Are your webhooks failing in ActiveCampaign as shown in the screenshot above? This guide goes through some of the common reasons webhooks fail and how you can quickly fix them on your own.
Memberium for ActiveCampaign relies on webhooks to push information from ActiveCampaign to Memberium. These are used when you generate passwords or anytime a contact record is updated.
How Do You Know Webhooks Are Failing?
Before going through all of the troubleshooting steps in this guide, make sure the webhooks are actually failing.
This is indicated by viewing the automation history of a specific user in ActiveCampaign and seeing the red X next to the webhook step…
If there is not a red X, but passwords aren’t being generated refer to this guide. Keep in mind that when a member logs in successfully, the password in the field in ActiveCampaign will be emptied out for security. This commonly misleads site owners into thinking that a password was never generated when in fact it was.
Why Do ActiveCampaign Webhooks Fail?
There are two main reasons the webhooks fail. We will cover detailed scenarios of each below, but it is important to understand why they’re failing so you can narrow your search for the problem.
- The webhook URL is wrong or incorrectly setup
- Something between ActiveCampaign and Memberium is blocking the webhook
Almost all of the scenarios we see where webhooks are failing fall into one of the above root problems. The rest of this guide will focus on showing you specific things to check on your site.
Specific Items to Check for Failing Webhooks
Check the User/Member in Question
If the webhook is only failing or not working for just a single user, the problem most likely lies with that user’s details alone.
Here is what you should check:
- Make sure they have at least a first name and email address in ActiveCampaign. Without those two pieces of information, the webhook will not work correctly. Only the first name and email are required.
- Make sure the member does not exist in WordPress already. If the member exists in WordPress, Memberium will not generate a password for that member.
- Check if the member is an admin in WordPress. The member shouldn’t be in WordPress anyway, but if they are in WordPress as an admin then Memberium won’t sync their record at all.
Check the Webhook URL
Your webhook should look something similar to this: https://vidsteps.com/?job=createuser&key=ozsyxrpvh1j2
You can always find your webhooks by going to Memberium > Settings > Web Hooks / Links:
- Make sure your link is HTTPS at the beginning if your site has SSL. If not, the link needs to say HTTP instead.
- Another thing to check is if your homepage is protected. If so, the webhook will be redirected to the login page and fail as a result. In order to fix this, just set the webhook to go to your login page. For example https://vidsteps.com/login/?job=createuser&key=ozsyxrpvh1j2
- Verify the authkey at the end is correct. You can get the authkey from the page shown above.
Verify the WebHook is Reaching Memberium
If you’ve gone through all the steps above and still no dice, it is time to make sure the webhook is actually making it to Memberium. Here’s how you can easily verify this. Go to Memberium > Settings > Web Hooks/Links and turn on the Webhook Log:
From there, you will want to run the member through the automation again. Now, if the webhook makes it to Memberium and fails we will have a record of it in the logs.
You can check the webhook logs by going to Memberium > Logs > Webhooks
If you see a list of webhooks, use the date/time column to make sure it is current. If the webhook is reaching Memberium, but not generating a password please reach out to Memberium support and include login details along with any troubleshooting steps you’ve already performed. (Contact Support)
If the log is empty, this means that Memberium did not get the webhook at all. Something is blocking the webhook from reaching Memberium.
Verify the WebHook is Reaching Your Web Server
Note: this step is more technical. If you’re not familiar with Raw Access Logs, move on to the next steps or reach out to our support team.
If the webhook isn’t reaching Memberium (previous step) then you need to check if it is reaching your web server at all.
If your host provides no way to see access logs for your hosting account then skip this step. Normally, these setting are in cPanel or you can reach out to your webhosting support and ask them where you can find web access logs.
In those access logs, you’ll see many lines such as these below. You’re looking for any that have the Memberium webhook url/link in them. You can usually do a search by pressing CTRL + F or CMD + F.
If you do see the webhook entries in here, but they are not in the Memberium logs above, it is most likely a WordPress plugin that is blocking it. Check any WordPress plugins and troubleshoot by temporarily disabling them, running a webhook test, and seeing if they succeed or show up in the Memberium logs.
In the event the logs show nothing related to the webhooks, check the following…
Are you a Siteground user?
Siteground has an Antibot Captcha feature that blocks the webhook from reaching your site.
To disable this feature, please contact Siteground support and have them deactivate Antibot captcha on your site. Once that’s done, please test out the password generation process.
Liquid Web VPS Problems
If you’re using LiquidWeb to host your WordPress membership site, you may need to reach out to LiquidWeb and ask if their firewall is blocking ActiveCampaign’s IP addresses from reaching your site.
One of our customers told us that the problem “ended up being a Firewall that LiquidWeb uses to protect our VPS that had started progressively blocking all the IP addresses that ActiveCampaign was sending the web hooks from over the last 36 hours.”
In these cases, you will have to coordinate with LiquidWeb in order to get them to unblock the IPs. One key identifier of this problem is that some webhooks may still be working. ActiveCampaign uses many different IPs to send the webhooks meaning only some of them may be blocked. This is normally difficult to troubleshoot, but if you’re seeing this problem and you’re on LiquidWeb then I would narrow in on their firewall first.
Sucuri Firewall/WAF Blocking ActiveCampaign
Another firewall service we see used a lot is Sucuri. This WAF has the ability to block webhooks requests coming from ActiveCampaign.
There isn’t much detail we can provide here as we are not users of Sucuri ourselves, but if you are using Sucuri and webhooks are not making it to Memberium then you should definitely check with Sucuri to see if they are blocking and requests.
cPanel Blocking the IP Address
Similar to the LiquidWeb firewall issue – cPanel sometimes includes an addon that can block IP addresses automatically.
In our experience, the name of this tool varies from host to host, but it usually is called “IP Address Blocking” and it is found under the “Security” heading. For example, here is a screenshot from our cPanel account showing there are no blocked IPs.
You can work with your host to see if any IPs are being blocked from accessing your sites.
What do I do if webhooks are still failing after following this guide?
If you’ve gone through all the steps in this guide and they’re still failing or you ran into trouble following some of the steps, you’re not alone. Just open a support ticket with the Memberium Support Team.
Here’s the information we’ll need from you:
- A link to your WordPress membership site
- An admin login to WordPress (this can be temporary)
- A login to your ActiveCampaign account
- The email address of a member in ActiveCampaign who the webhook failed on (showing the red X in the automaton history)
- Any additional details you’ve noticed or troubleshooting steps you’ve followed
With that key information, we’ll be able to assist you quickly without going back and forth getting all the information.
From there, we’ll pinpoint the problem, let you know what it was, and make sure everything is working smoothly for you.
