Exporting Your Data

Your subscriber list, episode library, and subscription history all live in your own WordPress database. The export feature puts that same data into a spreadsheet whenever you need it — to analyze it, share it, keep a local record, or take it somewhere else.

Where to Find It

Benecaster → Settings → Your Data

The Your Data tab sits between Tools and GDPR / Privacy in the Benecaster settings navigation. Look for the download icon.

How to Generate an Export

1. Go to Settings → Your Data.
2. A PII warning banner reminds you that subscriber names and email addresses are included in some sheets. Note this before sharing any export file externally.
3. Choose a date range using the preset bar: Last 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, All time, or Custom. For Custom, two date pickers appear so you can enter your start and end dates manually. The date range applies to event-based data (Subscription Events, download logs, etc.) — content records like Subscribers, Shows, and Episodes always export in full regardless of this setting.
4. Check the boxes for the sheets you want. Each sheet shows its title, a brief description, and — where relevant — a badge indicating which add-on provides it.
5. Click Generate Export.

Benecaster builds the file on your server and displays a result card with the filename, file size, and a Download XLSX button. Click it to save the file to your computer. If the download does not start, the card shows “Download failed — please try again”.

Export a List of Subscribers by Tier

To get one tier’s subscribers as a single list, use Subscriber CSV on the Tools tab instead of the workbook above. It covers the show you have selected in Benecaster, so if you have several shows, export each one separately.

1. Go to Benecaster → Settings → Tools and scroll to Export.
2. Under Subscriber CSV, choose a Tier, or leave it on All tiers.
3. Choose a Status: Active, Revoked or All.
4. Click Download CSV. The file saves to your computer.

Each row has the person’s email address, display name, tier, status and join date. Anyone who came through the Migration Wizard also has their grace period end date, source platform and former tier. The full column list is in Data Export Format.

• More than one tier. The export takes one tier or all of them. To get two or three, choose All tiers and filter on the tier_slug column in your spreadsheet.
• Followers and purchasers. All tiers includes everyone with a feed link on the show, not only your subscribers. To leave them out, use the Subscribers screen below.
• A narrower list. On Benecaster → Subscribers, set the search box and filters, then click Export. The file has the same columns and holds the active listeners the list is showing. It never includes revoked listeners. See Subscriber Dashboard.
• Sending your own email. The file doesn’t carry anyone’s unsubscribe preference, so use your email service’s own unsubscribe link and honour it.

A copy stays under Export Files on the Tools tab until it is deleted automatically, on the same schedule as other exports.

File Persistence and Automatic Deletion

The generated .xlsx file is saved to wp-content/uploads/benecaster/exports/ on your server, or to {folder}/benecaster/exports when wp-config.php sets BENECASTER_PRIVATE_DIR. Older exports left in uploads stay listed and still expire on time. There its name also ends in a dash and 32 random characters before .xlsx, so that its address cannot be guessed. The result card and the downloaded file use the readable name.

Exports are deleted automatically after 7 days. A nightly cleanup sweeps the directory and removes anything past that age, so exports no longer accumulate indefinitely. The Export screen shows “Deletes in N days” beside each file, so you can always see how long one has left.

Download the file before it expires. Deletion unlinks the file — there is no recycle bin, no recovery, and no notification when it happens. If you need an export for your records, save it somewhere of your own rather than treating the server copy as storage.

Changing or disabling the retention window

If 7 days is wrong for you, a developer can change it two ways. Both are in Data Export Format with the exact syntax.

• A constant in wp-config.php — BENECASTER_EXPORT_TTL_DAYS. This is the hard override and wins over everything else.
• A filter — benecaster_export_ttl_days, for themes and plugins.

Setting either to 0 disables automatic deletion entirely, restoring the old behavior of keeping files until you remove them by hand. That is the right choice if your backup or compliance process manages retention already.

** A longer window is a privacy decision, not just a convenience one.** Exports contain subscriber email addresses and token records. Keeping them on disk for longer means keeping personal data for longer, and it may interact with what your privacy policy commits to.

