PayPal uses IPN — Instant Payment Notification to notify Appointy about the status of a PayPal transaction.
If a customer successfully pays through PayPal but the appointment remains failed, unpaid, or unapproved in Appointy, PayPal may not have successfully sent the IPN notification to Appointy.
Quick navigation
PayPal → Account Settings → Notifications → Instant payment notifications → Update → Choose IPN Settings
Step 1: Sign in to PayPal
Log in to the PayPal account connected to your Appointy account.
Step 2: Open Account Settings
Click the Settings icon and open Account Settings.
Step 3: Open Instant Payment Notifications
From the left-side menu, select Notifications.
Locate:
Instant payment notifications
and click Update. pep.paypal.com
Step 4: Open the IPN settings
On the Instant Payment Notification page, click:
Choose IPN Settings
Depending on the PayPal interface shown for your account, you may instead see an option to edit the existing IPN settings. pep.paypal.com
Step 5: Configure the Appointy notification URL
In Notification URL, enter:
http://www.appointy.com/PaymentProccessor/PayPalIPN.aspx
Then select:
Receive IPN Messages (Enabled)
and click Save. help.appointy.com
How to check whether PayPal is sending IPN messages
If IPN is already enabled but Appointy is still not receiving payment confirmations, review your PayPal IPN history.
Go to:
Account Settings → Notifications → Instant payment notifications → Update → IPN History Page
The IPN History page lets you review messages that were:
- Sent successfully
- Retrying
- Failed
You can open the individual message to review the destination URL, delivery attempts, and message status. PayPal
What does a failed or retrying IPN mean?
PayPal expects the IPN listener to acknowledge the notification successfully.
If PayPal does not receive the expected response, it retries delivery automatically.
PayPal states that IPN notifications can be retried for up to approximately 4 days, with up to 15 additional retry attempts in some failure scenarios. developer.paypal.com
If the customer was charged but the appointment failed
If PayPal shows a successful payment but Appointy shows the appointment as failed or unapproved:
- Verify the transaction directly in PayPal.
- Do not ask the customer to pay again.
- Check the IPN configuration.
- Review the IPN History for that transaction.
- Confirm that the notification was sent to the Appointy IPN URL.
- If the issue continues, initiate a live chat with the Appointy Support team and share your Appointy username and relevant PayPal transaction details.
This helps prevent duplicate payments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is PayPal IPN still supported?
Yes. PayPal still supports IPN for existing integrations, although it considers IPN part of its legacy integration stack and recommends newer solutions for new integrations. developer.paypal.com
Where are the IPN settings in PayPal now?
The current documented path is:
Account Settings → Notifications → Instant payment notifications → Update
Then open Choose IPN Settings. pep.paypal.com
What Appointy URL should I use for IPN?
Appointy currently documents:
http://www.appointy.com/PaymentProccessor/PayPalIPN.aspx help.appointy.com
What if IPN is already enabled?
Check the IPN History and look for failed or retrying messages. If PayPal shows the payment as successful but the notification did not reach Appointy, contact Appointy Support.
Can PayPal retry a failed IPN?
Yes. PayPal automatically retries IPN delivery when its listener does not successfully acknowledge the message. developer.paypal.com
Should I ask the customer to pay again?
No. First verify whether PayPal actually received the payment. If the payment succeeded, asking the customer to pay again could result in a duplicate charge.