A payment gateway is essential for processing transactions in your online store, ensuring payments are securely handled between your customers and your business. When a gateway isn’t functioning properly, it can disrupt sales and lead to frustration. This guide covers key troubleshooting steps to help resolve common payment gateway issues in your WooCommerce shop. SkyVerge provides several WooCommerce gateway plugins, and we’ve included links to the plugin documentation for common gateway errors and solutions.
SkyVerge provides a range WooCommerce payment gateway plugins, including:
- Authorize.net
- Bambora
- Chase Paymentech
- Elavon Converge
- Global Payments HPP
- Ignenico
- Intuit Payments
- Moneris
Make Sure That Key Plugins Are Up-to-date
- Check that the gateway plugin is up-to-date. For plugins that were purchased from the WooCommerce Marketplace, make sure that your site is connected to WooCommerce to view and update these plugins.
- Verify that WooCommerce is updated to the current version.
Setting Up and Verifying Your Payment Gateway Plugin
Properly setting up your payment gateway plugin is essential for smooth transactions. Start by ensuring all configuration fields have been filled according to the plugin’s documentation. Most gateways require an account ID and a secret key or password, though some may have additional configuration fields.
If your gateway offers a sandbox mode, take advantage of it to test transactions before going live. Keep in mind that sandbox and production environments use separate credentials and accounts, so double-check that you’re entering the right details for the mode you’re configuring.
Additionally, review any necessary merchant account settings. Some features—like tokenization or multi-currency support—may require activation on your payment provider’s dashboard before they work in WooCommerce.
Reviewing WooCommerce Order Notes for Errors
WooCommerce Order Notes can provide valuable insight into payment gateway issues. These notes, found within each order, track payment processing events and status changes. If a transaction fails, the error message logged here can help pinpoint the cause.
- Errors related to authentication failures or invalid credentials often indicate a misconfiguration. If you encounter these, direct users to the payment gateway’s setup documentation and recommend they carefully review the setup steps. In some cases, payment processors may unexpectedly invalidate credentials, requiring merchants to generate a new API key, PIN, or secret key. Asking them to regenerate their credentials and update them in the gateway settings can often resolve the issue.
- Errors related to invalid parameters, such as a phone number, address, or email, usually indicate an issue with the billing details provided during checkout. If the information appears correct, try entering the same billing address on a test order to see if the error persists. This can help determine whether the issue is with the specific customer’s input or a broader configuration problem.
- Errors mentioning that a required parameter is missing likely indicate that the merchant account has been configured to require certain elements our plugin may not be able to send with the transaction.
- Some errors appear frequently enough that they are mentioned in the documentation of the plugin. Checking this resource can often provide a quick solution. In other cases, merchants may have used a checkout editor plugin to remove fields required by their payment processor, causing transaction failures. If a required field is missing, review the checkout settings and compare them with the gateway’s requirements. If the issue remains unclear, searching the payment processor’s developer documentation for required API parameters can help identify what’s missing.
Enable logging and reviews
Most payment gateway plugins include an option to enable logging, which records detailed error messages and codes when transactions fail. These logs are often the most reliable way to pinpoint the source of an issue.
If your plugin supports logging, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments and open your gateway’s settings. Look for an option to enable logging—many plugins label this as Debug Mode, which should be set to Save to Log.
Once logging is enabled, attempt a test transaction. Then, go to WooCommerce > Status > Logs and locate the log file for your payment gateway. These logs can contain a large amount of data, but searching for keywords like error, failed, or invalid can help you quickly find relevant details.
If an error code appears, a quick search using the plugin name and error code can often lead you to the payment provider’s documentation, where you’ll find explanations and potential solutions. Checking these logs first can save time and provide a clearer path to resolving gateway issues.
Rule Out Conflicts
- Disable any caching, optimization, and security plugins or server-side settings (some hosting providers also have settings for these separate from a WordPress plugin).
- Rule out a theme conflict by changing to a default theme
- Finally, you will want to try a conflict test.
Fatal Error Logs or WordPress Debug Logs
In some cases, issues are related to PHP errors, and recognizing these patterns will help you troubleshoot more effectively. Symptoms of a fatal error often include a payment that may or may not go through, an unexpected error message replacing the usual “An error occurred…” message, and the absence of the Thank You page after a transaction.
Start by checking the fatal error reports in WooCommerce under WooCommerce > Status > Logs. However, keep in mind that not all errors are fatal, and not all fatal errors will appear in WooCommerce logs. If you don’t find enough details there, the next step is to enable WordPress debug logging to capture more information.
