A Shopify merchant is experiencing issues with PayPal Express Checkout showing as “pending” despite completing setup. PayPal cannot locate the transaction on their end after 6 days.
Root cause identified:
The pending reason shows as “unilateral,” meaning payment was sent to an unregistered or unverified email address. This typically occurs when:
Recommended solutions:
Another user reported the same problem despite having a verified email. One commenter suggested switching to WallidPay as an alternative payment gateway. The issue remains unresolved for multiple merchants.
Hello all,
So, my website is fairly new & I haven’t ever accepted a payment through PayPal before. It currently says that PayPal Express is currently pending. I setup everything needed within PayPal, but it still says this. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi there, @Puffala !
Thank you for your post, I’m happy to look into this with you. Would you happen to have a screenshot of where it says pending? Is the account itself pending, or is a payment you received through PayPal pending?
I look forward to helping you out!
Hey! I am having this issue too and cannot find any way to resolve it. I’ve talked to Shopify and PayPal customer service and they both just keep telling me to talk to the other..
It says pending on Shopify, but no trace of it in PayPal. PayPal can’t even find the transaction on their end. It’s been 6 days
Hi, @aldestoboutique !
Thank you for getting in touch, and I’m sorry to hear you’re getting conflicting information.
If PayPal does not have a record of your payment, a different issue could’ve occurred. The payment may be in a pending state if the payment went to a different email address than you intended. For example, if you opened your Shopify account with a different email address (but changed the email at a later date) we would have added the original email automatically for PayPal. The workaround is to add the original email to your current Paypal account in order for the funds to be received properly, and you can find out the steps to do that in PayPal’s help document.
If that doesn’t resolve the issue, just let me know and I can look into other troubleshooting steps. Cheers!
I’ve already done all of this. Many times over and nothing is working and
nobody at Shopify or PayPal will take accountability and fix the damn
problem.
I do apologize for having you repeat steps, I’m unable to access your ticket history with our support team so I don’t know what you’ve already tried.
I would like you to check one other thing while we’re here — if you open the order and expand the details at the bottom of the page, can you tell me what is listed under Pending reason? I have some screenshots here which shows you where to find that information:
I look forward to assisting you further.
Thanks so much for those screenshots, @aldestoboutique !
I was looking through Shopify and PayPal’s resources, and I found that when the pending reason is “unilateral” (as is shown in your screenshot), it means the payment was made to an email address that is not yet registered or confirmed. You can read more about PayPal’s transaction and notification related variables on their website.
PayPal has their own security measures in place to protect buyers and sellers, and one of those measures is not releasing funds to accounts that do not have a verified email address. Sometimes when an order is processed through Shopify before the PayPal account is verified, the order is “stuck” in a pending state in Shopify even if payment was received by the merchant.
You’ll first want to confirm which PayPal account is connected by logging into your Shopify admin and navigating to Settings > Payments > PayPal > Manage. You’ll then want to follow one of the below steps depending on whether the correct account is listed:
If the account IS NOT correct:
Take note of the email address used for the incorrect account, then update your account information to the PayPal account you want to use.
Reach out to PayPal’s Support team for help getting your payout.
If the account IS correct:
I know you’ve contacted PayPal previously, but if you need to get in touch with them again, you can share the screenshots you posted above and they can look up the transaction numbers in their system.
Once you’ve confirmed you’ve received the payout, you can mark the order as paid within your admin! You shouldn’t have any more problems going forward.
I hope this helps — please let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi Greta, I am also facing simil ar issue.
Email is correct, verified.
Please let me know what else can I do?
Hi there,
If your PayPal Express Checkout is still showing as “pending” despite completing the setup, it may be due to one of the following:
Your PayPal account may still be under review or not fully verified
Shopify might not have received confirmation from PayPal to activate the gateway
There could be a configuration issue in the API settings
You can try reaching out to both PayPal support and Shopify support to confirm the status — but if you’re looking for a faster and more reliable alternative, especially for newer stores, I recommend WallidPay [https://apps.shopify.com/wallidpay\](https://apps.shopify.com/wallidpay\)
WallidPay offers:
Instant bank-to-bank checkout without the delays and limitations of PayPal
Full Shopify compatibility
Quick onboarding with no lengthy verifications
Ideal for new stores and high-risk industries
It’s a great way to accept payments confidently from day one.
