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asp.net-mvcpaypalpaypal-ipn

PayPal not redirecting to the IPN notify_url in an MVC system

I am using IPN to receive payment notifications in an MVC system I'm working on. After verifying certain bits and pieces, I proceed to update the database with the "subscription" and "payment details" for the particular user. I am using "notify_url" to redirect back to the system and initiate the PaymentNotification method. This was working correctly up until a few days ago, when it all of a sudden just stopped working. First I thought that the database was not being updated due to an issue within the method itself, but then I noticed that the PaymentNotification (IPN) method was not being hit at all.

Some notes:

  1. A test from the paypal developer's page seemed to redirect correctly into the IPN. Calling the link directly from the browser hits the method also, so it seems to be externally accessible.
  2. I am using NGROK to make the localhost look like it's running from a live domain. It does not work with either HTTP or HTTPS. I am also testing on a hosted environment, with sandbox configuration, within an HTTP domain, and it is not working either.
  3. I am debugging the hidden values in the validation form, right before redirecting to Paypal and all the values, including: notify_url are correctly populated. This was working but suddenly stopped.

Some questions:

  • What could be the reason? Why would it work all throughout the development stages but suddenly stop working? Of course, I can't afford to have this stop working on the live environment!
  • Is this perhaps an issue with the sandbox environment? Is IPN safe for Live systems? Can someone talk from experience?
  • Or is there perhaps a better option I can look into?
  • I read this article, which discusses verifying/activating the email address of the sandbox account. Can anyone indicate what that might be? And whether the same email addresses being used could have been working but suddenly stopped? Do they need to be real emails? As the ones that I was using (and were also working) are not tied to real paypal accounts.
Solution

  • As suggested in the comment, even just for testing Paypal in Sandbox mode, since September 2016, TLS 1.2 is required for PayPal IPN processing. In my case, changing the Sandbox testing business and personal emails to real / valid emails, solved my issue with regards to testing locally using NGROK as a secure tunnel to Local host. More so, this should not be a problem when I actually use the HTTPS certificate.