One caveat on timing. The cleanup runs on WordPress’s scheduled-task system, which only fires when your site receives traffic. On a quiet site, files can outlive their stated age by a day or two — the countdown is the intention rather than a guarantee. If exact timing matters for a retention policy, ask your host about a real server cron.

The .htaccess and empty index.php files in that directory are never deleted. They guard the folder (the .htaccess blocks direct access on Apache servers, and the index.php stops the folder being listed), so they stay regardless of the retention setting.

What’s Included

Benecaster Sheets

These four sheets are always available, regardless of which add-ons you have installed:

Subscribers One row per subscriber: name, email address, membership tier, subscription status (active, cancelled, expired), date joined, and date cancelled (if applicable). For one tier on its own, see Export a List of Subscribers by Tier.

Subscription Events The full history of subscription activity on your account — every join, cancellation, tier change, renewal, and payment failure, with timestamps. Useful for understanding churn, auditing your subscriber history, or importing into an external CRM. Filtered by the date range you select.

Shows Your show configuration: show name, feed slug, number of tiers, episode count, and date created. One row per show. On a show using built-in membership, the number of tiers counts the tiers on Benecaster → Memberships → Tiers, inactive ones included, but not Public, which nobody joins. On a show using a membership plugin it counts each mapped tier once.

Episodes Your episode library: title, episode type (full, trailer, bonus), show, tier availability settings, publish date, and download count. One row per episode.

Add-on Data

When add-ons are active and have data to export, additional sheets appear automatically in the same file. You only see sheets for add-ons that are installed and active.

† Offered only when a show tracks downloads. It covers each show’s top 100 episodes. ‡ Requires at least 60 days of subscriber history.

The Analytics Dashboard sheets cover only shows where the add-on is on, and leave out archived shows. See Exporting Analytics Data.

The Email Editor sheets cover only shows where the add-on is on. Email Opt-Out List lists who is opted out now, so it ignores the date range, and it holds subscribers’ email addresses. See Sending Broadcasts.

Other add-ons will contribute additional sheets as they are released.

Date Range

The date range selector applies to event-based data: Subscription Events, episode downloads, click logs, broadcast history, and similar time-series records.

Content and configuration data — Subscribers, Shows, Episodes, Guests, Link Registry — always exports in full regardless of the date range you select. These records represent your current state, not a time window.

File Format

The export is a multi-sheet .xlsx file — the native Microsoft Excel format — built using the OpenSpout library. It opens without conversion in:

• Microsoft Excel (Windows and Mac)
• Google Sheets (File → Import, or drag and drop)
• LibreOffice Calc
• Apple Numbers

Each selected data type is a separate sheet (tab) within the same file. The filename includes your show name, the selected date range and the time the file was made (HHMMSS, UTC): benecaster-export-[show]-[start]-[end]-[time].xlsx.

Add-on Sheets

Add-ons can register additional sheets via the benecaster_export_sheets filter. When an add-on is active and provides exportable data, its sheets appear automatically in the checkbox list on the Your Data screen alongside the built-in sheets.

A Note About Personal Information

Your export includes subscriber names and email addresses. This is personal data — please handle exported files with care:

• Store files securely. Don’t leave them in Downloads or email them casually.
• Delete files you no longer need.
• Only share them with people who genuinely need access — your producer, accountant, or network, for example.

How you handle your subscribers’ personal information is your responsibility. This is a reminder, not legal advice.

What You Can Do with Your Export

Share with your team. Your producer or podcast network needs subscriber numbers or episode metadata. Export the relevant sheets and send the file.

Analyze in a spreadsheet. Churn rate calculations, tier conversion rates, monthly growth trends — sometimes a pivot table is the right tool. Your export gives you the raw material.

Keep a record. A periodic export is a useful offline backup of your subscriber history. If anything ever goes wrong with your database, you have a reference point.

Move to another platform. If you ever decide Benecaster isn’t the right tool for you, your data goes with you. Export everything, import it wherever you’re headed. No hostage data.

Related

• Dashboard Overview — subscriber and episode data in the admin
• Subscriber Dashboard — managing individual subscriber records
• Settings — Tools Tab — the Subscriber CSV and your export files
• Settings Reference — full list of Benecaster settings