Paypal not showing the custom field

[sudi00]

HI, 

For some reason Paypal has stopped showing the custom field that we populate from our end. We collection donations using a gravity form + PayPal Standard Add-On form. In that gravity-form populates a custom field which is then sent back in the PayPal IPN and is used to cross check for potential spoofing. But since last the 20 days the custom field is not showing up in Paypal donation records and it shows up as empty in PayPal IPNs. As a result our backend gravity-form based donation confirmation is failing. Right now the PayPal IPN looks like this for example:

mc_gross=1.00&protection_eligibility=Ineligible&payer_id=ZNRUYB753B8QG&payment_date=14:34:15 Apr 30, 2019 PDT&payment_status=Completed&charset=windows-1252&first_name=Sudipta&mc_fee=0.32&notify_version=3.9&custom=&payer_status=verified&business=&quantity=1&verify_sign=ApW0719V.01-J90oQDmgwc8nssTuACuJnlofDO9xezXRp-OmIFugkEf4&payer_email=<removed>&txn_id=9L557465MY417450F&payment_type=instant&last_name=<removed>&receiver_email=<removed> &payment_fee=0.32&shipping_discount=0.00&receiver_id=FGBPPUGPKMMSU&insurance_amount=0.00&txn_type=web_accept&item_name=&discount=0.00&mc_currency=USD&item_number=&residence_country=US&shipping_method=Default&transaction_subject=985|d37fa480b5397f4d4ca12777b5a6762e&payment_gross=1.00&ipn_track_id=2626e99b22e75

I also tried changing the Paypal Button Language encoding to UTF-8 but its not helping. The relevant piece of code that supplies custom_field to Paypal is as follows:

$url .= "?notify_url={$ipn_url}&charset=UTF-8&currency_code={$currency}&business={$business_email}&custom={$custom_field}{$invoice}{$customer_fields}{$image_url}{$cancel_url}{$disable_note}{$disable_shipping}{$return_url}"

[Trailforks]

We also starting having this problem starting April 30th, 2019. Transactions from the last 3 days are missing the "custom" field data. The data is still in the "memo" field, but normally it's in both.

This has been working for years for us, and just broke this week, we didn't change anything on our end. We use the Javascript PayPal button like

<script async="async" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/js/external/paypal-button.min.js?merchant=***"
        data-button="donate"
        data-name="***"
        data-quantity="1"
        data-amount-editable="***"
        data-currency="***"
        data-callback="***"
        data-return="***"
        data-item_number="***"
        data-custom="userid=***"
        data-size="large"
    ></script>

Not only is the custom field not being populated but the callback URL is also not being called so we aren't getting any IPN message to track the donations! 

[michaelshpi]

We have the same problem at our end. Contacted support and they didn't do anything.

[sudi00]

This really sucks!! 

Please let me know if you any of you folks find out a solution to this or hear back from Paypal about this. I am trying to reach Paypal too. 

At least I know I am not the only one. So this issue seems to be spreading. 

[juicy_gift_card]

We have had the exact same issue since April 30th. If this is not fixed ... we will have to find an alturnative to paypal .... otherwise we have no idea which intity the donation is supposed to go to.

[sudi00]

So, it seems this issue is spreading. I have contacted the Paypal merchant resolution center and have opened a ticket. Lets hope they get back and provide some solution. I will share here once I hear from them 

[juicy_gift_card]

After the custom field stopped working, we tried sending the custom data (JGCards-Amazon-To:{EMAIL}-Message:{MESSAGE}) via the other inputs ... just to see if we could pass the data we need to pass via one of the other fields .... no luck. None of the fields we tried showed up in the transaction details.

<div id='paymentForm' style="display:block;">
<form id='paypalform' action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_donations">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="paypal@*******.com">
<input type="hidden" name="lc" value="US">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name1" value="JGCards-Amazon-To:{EMAIL}-Message:{MESSAGE}">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="JGCards-Amazon-To:{EMAIL}-Message:{MESSAGE}">
<input type="hidden" name="custom" value="JGCards-Amazon-To:{EMAIL}-Message:{MESSAGE}">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="JGCards-Amazon-To:{EMAIL}-Message:{MESSAGE}">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="{AMOUNT}">
<input type="hidden" name="currency" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="cn" value="Guest">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="custom" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.*******.com">
<input type="hidden" name="cbt" value="return to *******">

<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-DonationsBF:logo3w.png:NonHosted">
<input type="image" src="images/checkout.png" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">

[bakoelod · Accepted solution]

Temporary FIX:

- send custom data via "custom" param.

- in the IPN they send "custom" field data in "transaction_subject".

Waiting for answer from a PayPal stuff.

[sudi00]

Thanks @bakoelod  your solution works. Thanks a bunch. 

[Trailforks]

@bakoelod your solution doesn't work for us since we are also not getting any IPN messages. Along with the "custom" field not being saved on a transaction, the order details "name" and "callback" url are also not being saved or read.

I can see in our IPN history that no messages have been sent in the last 4 days since this problem started.

https://www.paypal.com/ie/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-ipns-history&nav=0.3.2