Error #1. User authentication failed: PayPal – S2Member and PayPal Pro

If you’re getting this error when using S2Member to create a member profile, and credit cards seem to work fine but not PayPal, read on:

You need to login to the the PayPal Manager then go to “Service Settings”.

Then make the “Transaction Process Mode” into “Live”. under “”Choose your settings”.

It takes up to an hour for these settings to refresh.

I wasted quite some time with this.

On another note, S2Member is an excellent product for any WordPress sites that has members who need to be recurringly billed.

If you need the ability to create coupons, then you need to go for the Pro version.

PayPal Pro works best. “PayPal Pro” is not the same a “PayPal PayFlow Pro”.

All of the new PayPal Pro accounts come with the PayPal PayFlow API for recurring billings.

When setting up S2Member with PayPal Pro you will need to supply both the PayPal API details as well as the PayPal Pro details.

The PayPal Pro details is exactly what you type in to access the PayPal Manager.

PayPal does a great job at naming their services in a way that confuses the hell out of people. But their developer customer support is quite good.

One other thing you can ensure in general to avoid all PayPal Pro issues is to ensure the Status of all services listed on the “Service Summary” box on the PayPal Manager landing page are all “Live”.