Your API certificate needs renewal

[Buythatcard]

I have received the following eMail several times over the past few months.  It claims that I need to renew my API certificate.  I tried to follow instructions but they don't match the current layout of my account.  So, I am not able to update the API certificate.  Does this eMail sound legit?  If so, why wouldn't they lay out the correct directions?

The API certificate associated with your PayPal Business or Premier account,  will expire on Mar 10, 2020. To avoid service disruption to your PayPal API integration, we recommend renewing your API certificate before the expiration date. Here's how:

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Profile near the top of the page.
3. Click My selling tools.
4. Under "Selling online," click Update beside "API access."
5. Click View API Certificate.
6. Click Renew Certificate.
7. Under the certificate marked "Active", click Download Certificate.

[vhtgcr]

I know this is an old post but i thought i'd share my enlightening experiences here since there is no solution posted yet (in the end it still wont make any sense...) 😉

When entering "manage API credentials" (2nd last step in the email) you will see all the certificates you ever created in a list. At least in my account i saw more than one certificate there since some old expired certificates were still ghosting around also. Now to mysteriously make the "renew certificate" button appear i removed all the old expired certificates... as i said, this does not make sense but after doing that i could renew my certificate. maybe the same thing can happen to other people too?

...i heard chances are even greater to make the "renew" button appear when shouting the word "paypal" 3 times in a row for every certificate that is beeing removed (works best on full moon nights...).

good luck!

[MoeLaneIII]

Thank you, vhtgcr. That solved my problem, and bless you for it.

[ramonolivencia]

This is the most annoying email message that I get from any company or person. When I try to follow the steps listed, the instructions do not correspond to what I see on my screen. I have been getting this email now for almost 2 years, it is soo annoying! I have contacted PayPal via email but, repeatedly, they keep sending the instructions that, when I try to follow them, do not correspond to what I see on the screen. I have wasted so much time on this stupidity that it makes me angry!

[Igor9]

I have two active API certificates, how do I know what certificate to remove to renew to renew the one in use?

[Igor9]

I use FoxyCart as payment processor.