Sandbox Paypal Standard - Things don't appear to be working at the moment. Please try again later.

[Merch1]

I'm using PayPal Standard with WooCommerce and have enabled the Sandbox for testing.

When placing an order from my website and proceed to PayPal the message is 'Things don't appear to be working at the moment. Please try again later.'

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/webapps/shoppingcart/error?flowlogging_id=944cefa954e41&code=GENERIC_...

In WooCommerce Settings/Payments/Paypal/Manage - I have set the API Credentials as shown in my Sandbox Accounts at https://developer.paypal.com/

Sandbox API username

Sandbox API password

Sandbox API signature

I have taken the above API credentials from the Business Account Profile and also used these profile details when placing the order on the website checkout: First Name, Last Name, Email ID, Password and Phone Number.

But it still returns the message when Proceed to PayPal that 'Things don't appear to be working at the moment. Please try again later.'

I have seen that my Primary Email address at:

https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/businessprofile/settings/email 

is showing as unconfirmed and when I click to confirm the email address it says check my emails to confirm but no email is received to be able to confirm this.
Could this be why the Sandbox is not working because my sandbox.paypal.com email address can't be confirmed?

[MTS_Jennifer · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Thank you for posting to the PayPal Merchant Technical Support Community.

If the email address for your Business Sandbox account is not confirmed you can receive the Generic Error that you have described.

The email for the Sandbox Account confirmation is typically sent to the Notifications in your developer dashboard.

If you log into https://developer.paypal.com click on log into dashboard, and then click on Notifications on the left you will see all Sandbox email notifications.

If you need it, here are the instructions for creating a new Business Sandbox Account.

Thank you,

Jennifer

PayPal

[Merch1]

That's great, problem is solved, thanks.

I hadn't linked the sandbox account to the developer account and so wasn't receiving the notifications. I was also checking the wrong inbox for my PayPal login and not the developer notifications in the dashboard. 

I had to go to https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/businessprofile/settings/email/edit/4SPXWE8Q3CX9Q and there was a message box to link the accounts but I must have skipped over this before and closed the message without linking the accounts. They are now linked, notification email received and the sandbox is all working OK with the website.