myaccount/my-orders.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/add-to-cart/simple.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/meta.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/price.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/product-image.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/related.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/review.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/sale-flash.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/short-description.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/tabs/additional-information.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/tabs/description.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/title.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product/up-sells.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product-reviews.php
blanco/woocommerce/single-product.php

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Hi @timmer81

If you navigate to WooCommerce > Status > Logs there should be PayPal listed in the drop-down there. By viewing the PayPal log you can search for the order number that was given the “Pending Payment” status and then see the details for why the transaction failed.

If there is no reason listed there, try switching back to a default theme like Twenty Seventeen and disabling all plugins except for WooCommerce to see if this resolves the issue.