Suddenly can't make PayPal payments on eBay using Firefox
I've had no problems for years when using PayPal to pay for Ebay items, but suddenly 14/02/2020 the PayPal pop-up window just sits there with the spinning circle. Paying by credit/debit card works fine, but I want the payment to come straight out from my bank account. Followed the simple instructions like disabling AdBlocker and checking Pop-ups are allowed, as given in other answers. Still stuck for a solution, saw elsewhere a reference to user_pref file but that just confused me as I'm not that technically minded. Any help would be gratefully received.
Chosen solution
The solution is more complicated. I started having the same problem about a month ago. I now have the answer.
The problem started when a few items I wanted to purchase on Ebay would go through on PayPal and some would not. A few minutes ago I talked with an Ebay representative.
He told me this: Some sellers have elected to use new software that is not compatible with Firefox (some have not). He told me to use Chrome or Edge (I told him I can't stand the advertising). He told me that Firefox was obsolete and that I should change. I told him that it would be more convenient for me to change to Amazon or somewhere else. I also told him that he did not appear to be management material.
If one of the readers knows someone (high up) in Ebay, I think the marketing people should know that they are about to lose my business (and perhaps yours).
The problem is not in your browser.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (17)
Hi, try turning off 'Enhanced Tracking Protection' for Ebay and PayPal by clicking the shield icon at the left-hand end of the address bar when you are on those sites - Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop
If that doesn't help, hold down the Shift key when you start Firefox to start in Safe Mode. More - Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode
If it works in Safe Mode, restart Firefox, then disable any theme or extensions you have - 3-bar menu > Add-ons > Themes/Extensions and restart Firefox again; now if it's OK, re-enable them one by one until you find the culprit. You may need to restart Firefox after enabling some extensions.
If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please help other users by marking the best reply as Solved. Thank you!
Modified by Scribe
Hi thank you for your reply. I have turned off 'Enhanced Tracking Protection' for both sites without any luck. I will leave your second suggestion until later in the week as I'm not that technically minded. Hopefully the problem will be corrected by ebay or Firefox before I try suggestion No.2 and get myself in a tangle.
Apparently others have had the same problem.
Modified by djmb
Im having this problem too, only started this week, and only on my computer browser, it's fine on my android tablet/ phone
I have experienced this all day today. Can't make a purchase on Ebay, Paypal purchase window just sits there with spinning cursor (forever) with Firefox on linux, works from my phone with Firefox on Android
Scribe said
Hi, try turning off 'Enhanced Tracking Protection' for Ebay and PayPal by clicking the shield icon at the left-hand end of the address bar when you are on those sites - Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop
If that doesn't help, hold down the Shift key when you start Firefox to start in Safe Mode. More - Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode
If it works in Safe Mode, restart Firefox, then disable any theme or extensions you have - 3-bar menu > Add-ons > Themes/Extensions and restart Firefox again; now if it's OK, re-enable them one by one until you find the culprit. You may need to restart Firefox after enabling some extensions.
If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please help other users by marking the best reply as Solved. Thank you!
I am also having this problem and have been since mid Feb I have cleared the cookies and still no luck, I'm not tech minded either and find this all stressful. I have taked to using my bank cards to pay for things but this is not how I want tot do business I want to use my PayPal
Solved according to :- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1277038
Modified by Bryan
It's good to know this was solved but what was the cause of this? Also I have to stress; this caused me a lot of problems, so an explanation would be good. I found out by myself a few days ago that this had been corrected your update is a bit late.
Good that the problem has now been solved, but it would be nice to know who and what caused the problem, hopefully without getting too techy.
Chosen Solution
The solution is more complicated. I started having the same problem about a month ago. I now have the answer.
The problem started when a few items I wanted to purchase on Ebay would go through on PayPal and some would not. A few minutes ago I talked with an Ebay representative.
He told me this: Some sellers have elected to use new software that is not compatible with Firefox (some have not). He told me to use Chrome or Edge (I told him I can't stand the advertising). He told me that Firefox was obsolete and that I should change. I told him that it would be more convenient for me to change to Amazon or somewhere else. I also told him that he did not appear to be management material.
If one of the readers knows someone (high up) in Ebay, I think the marketing people should know that they are about to lose my business (and perhaps yours).
