Subscription-based WordPress sites rely heavily on automated billing to keep memberships active. When renewals fail to sync between MemberPress and Stripe, it can lead to serious disruptions — customers get charged but their membership access isn’t updated. We recently helped a client resolve this exact issue.
Issue Background
The client reported that starting in July, Stripe was processing payments correctly, but MemberPress was not renewing member accounts. As a result, dozens of memberships had to be updated manually in WordPress despite successful Stripe payments.
Diagnosis
Our investigation uncovered several contributing factors:
- Broken Stripe connection: The MemberPress Stripe gateway had been disconnected at some point and then reconnected. Subscriptions created before this reconnection were still linked to the old, now-invalid gateway.
- Webhook configuration: Stripe webhooks were set up, but some required events were missing. Webhooks should include:
invoice.payment_succeededcustomer.subscription.updatedcustomer.subscription.deletedinvoice.payment_failedcharge.succeededandcharge.failed
- Conflicting plugin: A helper plugin called MemberPress Stripe Future Payments Fix (Bypass Mode) was active. Although not directly responsible, it introduced subscription logic changes that complicated debugging.
- MemberPress bug: MemberPress support later confirmed that deleting and reconnecting the Stripe gateway had left older subscriptions tied to an invalid payment method, causing the automation failure.
Resolution Steps
Here’s how we resolved the issue:
- Reconnected Stripe gateway: Confirmed MemberPress was reconnected to Stripe with valid API keys.
- Checked webhook delivery: Verified in Stripe that webhook events were reaching the site and logging correctly.
- Escalated to MemberPress support: After confirming configuration looked correct, we worked with MemberPress support, who provided a database-level fix.
- Migrated subscriptions: Approximately 200 active subscriptions were updated to use the correct Stripe gateway ID.
- Validated renewals: Test payments and real subscription renewals were monitored to confirm that memberships now updated automatically in WordPress.
Final Outcome
After applying the fix, MemberPress correctly renewed memberships on successful Stripe charges. The client no longer needed to manually update subscriptions, and future renewals were confirmed to sync seamlessly.
This case highlights how fragile plugin integrations can be when payment gateways are disconnected or reconfigured — even briefly. Ensuring webhooks are complete and confirming subscription IDs match the active gateway is critical for subscription-based businesses.
If your WordPress site is experiencing issues with MemberPress, Stripe, or automated renewals, contact Freshy for expert troubleshooting and support.
