I've accepted my customer's payment but his order is still payment pending

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Order paid via PayPal Express Checkout shows as “payment pending” in Shopify despite being accepted in PayPal. The store owner is in Brazil with a BRL-based PayPal account and sells to the US in USD.

Because new PayPal seller accounts can’t add currencies, payments in non-installed currencies must be manually accepted in PayPal. The seller did this; PayPal shows the transaction as complete, but Shopify still prompts to “accept payment.”

Attempts to resolve included: manual capture on the Shopify order page and disconnecting/reconnecting PayPal in Shopify. None worked. Shopify currently blocks fulfillment until it recognizes the payment.

Notably, a prior order from the same customer using the same method processed correctly, suggesting an intermittent or integration-specific issue rather than configuration alone.

Key questions remain open: whether the mismatch is due to Shopify’s order status sync, PayPal currency handling for new accounts, or a PayPal–Shopify integration issue. No resolution or official guidance yet; the poster is seeking solutions urgently.

Summarized with AI on December 30. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hey guys! Hope you all are doing well.

I recently created my Shopify store and just sold my 3rd product yesterday (04/30/2024).

My customer chose to pay with PayPal Express Checkout.

Since I live in Brazil and my PayPal account is from here, the main currency is set to brazilian real (I can’t change it, nor add new currencies because I’m a new seller account). And since I only sell on USA, I had to accept the payment manually directly on PayPal (I think you guys already know this, but when you receive a payment with a currency that is not “installed” in your PayPal wallet, you’ve to accept it).

The thing is: the transaction on PayPal is all good, but Shopify doesn’t recognize it. It says that I need to accept but I’ve already accepted.

I already tried to manually capture payment directly on Orders page in Shopify. Doesn’t work.

I tried to deactivate and activate PayPal on my Shopify store. Doesn’t work also.

I don’t know if it’s a problem with Shopify, PayPal, the integration between them, but I need to solve this ASAP.

Shopify won’t let me fulfill the customer’s order if he doesn’t acknowledge the payment.

Does anyone of you guys know the solution to this, or have any suggestions on how I may proceed?

Thanks in advance!

PS.: this 3rd order was from the same customer of my 2nd order, he used the same payment method and the process was all the same. I don’t know why this time is giving me a headache.