Why is my PayPal Express Checkout payment still pending?

[Spirit]

Hello, I have a pending payment from PayPal express payment that still hasn't cleared and it has been 5 days. What can I do to receive payment? I've checked Paypal and Shopify and see no actions for me to take.

[QuitaB]

I have the same question.  Were you able to figure it out?

[Spirit]

Not yet unfortunately. It's so strange, even tried creating another Paypal account to accept it. 

[Crooks]

I’m struggling with the same issue. 5 days now and still no change in the status:(

[drac]

I am in the same boat.  Does anyone know how to resolve this?

[TheLillyLook]

Also in dire need of help on this problem 

[amritkundan]

Hello has anyone figured this out yet... how long does it take? Should I fulfill the order?

[ChrisC33]

Same problem here. I contacted Paypal and the have no payment information received.

[izharul]

I have exactly the same problem. On my paypal dashboard there's no record of that payment. Only on shopify it says "payment pending" on paypal express checkout. 

[BraviosUSA]

Same issue here. This is critical. How do we get Shopify attention/help?

[DaveThomas]

 I sorted this issue as follows:

I had accepted my first order via Paypal without setting it up on my Shopify site.

Got an email saying so from Paypal, so i opened up an account with matching email address to the site.

Still the funds didn't arrive.

Solution: in my Settings, i deactivated my Paypal connection with Shopify, then reactivated it immediately.

Logged back into Paypal, and there was the money! Sorted.

[got2bphenomenal]

Contacted 2 times Shopify Support. Spent too much time useless . They told me in the end to try with Paypal.  🙂

[rider99 · Accepted solution]

Not sure if this will work for others. I had the same problem and managed to solve it.

My store is new and got my first sale via paypal and it was marked as payment pending. Was like this for a day.

Did some research, found that email conflicts within Paypal could be an issue.

I have one email I use to log into Shopify and a different email for Paypal. 

I logged into my Paypal, added/linked the email address I use to log into Shopify. I then made it my primary email on Paypal.

I went back into Shopify, deactivated my paypal and then reactivated using the new primary email (same email I log into Shopify).

'Payment Pending' disappeared and the money then instantly showed up in my paypal.

Hope this helps someone

[wrldguy]

Hey! I just followed your advice. Had the same exact issue since I was using a different email than my Shopify one to accept Paypal payments. I made a fresh account just for my shopify store and deactivated the old one and activated the new one. How long did it take after activating the new account for the payment to change from "pending"? 

Thanks for the advice!

[yarncircus]

Just wanted to come on here are say the solution that rider99 gave helped me!

I, too, use a personal email for my paypal account. I added my store email to my paypal account, i did not have to change it to primary, and automatically I received an email that Paypal Express checkout works. Hope it helps someone too!

[wrldguy]

@yarncircus 

I made a new business paypal account 2 days ago using my store email and linked it via payments section in shopify but payments are still pending. Dont know why it is taking so long.

EDIT: For those who have the same issue I realized my account with Paypal had not been confirmed since the confirmation email went to the spam box. 
Make sure paypal email is the same as shopify account email and make sure to confirm your Paypal account! This will definitely work!

[LuxLeafTea]

I had the exact same issue.  I created a business paypal account with the same email that I used to set up the Shopify store.  From there you go to paypal, click profile settings, click update on the email portion, click send confirmation email for that specific email address.  Go to your email and confirm the email address for paypal.  Then, go to shopify, make sure that email for that paypal is the email you used for the express checkout.  If it is not, disable it, re-enable it, and make sure you use the paypal you just set up.  I had this exact issue for a while and it turns out I was using a private paypal that wasn't the same email I used for the shopify store; once I fixed those problems I did not confirm the email.  After I did all of those things the pending  payments were immediately processed. 

[Liubov]

It functioned perfect for me!

[prettygirlkami]

Did you have to choose a way to integrate Paypal to you Shopify page?

[Makyla]

Thank you so much this worked for me 🙂

[mullan82]

👍100% fixed the issue for me. 

thank you RIDER99

all I did was go to my PayPal account & add the email I use for my shopify account and INSTANTLY the money became available in my PayPal!

[sbanks]

rider99 that fixed my problem and your instructions are very clear to follow. Thank you!

[claudia55]

I was just looking up how to fix this today.

Can confirm that rider99's suggestion works. Adding Shopify registered email address as a confirmed email address on your Paypal account fixes the problem immediately.

