First off, I am aware that this likely a Stream related problem, and second the “Tech Support” may not be the correct category for Marketplace purchases either.
But given that a good portion of you purchased MSFS via Steam and another percentage of you is using also Paypal (I supposed) I hope to find an answer here nevertheless - also in the hope that this might help others in the future.
Problem: I cannot seem to “fill up” the required cash - in Steam - via Paypal anymore. This used to work in the past (last successful time around end of last year or so).
I am asked for my Paypal credentials (username and password, then I enter the second factor (as generated via app on my mobile device) - and then the whole process seems to hang for minutes in a screen that looks like:
The blue “quarter circle” keeps spinning, sometimes stops (as if to say that “some heavy computation” is going on in the background), continues to spin. But like forever (at the time of this writing for sure more than 5 minutes already).
I can (have to) cancel the transaction and according to paypal.com (where I can login with the exact same credentials and 2FA just fine) nothing has been charged (which is good).
So the last purchase I did via Marketplace → Steam was via credit card, which worked fine. So the issue really seems to be between Steam and Paypal.
But this is now several weeks since I just tried anew, and the problem still persists.
Question: so my first question would be, has anyone else successfully purchased a Marketpalce item via Steam → Paypal recently?
While the only anti-virus software that should be running is the one coming with Windows 10 itself (I just forgot what it is called - I am more on a Mac normally ;)) this is a good point.
Now if this would all be happening within my own browser (Firefox) I could easily blame one of my “adblocker / noscipt” plugins that could interfere. Especially with the “are you a human?” check (that usually tries to load images and scripts from remote sites such as google.com etc.).
But given that this should all be happening from within Steam (respectively its own embedded browser - whatever that would be) there should be no such “noscript etc.” addon be running.
Not just yet, but I may try this next. The only downside seems to be that I cannot enter an arbitrary money amount, but only purchase / tranfer predefined amounts (10 EUR, 20 EUR, 50 EUR etc. - and then what to do with the remaining money? Or can I combine this with other payment methods in the future? Anyway, that‘s another topic…)
I guess it must be something „locally“ on my end / PC. While it worked just fine before last christmas it first failed like 4 weeks ago, when I tried to buy the Caribou aircraft - and now again (still).
Another thing that came to my mind: is it possible that I (now, newly) need to „authorize 3rd party apps“ somewhere in my settings on paypal.com itself? Or anything else on paypal.com that could block a transaction from proceeding?
But if that was the case I would still expect some error message like „transaction blocked“, so… (?)
its just important to know whether there is a generally problem with that paypal window opened from Steam, or whether its only happens if as example MSFS is running.
Such an endless waiting window looks more like a firewall blocks somewhat. I assume if Steam not allow somewhat, you will get a message and not an endless open popup. Also not sure about 3rd party, I thought that are tokens then and should not relevant for that popup.
Only a guess might be: steam store per default the paypal-informations at the account ( there is a ‘bad’ checkbox ). May be you can disconnect that from steam ( account - account details - payment methods ). But I would try this only, if you also not can add credits ( Guthaben ).
And of course the old “clean browser cache” in steam can you try ( settings - webbrowser ).
The credit which are left, can be used for each other payment in steam. It use foir payments first the existing credit…
I understood your reasoning behind your suggestion very well („to isolate the error source.“). in fact, I had the exact same idea back when I tried to purchase the Caribou about 4 weeks ago (but then backed off from this idea, both because it might have been a „temporary glitch“ with Paypal and I wasn‘t sure how to spend the remaining money on Steam. But as you say it should be possible to first use the „Steam credits“, and pay the rest via another payment method).
For the record, what I tried in the meantime:
Deliberately enter a wrong Paypal password: but lo and behold, it was rightfully rejected (*)
Logout from Steam: the next time I had to reselect Paypal as payment method (so some settings were indeed reset)
Clear the „browser cache“ in the Steam Client settings
(*) This suggests that there is indeed a valid connection with Paypal - at least with its authentication service
Oh and what I meant with „3rd party“: I meant that the Steam Client uses (perhaps) a dedicated „3rd party apps“ API (as opposed to the API used by other websites), e.g. no „are you a human?“ test is required etc. And perhaps such „3rd party apps“ (here: Steam Client) need to be given access within the Paypal settings (as a new setting that might have been introduced since 2023 or so…).
But in any case I would expect a proper error message instead of an „endless spinning icon“, so the above theory stands on thin ice…
Thank you so much for your suggestions, very much appreciated!
Unfortunately I haven‘t investigated this any further.
My „purchase motivation“ went to zero at the time, means: „A no-buy, no money“ from my side.
I do realise that this might be more an issue between Steam and Paypal. But maybe someone from MS marketing/sales may want to „motivate“ those parties to look into this issue - especially since others seem to be running into the same/similar issues.
Same here, can’t buy ATR. Paypal screen open on Steam, but no progress, then I have to cancel the transaction. I’m able to connect in my Paypal account, no problems there.
Also, if I try to add funds to my Steam wallet with Paypal I’m able to complete the process, The problem it’s only when I’m trying to buy from MSFS Marketplace.
About…I do realise that this might be more an issue between Steam and Paypal…
It’s not, as yesterday I have bought a game on Steam with my Paypal account. The problem is only when I try to do the process from MSFS Marketplace.
Bummer. Yes, this sounds exactly like the problem that I had. And interesting observations you made: so it really seems to be related to transactions being initiated from purchases done in MSFS.
Again, this used to work up until end of December 2022: I know, because that’s the last time I purchased my own little Xmas present for myself via MSFS → Steam → Paypal
