Unable to communicate with the PayPal gateway

Question

I see this error when i am checking out.

Unable to communicate with the PayPal gateway.

Step to produce error: When i reach on payment information tab of checkout. This error comes. What can be reason. Magento: 1.9

---- Error Log ----

ERR (3): exception 'Exception' with message 'PayPal NVP CURL connection error #35: SSL connect error' in /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Paypal/Model/Api/Nvp.php:983
Stack trace:
#0 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Paypal/Model/Api/Nvp.php(616): Mage_Paypal_Model_Api_Nvp->call('SetExpressCheck...', Array)
#1 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Paypal/Model/Express/Checkout.php(381): Mage_Paypal_Model_Api_Nvp->callSetExpressCheckout()
#2 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Paypal/Controller/Express/Abstract.php(108): Mage_Paypal_Model_Express_Checkout->start('http://dev.XXXX...', 'http://dev.XXX...', false)
#3 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Action.php(418): Mage_Paypal_Controller_Express_Abstract->startAction()
#4 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Router/Standard.php(250): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->dispatch('start')
#5 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Controller/Varien/Front.php(172): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard->match(Object(Mage_Core_Controller_Request_Http))
#6 /path-to-file/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php(354): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Front->dispatch()
#7 /path-to-file/app/Mage.php(684): Mage_Core_Model_App->run(Array)
#8 /path-to-file/index.php(86): Mage::run('', 'store')
#9 {main}

Answer 1

To solve this issue, you can follow these instructions as below:

1. Disable SSL verification.

You go to the Magento backend, then choose rSystem-> Configuration-> Payment Methods and find PayPal Express Checkout

You click to "Configure" button, then expand "Advanced settings" section and you'll see "Enable SSL verification" option that you need to disable. Let’s turn it to "No".

2. In Sanbox mode

The reason is that Paypal has removed the support to protocol lower than tls 1.2 for their sandboxes. Therefore, you should update your curl and libcurl packages and specify the version in the magento code: CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1_2 (6)

Firstly, you have to disable SSL verification

Secondly, you update the curl library from 7.19 to 7.40 (or later version) by running the following command from ssh:

curl -v -s https://api-3t.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp

Sometimes, if the server does not run (SSL error), you can follow this question in Stackoverflow.com to update curl library:

Besides, in case you don’t have the access permission to update curl, use this hot fix:

You open: app/code/core/Mage/Paypal/Model/Api/Nvp.php

In line 945, you make the change in the Paypal Nvp module instead of the libraries by finding:

try {

    $http = new Varien_Http_Adapter_Curl();

After that, you insert the following code snippet to this line:

$http->addOptions(array(CURLOPT_SSLVERSION => 6));

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem 2 days ago when testing a transaction with PayPal in sandbox mode.

The reason turned out to be a temporary issue with PayPal because 1-2 hours later everything worked again.