Importing Episodes from Your Host
If you have an existing podcast on another hosting provider, Benecaster can import your episodes as drafts so you don’t have to re-enter them manually. You review each draft, set tier availability, and publish — the audio files stay hosted where they are.
This feature has two parts:
- Initial bulk import — run once during setup to bring in all your existing episodes at once
- Ongoing feed sync — optionally keep Benecaster in sync with your hosting provider as you continue publishing there (Premium)
Initial Bulk Import
During the Setup Wizard
The import step appears in the setup wizard for all new installations. If you don’t have an existing podcast to bring across, select No or use the Skip link to move on.
To import, select Yes, enter any public RSS feed URL, and click Import episodes →. A progress bar runs while the import processes; a done or error state appears when it finishes.
If you press Continue before the import finishes, it keeps running in the background. You can check the result at Benecaster → Episodes once setup is complete.
Switching from Seriously Simple Podcasting or PowerPress? Benecaster detects existing SSP and PowerPress episode data automatically and presents a dedicated import step before the RSS import step. You won’t need to enter a feed URL — episode posts are read directly from your WordPress database. See Switching from SSP or PowerPress for the full migration walkthrough, including shortcode replacement and redirect setup.
Re-running the Import
You can re-run the bulk import any time via Benecaster → Settings → Tools → Import Episodes — not just during setup. This is useful if you added episodes to your old host after the initial import, or if you skipped the import step in the wizard.
The Tools import works the same way as the wizard import: enter a feed URL, click Import Episodes, and drafts are created for any new GUIDs not yet in Benecaster. Existing episodes are never duplicated.
Default tier — before running the import from Tools, choose a tier from the Default tier dropdown. All newly created drafts will have that tier pre-selected, saving you from setting it individually on each episode.
Source Feed URL
Benecaster can import from any publicly accessible RSS feed. In most cases this is your original feed URL from your hosting provider — not the feed URL you submitted to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you’ve already moved your submitted feed to Benecaster’s URL, pointing the import at that URL would cause Benecaster to try to import its own output. Your hosting provider’s admin panel will have the original unlisted or backup feed URL.
What Gets Imported
Each episode in the feed is created as a WordPress draft. The following fields are populated automatically:
| Field | Source in RSS |
|---|---|
| Title | <title> |
| Description | <description> or <itunes:summary> |
| Audio URL | <enclosure url> |
| File size | <enclosure length> |
| MIME type | <enclosure type> |
| Duration | <itunes:duration> |
| Publish date | <pubDate> |
| Episode number | <itunes:episode> |
| Season | <itunes:season> |
| Episode type | <itunes:episodeType> |
| Explicit flag | <itunes:explicit> |
| Author | <itunes:author> |
| Artwork | <itunes:image href> |
Not imported — requires manual entry after import:
- Show notes / full episode content (RSS description is the podcatcher version only; full written content must be added in the episode editor)
- Tier availability dates
- References, guest credits, and custom fields
Deduplication
Episodes are deduplicated by RSS GUID. If you run the import more than once — or import from a feed you’ve imported before — existing episodes are not duplicated. Only episodes whose GUID hasn’t been seen before are created as new drafts.
After Import
A blue banner appears at the top of Benecaster → Episodes whenever imported drafts are waiting for your review. The banner shows the count of unreviewed drafts and includes a Show imported link that filters the episode list to imported drafts only.
For each draft:
- Review the imported metadata and correct anything that didn’t map cleanly
- Add full show notes in the Content field if needed
- Set tier availability — which subscriber tiers can access this episode, and when
- Publish when ready
See Setting Tier Availability for how to configure per-episode access.
Ongoing Feed Sync (Premium)
If you continue publishing episodes at your hosting provider while transitioning to Benecaster, the feed sync feature can watch your hosting feed and automatically create drafts for any new episodes it finds.
Configuring Feed Sync
Configure the sync at Benecaster → Settings → Show → Feed Sync:
Source feed URL — the RSS feed URL for your hosting provider. Same URL as the initial import. Required for sync to run.
Trigger — controls when Benecaster checks the source feed:
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Manual | A Sync Now button in the Feed Sync settings panel. You initiate it explicitly — no background activity. |
| On login | Checks once per admin session when you log in. Shows an admin notice if new drafts were created. Silent if nothing new. |
| Daily | Runs automatically once per day via a background job. |
On new episode found — what Benecaster does when sync finds an episode whose GUID isn’t in WordPress yet:
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Create as draft | Creates a draft. Appears in the episode list with the imported-drafts banner for your review before publishing. |
| Publish immediately | Creates and publishes the episode right away, with no review step. Use this only if your host feed is clean and you don’t need to set availability dates before going live. |
Sync Now — triggers an immediate sync run regardless of the configured trigger mode. Available next to the source URL field. Useful for pulling in a specific episode right after publishing it at your host, or for testing a new configuration.
Last sync status — shown below the Sync Now button. Displays the date and time of the most recent run, how many episodes were found in the source feed, and how many new drafts were created. If the last run encountered an error, the error message is shown along with a hint for what to check (unreachable URL, invalid RSS, etc.).
What Happens After a Sync
When sync finds new episodes and creates drafts, the same blue banner appears at the top of Benecaster → Episodes as after an initial bulk import — the count of pending drafts and a Show imported link to filter to them.
Sync only creates new episodes. It never modifies episodes you’ve already imported or published, and it never deletes anything.
Stopping Sync
Once you’ve fully moved your publishing workflow to Benecaster, set the trigger to Manual or remove the source feed URL from the Feed Sync panel. Sync won’t run again until you re-enter a source URL.
Migrating Paying Subscribers
Episode import and feed sync bring your content across — they do not move your paying subscribers. If you’re migrating subscribers from Patreon or Supercast, use the Migration Wizard add-on.
