Membership Plugin Not Connecting

If Benecaster can’t see your membership plugin, or subscriber tokens aren’t being generated when people sign up, work through these checks.

Membership Plugin Not Appearing in Setup

If your membership plugin doesn’t appear in Benecaster’s plugin picker during setup (or in Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription):

Confirm the plugin is active. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and confirm your membership plugin is listed and active — not just installed. Inactive plugins are not detected.

Check the version. A plugin older than Benecaster supports is listed greyed out, with “Requires … or later (you have …)”. The minimums are MemberPress 1.12.0, WooCommerce Subscriptions 5.6.0, Paid Memberships Pro 3.0 and Restrict Content Pro 3.4. Update the plugin, then reload the page.

Confirm it’s a supported plugin. Benecaster supports MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Paid Memberships Pro, and Restrict Content Pro. Other membership plugins are not currently supported. See the Subscription Plugin Compatibility page for the full list.

For WooCommerce Subscriptions, confirm WooCommerce is active. WooCommerce Subscriptions requires WooCommerce to be installed and active. If WooCommerce itself is inactive or misconfigured, the dependent plugin won’t be detected.

Try deactivating and reactivating your membership plugin. Benecaster detects supported plugins on load. If your membership plugin was activated after Benecaster, a deactivation/reactivation cycle can help.

Tokens Not Generating on New Signups

If subscribers are completing sign-ups through your membership plugin but not receiving a feed URL:

Confirm the bridge is connected. Go to Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription and confirm a bridge is selected and saved. If the bridge shows as connected but tokens still aren’t generating, try saving the settings again.

Check that the subscriber’s tier is mapped. Go to Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription → Tier Mapping. If a new subscriber’s membership tier isn’t in the tier map, Benecaster doesn’t generate a token for them. Map the tier and then manually generate a token for any affected subscribers.

Check for errors in the membership plugin’s event log. Some membership plugins (MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro) have their own activity log. A failed payment or incomplete registration can prevent the subscription activated event from firing, which is what triggers token generation.

Members who joined before you connected the plugin don’t have feed links yet. Benecaster hears about a member only when the plugin reports their membership starting. On Restrict Content Pro and Paid Memberships Pro, run Sync existing members on the same Subscription tab to give them their links; see Sync Existing Members. On MemberPress and WooCommerce Subscriptions, each gets a link the next time the plugin reports their membership starting.

If Sync existing members is greyed out, the line under it says why. A show that isn’t connected to your Benecaster license (never connected, or disconnected), or whose license has lapsed, reads “Syncing members needs an active Benecaster licence on this show. Connect or renew it under License, above.” Connect the show under License on the same Subscription tab, or renew your license, then sync.

Test with a manual subscription. Create a test subscriber in your membership plugin manually (not through a payment flow) and confirm a token is generated. If it is, the issue is in the payment/registration flow, not the Benecaster integration.

Tokens Generated but Wrong Tier

If subscribers are receiving tokens but can see the wrong episodes — usually fewer than expected — the issue is almost always tier mapping.

Go to Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription → Tier Mapping and confirm each membership tier maps to the correct Benecaster access level. Pay attention to:

Multiple tiers mapping to the same level — if Gold and Silver both map to the same Benecaster tier, Gold subscribers won’t get their extra episodes
A level left unmapped — a member at an unmapped level gets no feed URL and no welcome email
Tier names that look similar — “Monthly Gold” and “Annual Gold” may need to map differently if you have different access rules for each

“Membership Plugin Needs Attention”

Benecaster checks the membership plugin each show uses at most once an hour in wp-admin, and on the first admin page after a Benecaster update. When something is wrong, a Membership plugin needs attention notice appears under Notifications (the bell), one per show, with a Go to Updates button (Dashboard → Updates). It is a warning only: the show keeps working, and the notice clears itself once the problem is fixed. It says which of these it found:

The plugin is deactivated. “… is connected to …, but … is not active on this site, so Benecaster does not hear about that show’s signups, cancellations or renewals.” Activate the plugin, or connect the show to another membership system in its Subscription settings.
The plugin is older than Benecaster supports. “… The show keeps working for now, but this version is no longer supported: update …” The minimums are listed above.
The plugin is missing something Benecaster calls (Paid Memberships Pro and Restrict Content Pro only, for now). “… the installed version of … does not have …, which Benecaster calls. Until that is fixed Benecaster may miss that show’s signups, cancellations or plan changes.” Check for an update to Benecaster or the plugin, and contact support if it persists.

Bridge Stopped Working After a Plugin Update

If the bridge was working and broke after updating either Benecaster or your membership plugin:

Check the changelog for any notes about the update affecting bridge compatibility
Go to Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription, confirm the bridge is still selected, and save settings
Deactivate and reactivate Benecaster
If the issue persists, contact support with details of which plugin was updated and to which version

Still Not Working?

Contact support at support@benecaster.com. Include:

Which membership plugin you’re using and its version
What you see at Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Settings → Subscription
Whether tokens were ever generating, or never worked from the start
Any recent plugin updates

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`wordpress_logged_in_*`	Benecaster	Keeps you signed in to your Benecaster account.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wordpress_sec_*`	Benecaster	Secures your signed-in session over HTTPS.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wp-settings-*`	Benecaster	Remembers your admin screen preferences.	One year.
`benecaster_ls_purchase_sign_in`	Benecaster	Signs you in to your new account on the page you bought from, once your purchase has gone through.	Thirty minutes, or until you are signed in.
`benecaster_ls_cookie_consent`	Benecaster	Remembers the choice you make on this banner, so we do not ask again.	One year.

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`__stripe_mid`	Stripe	Lets Stripe recognise the device across payment attempts to detect card fraud.	One year.
`__stripe_sid`	Stripe	The same fraud check, for the current visit only.	Thirty minutes.