Reducing Disk Usage

Benecaster’s core footprint is small — subscriber records, settings, and analytics snapshots add up to a few megabytes even at the Pro tier. If disk usage becomes a concern, the steps below cover the main levers, roughly in order of impact.

1. Set a Data Retention Window

The biggest single action you can take. By default, Benecaster keeps analytics data forever. Setting a retention window automatically prunes old records on a nightly schedule without any ongoing action from you.

Settings → Tools → Analytics Data

Options: Forever (default), 5 years, 2 years, 1 year, or a custom number of months.

The retention window applies to three data sets:

• Download proxy records — the main driver of growth; see estimates in How much disk space does Benecaster need? →
• Subscriber lifecycle events — subscribe, cancel, tier change records
• Daily analytics snapshots — per-tier subscriber counts captured each night

The subscriber event and snapshot data stays small regardless of retention setting. The download proxy log is the one worth managing at scale.

Note: If you use the Analytics Dashboard add-on, pruned data disappears from your charts permanently for the affected date range. If long-term analytics matter to you, keep the retention at Forever and manage disk usage through the other options below instead.

2. Use “Prune Now” for Immediate Cleanup

If you’ve just set a retention window and want to reclaim disk space right away rather than waiting for the nightly job, use the Prune now button in the same settings screen. It shows you a preview — how many records will be removed and how much space will be freed — before deleting anything.

3. Disable the Download Proxy

If you don’t need per-subscriber download analytics, turning off the proxy stops new records from being written entirely. This is the most effective way to keep disk usage flat long-term.

Settings → Tools → Download Proxy — toggle off.

Existing log data is not deleted when you disable the proxy. Use Prune now to clear it.

See Download Tracking → for what the proxy does and how to decide whether you need it.

4. Delete Old Migration Backups

When you run a migration (importing from Patreon, Supercast, or a previous feed), Benecaster creates a backup file before making changes. These are stored in your WordPress uploads folder and listed in Settings → Tools with their file sizes and dates.

Backups are never deleted automatically. Once you’re confident a migration is stable — typically after a few weeks — you can delete the backup directly from the Tools screen. A reminder appears 30 days after each migration backup in case you’ve forgotten one.

5. Remove the GeoIP Database

If you enabled country and region tracking but no longer need it, you can remove the GeoIP database file from Settings → Tools → GeoIP Database. The database is roughly 150–200 MB on disk. Removing it stops geographic enrichment going forward but does not delete any country or region data already recorded against your subscribers.

6. Adjust Email Log Retention

Benecaster keeps a log of outgoing emails for 365 days by default. On high-volume shows this can accumulate. Developers can shorten the retention period using the benecaster_email_log_retention_days filter — see Hooks Reference → for details.