Troubleshooting: Site Connection

Most site connection problems fall into one of a few categories. Start with the error message in the admin notice — it names the specific failure and, for site verification errors, includes the exact URL Benecaster tried to reach and the HTTP result.

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Site Verification Failure

When the connection fails with a site verification failure, Benecaster.com tried to reach your site and couldn’t complete the check. The admin notice shows the URL it probed and either an HTTP response code or a connection error.

The probe URL looks like:

https://yoursite.com/wp-json/benecaster/v1/verify?code=probe&nonce=probe&show_uuid=probe

Three common causes:

1. Your site is not publicly accessible. Local development installs (localhost, .test, .local), sites behind a VPN, sites in maintenance mode, and sites that require HTTP authentication all fail this check — Benecaster.com cannot reach them from the internet.

Options:

• Use a tunnel tool (ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel) to temporarily expose your local site
• Complete the connection on a staging or production URL instead
• Use the BENECASTER_LICENSE_URL constant to point at a local license server (see Connection Technical Reference →)

2. A security plugin or WAF is blocking the request. Some WordPress security plugins (Wordfence, iThemes Security) and CDN WAF rules block automated probes. Temporarily disable the WAF or add an exception for the path /wp-json/benecaster/v1/verify, then retry.

3. Your SSL certificate is untrusted or expired. Benecaster.com won’t connect over HTTPS with an invalid certificate. Renew your certificate or verify your certificate chain is complete.

You can test the endpoint manually from an external server:

curl -I "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/benecaster/v1/verify?code=probe&nonce=probe&show_uuid=probe"

Reading the probe result in the notice:

• HTTP 200, Xms — reached successfully. If the error still appears, the response content may have been malformed — contact support with the full notice text.
• HTTP 4xx / 5xx — the request arrived but the server rejected it. Most commonly an overly aggressive WAF rule.
• cURL error: ... — the connection failed at the network level (DNS, timeout, SSL, TCP refused). The cURL error string names the specific issue.

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Site URL Mismatch

This means your WordPress address doesn’t match the URL Benecaster has on record for your account.

Common causes:

• Your WordPress Address was recently changed in Settings → General
• You’re on a staging clone — the site URL changed from the original
• You switched from HTTP to HTTPS

Fix: Confirm your WordPress Address at Settings → General → WordPress Address is correct, then click Connect to Benecaster again. If you’re on a staging site, see Setting Up a Staging Site →.

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Reconnect State — Why Did This Happen?

Benecaster enters reconnect state when its daily license check returns two consecutive failures for the same show. Common reasons the connection token becomes invalid:

• You disconnected the show yourself — from your WordPress admin, from Connected shows on the Shows & add-ons tab of your account page, or from the at-capacity screen on benecaster.com. The account-page route needs no access to this site, so a show can stop working with nothing having happened on the site itself — check your account page before assuming a fault
• Benecaster support revoked it (usually as part of an account action)
• A GDPR erasure request removed the token record
• Your license expired or was cancelled

Fix: Click Reconnect to Benecaster in the admin notice, or open the show’s Settings → Subscription tab and click the Reconnect button. Complete the OAuth flow. A successful reconnection clears the reconnect flag automatically.

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“My Subscribers Say Their Feed Stopped Working”

Check first whether the show is connected. A show that is disconnected — or that has never been connected — serves nothing to its subscriber feed URLs. They return an error rather than falling back to your public feed, and the audio stops downloading with them. Open Settings → Shows → [Show] → Settings → Subscription; if it offers Connect to Benecaster rather than showing an active connection, that is your answer.

This is the first thing to rule out because it produces no error on your own site. Your public feed keeps working, your admin screens look normal, and only your subscribers see the failure.

A newly created show behaves the same way, and it reads as a bug. A show you have just added on an otherwise licensed site serves its token feeds nothing until you connect that show. Each show carries its own connection — a licensed site does not license every show on it automatically.

Follower feeds are the exception. If your followers are fine and your paying subscribers are not, that fits this cause rather than contradicting it: follower feeds keep working on a disconnected show.

Fix: connect or reconnect the show. Delivery resumes on the next request, on the same feed URLs, with nothing required from your subscribers.

If the show is connected, the cause is elsewhere — check License Status for a billing or license problem, then Reconnect State above.

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Still stuck? Contact support with the full text of the error notice — the probe URL, HTTP response code, and elapsed time are what our team needs to diagnose quickly.