Authentication failed due to invalid authentication credentials or a missing Authorization header

[thewebpro]

We've been running payments through PayPal Checkout.js successfully for about 5 years on several client accounts, but since yesterday we've noticed clients receiving the following error (in the console) when their customers click the "pay with PayPal" button at checkout:

"Authentication failed due to invalid authentication credentials or a missing Authorization header"

Double-checking their Live Client ID and Sandbox Client ID credentials, everything looks correct.  The error does NOT show in Sandbox mode, only in Live mode.

For reference, the entire log in the console is:

checkout.js:6484 Uncaught Error: Request to post https://www.paypal.com/v1/payment-experience/web-profiles failed with 401 error. Correlation id: f5501848d84a8

{
"name": "AUTHENTICATION_FAILURE",
"debug_id": "f5501848d84a8",
"message": "Authentication failed due to invalid authentication credentials or a missing Authorization header",
"information_link": "https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/payment-experience/#errors",
"details": []
}

Interestingly, if we change the Live Client ID to something incorrect, the error returned changes to:

checkout.js:7123 Uncaught Error: Error: Request to post https://www.paypal.com/v1/oauth2/token failed with 401 error. Correlation id[Removed. Phone #s not permitted]/p>

{
"error": "invalid_client",
"error_description": "Client Authentication failed"
}

This would hint that the error lies with "a missing Authorization header" as noted in the original error, but as far as I know the paypal.Button.render JS call doesn't allow editing or passing headers directly, only sending the "client" parameter with the sandbox and production client IDs.

Since this was working fine a couple of days ago, and we are using the same exact code and credentials as when it was working, I'm guessing something external is causing this. Could it be that something in the PayPal button API changed recently that we missed?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Michael

[iamwyza]

I'm having the same issue.  Similar code, same thing that it's been working for years.  Already confirmed that the client id is still active/enabled and valid.

[thewebpro]

@iamwyza If you find a solution, please post it here.  I'll do the same.

[cyberiain]

Exactly the same here: UK based, working for two years. Stopped working sometime on the 5th/6th of July.

[onairgary]

Hi Michael,

Adding my name to list of those having this issue.  Still waiting for a response from Paypal team.

Gary

[ssllc1]

Same problem with us as well, sandbox works well and production ends up with error

[tamas7]

I have the same issue, I can not get paypal payments since 1 day ago. User still active

[ClaudioP1]

Same, here, 3 of 4 differents paypal account stopped working from yesterday with same message.

[Laurent2A2B]

Same problem. It's been working for years and today I have -Authentication failed due to invalid authentication credentials or a missing Authorization header-

[not_here]

Hi All, 

Our engineers are currently looking into this issue, if someone can please provide the following information this will help us to look into this issue even further: 

1. Please provide the Merchant URLs that demo the problem?
2. Provide more details about your client-side integration code? And also how your server-side code is interacting with it?

Christina