Shop Pay Payment Method Revoked — Subscription Fix Guide
Root cause
When a customer revokes Shop Pay authorization or their Shop Pay billing token expires, Recharge receives PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED when attempting to charge. The token stored in Recharge becomes permanently invalid. Without explicit dunning configuration for this error type, no recovery email is sent and the subscription enters a silent failure state.
Symptoms
- • Recharge charge error_type: PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED
- • Shopify subscription contract still shows ACTIVE
- • No dunning emails sent to customer
- • Multiple affected subscriptions all using Shop Pay
- • Customer does not know their subscription is failing
How to fix it
Identify all affected subscriptions in Recharge
In Recharge Admin, navigate to Charges and filter by status=ERROR. Export the list and filter for error_type=PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED. This gives you all Shop Pay-affected subscriptions.
Open in admin →Trigger payment method update emails
For each affected customer, use Recharge Admin to send a payment method update email. In the customer record, use the Send Payment Update Email action. The email directs the customer to update their payment method directly in your store.
Open in admin →Configure Recharge dunning for PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED
In Recharge Admin > Settings > Dunning, add explicit handling for PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED error type. Set it to immediately trigger a payment update email rather than retry the same invalid token.
Open in admin →Reconcile Shopify subscription contract state
For subscriptions where PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED has persisted beyond your dunning period without customer resolution, update the Shopify subscription contract status to PAUSED or CANCELLED to match Recharge state and stop service delivery.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Shop Pay revocation cause silent failures instead of triggering dunning?
Recharge's default dunning configuration is designed for temporary card declines, not permanent token revocations. PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED indicates the token is permanently invalid and retrying it will always fail. Without explicit dunning rules for this error type, Recharge may attempt retries that are guaranteed to fail.
How many subscriptions are typically affected when Shop Pay revocation occurs?
Revocations tend to cluster when Shopify makes changes to Shop Pay token management or when customers update their Apple Wallet or Shop Pay settings. Single-customer revocations are common, but platform-level changes can affect hundreds of subscriptions simultaneously.
Can I prevent Shop Pay payment method revocation from happening?
You cannot prevent customers from revoking Shop Pay authorization. You can minimize impact by: configuring immediate dunning emails for PAYMENT_METHOD_REVOKED, offering backup payment methods at subscription creation, and monitoring for revocations with automated cross-stack scanning.
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