Paypal Sandbox Do Direct Payment Internal Error 10001 Timeout Processing Request

Question

This is in an MVC2 project, so I'm using C# in ASP. This is what I'm sending to https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp:

VERSION = 65.0
SIGNATURE = AFcWxV21C7fd0v3bYYYRCpSSRl31AxdW2pQp.tWHTjGNcHflR-LJhJ0t
USER = seller_1283487740_biz_api1.gmail.com
PWD = 1283487748
AMOUNT = 50.00
CREDITCARDTYPE = Visa
ACCT = 4031477440127509
EXPDATE = 12/2015
CVV2 =123
IPADDRESS = 127.0.0.1
METHOD = DoDirectPayment

I can GetBalance, I can produce other errors when I intentionally send something wrong, but DoDirectPayment or DoAuthorization returns this:

TIMESTAMP = 2010-12-24T03:35:10Z
CORRELATIONID = 2ca329fdbe3c0
ACK = Failure
L_ERRORCODE0 = 10001
L_SHORTMESSAGE0 = Internal Error
L_LONGMESSAGE0 = Timeout processing request

Why Am I getting this error?

Solution 1

Yeah, I'm getting the same thing. I tested my code on their production URL and it worked just fine.

Given how much they are focused on developers, it's amazing how horrible their API is. I can get points and follow other people on their little social network, x.com, but I CAN'T TELL WHAT THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE API IS!?! (You have to view the source of the webpage and find it embedded in an HTML comment) </rant>

Solution 2

From what I've read around, this can be a sign of malformed data. In my case, I was sending the form as

multipart/form-data

instead of

application/x-www-form-urlencoded

I hadn't read anywhere in the docs about form encoding, but as soon as I changed it the PP server got a lot more friendly.

Solution 3

I believe its Pay Pals defence againest attacks. Theres certain procedures that action in the code

Comments

[Adam]

I eventually got it worked out with Paypal, and found out there IS a bug with their sandbox environment. It only makes working accounts with Payments Pro activated properly about a third of the time. Paypal support worked with me, and we simply kept making new accounts until we got one that worked. I could go into a rant as well about how messed up of a solution that is, but I was just happy to get it working.

[rmoore]

Thanks Adam, was tearing out my hair trying to get it working on the sandbox. Also, I can't believe stuff like this is still an issue.

[Constantin]

yeah here the same, with multipart/form-data i had "10001 - Internal server error" as response from paypal, but as soon i switched to application/x-www-form-urlencoded it was ACK = Success :)

[mikermcneil]

I was having this problem w/ MassPay, and this was the solution that resolved my problem (however it gave way to The%20user%20account%20needs%20to%20have%20its%20sending%20l‌​imit%20removed%20in%‌​20order%20to%20make%‌​20a%20mass%20payment‌​%2e)

[dAngelov]

Thanks! This finally did it for me.