Login to Paypal and go to Account Settings > Account Owner Information > Email addresses. Add your Shopify-registered address here and confirm it.

Hope this helps someone else!

[mollythepanda]

I tried rider99's solution and it's still showing the error "A $X USD payment is pending on PayPal Express Checkout." I had a different PayPal email from my store account. I linked the store account email to my PayPal, I tried deactivating and reactivating 2x and it's still not working. Any other solutions? It says it'll be refunded after 29 days. Today is day 28.

[Maraa]

I just opened my account and I’m having the same problem my email for pay pal and Shopify are the same and I tired Removing it and changing the email several times but I still can’t fix the problem 

[Winealot]

I am having this same issue. I had not set up my paypal account prior to the sale but I did immediately after notification so the email addresses are the same for both shopify and paypal. I contacted Shopify who said I needed to contact Paypal. I contacted Paypal who said to contact Shopify. I have been going in circles for 3 hours now! What can I do? I know I shouldn't fulfill the order without payment but I don't know what to do or how to fix it. My shop is brand new and I don't want to upset anyone.

[ajasoul]

Thank you so much. This worked just as you said.

[RoseNeedsHelp]

Thank you so much!!!

This totally works. It works the other way too - i had to change my shopify email address to match my paypal business one. 

For those whom this hasn't worked make sure you receive confirmation emails and confirm all of these. You WILL also need to deactivate and reactive the paypal setting in the customer payment section of settings. 

[laboutiquejewel]

Adding my Shopify email address as secondary on my PayPal account unblocked this annoying problem.  Tech support from both Shopify and PayPal on this were of no help.

[Khryssy88]

I did this !! I’ve followed every step and confirmed every email. Still nothing. I’ve cried multiple times today over this. Somebody please help me please. Shopify not PayPal have no clue. They are blaming eachother for this. I just want my customers to receive their items. It’s been weeks now 😢😢

[jellanne]

Guys! Not sure if this can help but try to unlink your Google account at <General> on Shopify. I was first so confused like some of you did as well cuz I literally followed the steps thousand times and not working at all. However, when I disconnected the Google account, the payment immediately went through. So I'm thinking this might be one of the factors causing the pending cuz of using a third-party logging into your Shopify account.

Really hope this can help!!!!!

[Allee]

I'm not seeing this option to unlink a Google account. Can you specify where that is under "General"? Thank you!

[jellanne]

Click your profile name on the top right corner > manage account > general > login service. Hope this helps!

[Allee]

Thank you! I see that now. Unfortunately, I don't have anything connected
here, so that can't be it. Thanks for the help!

[tashadd]

I am so glad that I found this. I’ve had money pending for a week. I tried this method and my money appeared in my PayPal account. Thank you! 

[shopaspen78]

Make sure you're verifying your Paypal account email! After I did this and updated other stuff on my PayPal all of the orders instantly showed up in my PayPal account!

[WallStBullies]

Thanks rider99! Great tip!

[MonikaBo]

That worked for me, thank you!

[Brian_]

YES!! This solved my issue as well!

Thank You!

[kittybombcurios]

Just tried this and it didn't work 😞 Dang, I was excited!

[PLT3]

It didnt work for mine 😞 05/04/21

[GMMG]

This worked for me! Thanks!

[BJ_Johnson]

So I've had this issue for a couple of days. I went back and found the original email that I received when I created my PayPal business account, the one email in which I needed to click to confirm my account/email address. Once I clicked that button in the email, everything immediately popped up on my PayPal. Now have other issues that PayPal won't release money until it's shipped, but fixed the one issue. 

[mindyloverin]

This worked for me too!  Thank you, it was driving me nuts.

[IndigoIntuitive]

This worked immediately for me!  Thank you!

[Marramtrading]

This was super helpful, thank you! It fixed my problem with pending Paypal payments 

[Timp1985]

Hi all,

If you ever get this be sure to log In to your PayPal account. It is likely they have limited the account from receiving payments. To rectify you need to fill in some additional info on the platform.

Sadly this issue has cost me money (refunds) and I am furious I had to discover the solution the hard way.

Best of luck

Tim

[sydneynorwood]

This worked for me! Thank you!

[morulamelo]

In my case I had not confirmed my email address on PayPal but once that was done, I received the payment.

[AlisonI]

Thank you so much for this information, it cleared the pending payment straight away.  So so helpful , thank u