WHMCS 7.10.2 and PayPal issues

[Walther]

I'm using WHMCS 7.10.2 (no way to update: it's a  Owned "lifetime" license, and 7.10.2 is the last version I can use with my current license)

I'm using the standard PayPal as default gateway module (and also the PayPal Basic), and everything was running fine until 15/1 ...

After 15/1 something changed somewhere, and PayPal stopped working properly.
 

That's to say:

- the user is redirected on PayPal, he pays... but IPN is not transmitted back by WHMCS

- looking into PayPal webhook logs, I can find that every transaction  is "pending" with a FAIL_SOFT error

- in PayPal, the URL for the webhook is right  ( example.com/modules/gateways/callback/paypalwebhooks.php)

- no info available in WHMCS gateway log (last PayPal entry is 15/1 with "Subscription Payment: Success")

- I tried the IPN simulator of PayPal, and doing a call in WHMCS gateway Log I can find only a "IPN Handshake Invalid"

So, I need to insert into WHMCS manually every PayPal payment received... very annoying and time-consuming...

(Nothing changed in my WHMCS, and neither in server configuration, so I guess something changed about PayPal...)

PayPal support is completely useless, and WHMCS support about 

Is anyone experiencing the same issue?
What may have changed 15/1?

[edvancombr]

18 hours ago, Walther said:

I'm using WHMCS 7.10.2 (no way to update: it's a  Owned "lifetime" license, and 7.10.2 is the last version I can use with my current license)

I'm using the standard PayPal as default gateway module (and also the PayPal Basic), and everything was running fine until 15/1 ...

After 15/1 something changed somewhere, and PayPal stopped working properly.
 

That's to say:

- the user is redirected on PayPal, he pays... but IPN is not transmitted back by WHMCS

- looking into PayPal webhook logs, I can find that every transaction  is "pending" with a FAIL_SOFT error

- in PayPal, the URL for the webhook is right  ( example.com/modules/gateways/callback/paypalwebhooks.php)

- no info available in WHMCS gateway log (last PayPal entry is 15/1 with "Subscription Payment: Success")

- I tried the IPN simulator of PayPal, and doing a call in WHMCS gateway Log I can find only a "IPN Handshake Invalid"

So, I need to insert into WHMCS manually every PayPal payment received... very annoying and time-consuming...

(Nothing changed in my WHMCS, and neither in server configuration, so I guess something changed about PayPal...)

PayPal support is completely useless, and WHMCS support about 

Is anyone experiencing the same issue?
What may have changed 15/1?

https://docs.whmcs.com/PayPal_Basic#IPN_Handshake_Invalid
https://docs.whmcs.com/PayPal_Basic#Charset_Configuration

[slim]

How can you run a business on out-of-date software? While I disagree entirely with the way WHMCS (and other companies) have dealt with loyal lifetime license holders,  I cannot fathom attempting to run my business on out-of-date software (which also means running on out-of-date PHP etc)... As much as it might suck to pay them monthly, at least you get up-to-date code. The new PayPal module in the beta version is really good (so far)... This alone would be worth upgrading for.

[Walther]

19 hours ago, slim said:

How can you run a business on out-of-date software? While I disagree entirely with the way WHMCS (and other companies) have dealt with loyal lifetime license holders,  I cannot fathom attempting to run my business on out-of-date software 

I agree.
But I also checked all the "improvements" of WHMCS in its following history versions, and also the bugs introduced with the newer versions... and so it's very hard to state that newer WHMCS versions are "safer" than the one I'm currently using.

Even more: it's almost always possible to run safely also out-of-date software. It's more difficult, you need to create a safe environment, but it's possible (and I know many businesses much larger than mine running on much older software, and even on PHP 5.x ...)

 

[Walther]

On 26/01/2024 at 4:35 PM, edvancombr said:

https://docs.whmcs.com/PayPal_Basic#IPN_Handshake_Invalid
https://docs.whmcs.com/PayPal_Basic#Charset_Configuration

Thank you: but I already checked the charset, and it's ok ... so, sadly, it's not a charset error.
(BTW: I guess that "IPN Handshake Invalid" is a general error, that covers not only charset errors but also many other different errors... and in WHMCS they reported just the more common) 

Edited January 27 by Walther

[Walther]

Update: 

01/02/24 everything worked fine again (without any correction or any other operation)

02/02/24 - very same issue, but just for a few hours.

Now it seems everything is running fine again.

No one knows why it wasn't working, no one knows why now it's working again.

I guess there was some connectivity issue, but PayPal does not provide any tool to check connectivity, so it's impossible to analyze it.