The problem is not in your browser.
Ramos update (see note above).
I just confirmed the note above by adding another purchase choice to my Ebay account. Here is what happened:
Two items ended up in my cart. The first item was the one that had been previously stopped from purchasing using my PayPal. The second item was a new item, unrelated to the first. The total to be paid was the sum of the two. I then noticed a question "Pay for this item only?" I answered yes and the total then only showed the new item. PayPal then worked (for the new item). The older item still remained unpaid and would not accept PayPal.
Conclusion: Somehow, the two buyers are not the same. Perhaps in their preferences, one seller looks different in Ebay's computer than the other (and one doesn't like Firefox!).
Some programmer could make some dinero on this problem (opportunity) with Ebay.
Hello, ramos5391, I have the same problem with Firefox, But not just Ebay, All venders I have tried end with the blank white Paypal page. is there a solution out there?
SRBW62, I believe EBay finally became convinced that there was a problem. They no longer are bragging about their "new" billing system (they stopped using it). I no longer have problems with them. I still can't use it with Amazon (as usual), but never could. I think the larger vendors see the payment vehicle as a profit center, and so they try to cut it out. Smaller vendors will take anything. I think when a problem next arises, first look at the vendor and then at your own browser. I dislike leaving a credit card number with any vendor and if enough others feel this way also, PayPal will survive.
This is great advice. Many thanks.
I've had this problem for a while [endlessly spinning circle - thinking about logging into PayPal]. For Firefox [in my case] it was caused by using 'Private Browsing' when using Ebay or directly logging into Paypal. The Chrome based Epic Privacy browser gives a similar problem with Paypal - endlessly being asked to identify buses, bike, traffic lights, etc after an 'I am not a robot' box/display.
I gave up on Private Browsing and manually delete ALL browsing data..... [except Browsing & Download History] i.e. Cookies, Active Logons, Cache, Form & Search History AND Site Preferences & Offline Web Site Data. ....before and after going to 'sensitive' sites such as Ebay, Paypal & Banks.
Now the only problem I have is that Firefox crashes while displaying the Paypal Homepage....still looking for an answer [will probably start a new 'topic(?)].
Hope this is of use.
UPDATE to my comments above [1. Getting 'endlessly stuck' logging into Paypal and 2. Windows crashing on Paypal Homepage.] I think it may have something to do with Adobe Flash? I disabled Flash ages ago [in Add-ons->Plug-ins]. I did not use it and it became well out of date.
I then got the two problems above.
I've just 'reset' Flash [to 'ask to activate'] in Firefox and updated Adobe Flash to the latest version. I the disable Flash again [set o 'Never Activate' in Add-ons->Plug-ins] and tried things again - a number of times
Windows 10 is no longer crashing on Paypal Homepage and if I use Private Browsing, I can log into Paypal without getting stuck!?!?
So it appears to imply that Firefox is allowing Adobe Flash to be used even if it has been disabled??
I've included some video snapshots of the 'video problem' I was getting before I update Flash - On this occassion windows did not crash but came near to it, I reckon.
Update to previous posting.... I might be wrong to suggest the Paypal/Firefox/Windows-Blue-Screen problem is something to to with Firefox...I don't know. There is definitely an issue with the Paypal Homepage screen & Firefox....ON MY PC but ... it might not be anything to do with Firefox....why? ...because it happened again and this time [can't reproduce it] not only did the contents of the Firefox window degenerate into a load of flashes but the desktop did as well [even though you could see where the Firefox window was. So.... ...I'm investigating further on a different but similarly setup PC. Sorry....but it may be a driver or hardware fault on my video card. So apologies if it is. I need to go awa and test things further....
eBay announced today that they will be phasing out PayPal as a method for payment on eBay. Apparently this has been going on for some time with all new sellers required to use eBay's new payment system (which eliminates PayPal). This also eliminates the safety that we have enjoyed with PayPal (not having to give eBay our credit cards). eBay was not upfront in telling us this (creating problems with PayPal users that thought their Firefox browsers were the problem).
I suggest not using eBay in the future, OR we might convince Firefox to introduce a low cost alternative to PayPal (which would bring in a lot of new Firefox users (Firepal?). eBay would have a hard time turning down millions of Firepal users. They get us all - or none.
Ramos