Broken onboarding flows while setting up live payments from test-drive account

[mordeth]

Describe the bug

During the smoke testing of the WooPayments 8.1.1 patch release, we encountered an irregular and challenging-to-replicate behavior in the onboarding flow. Specifically, when the “Set up live payments” button is clicked, it sometimes redirects users to the Connect page instead of the MOX screen. The critical concern in these instances is that the account, though live-onboarded, continues to be treated as if in development mode. This results in operational disruptions, with actions such as processing payments, loading transactions and deposits generating errors.

To Reproduce

• Set up a new JN site (no Dev Tools)
• Install WooCommerce from the Plugins tab.
• Run through the Onboarding Wizard.
• Install WooPayments via this zip file .
• Perform a test drive onboarding.
• Navigate to Payments > Settings and used the prompt there to set up live payments
• Observe you are redirected to the Connect page with the sandbox notice.

Expected behavior

When the “Set up payments” button is clicked, the user should be redirected to the MOX screen, not the Connect page. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that the test mode is correctly configured during this process.

Additional context

p1724745169469109-slack-C03KTTK2YMA
p1724281242025799-slack-CGGCLBN58
p1724318140132799-slack-C06LP39P804

[mordeth]

This issue was addressed with PR 9346, which was included in the WooPayments 8.1.1 patch release.