Subscriber Can’t Access Their Feed

Work through these checks in order — most feed access problems are resolved by step 3.

1. Confirm the Feed URL Is Correct

Ask the subscriber to share exactly what URL they have in their podcast app. Common issues:

The URL was truncated. Feed URLs are long. If the subscriber copied their URL from an email that wrapped the text across multiple lines, they may have missed part of it. Token URLs are 64 characters after ?token= — if their token looks short, it’s been cut off.
The URL has extra characters. Some email clients add tracking parameters or rewrite links. The URL should end with the token and nothing else.
The subscriber is using the wrong URL. If you have multiple shows or tiers, confirm they have the URL for the correct show.

The correct URL format is:

https://yoursite.com/podcast-feed/?token=a1b2c3d4e5f6...

Or if you’re using pretty permalinks:

https://yoursite.com/podcast-feed/your-show-slug/?token=a1b2c3d4e5f6...

2. Check the Subscriber’s Membership Status

Go to Benecaster → Subscribers and find the subscriber. Check:

Is their membership active? If their subscription has expired or been cancelled in your membership plugin, Benecaster returns an empty feed. Resolve the membership issue in your membership plugin first.
Is their tier mapped? If their membership tier isn’t mapped to a Benecaster tier, no feed is generated. Go to Benecaster → Settings → Subscription and confirm their tier is mapped.
When did they last access the feed? The Last Accessed column shows the last time their podcast app polled the feed. If it shows a time in the past, the URL is probably working — the subscriber may just need to refresh manually in their app.

3. Check Whether a Token Exists

In Benecaster → Subscribers, if the subscriber doesn’t appear at all, their token was never generated. This usually means the subscription activation event wasn’t received from your membership plugin.

To fix: use the Generate Token action on the subscriber’s record to create one manually, then send them the new feed URL. Also check that your membership plugin’s Benecaster integration is properly connected — go to Benecaster → Settings → Subscription and confirm the bridge is active.

4. Test the Feed URL Directly

Paste the subscriber’s feed URL into a browser. You should see raw RSS XML. If you see:

Raw XML with episode data — the feed is working. The problem is on the subscriber’s end (wrong URL in their app, app cache, etc.).
Empty RSS feed (XML with no items) — the token is valid but no episodes are available to the subscriber’s tier. Check tier mapping and episode availability dates.
A 404 error — the feed rewrite rule isn’t registered. Flush your WordPress permalinks by visiting Settings → Permalinks and clicking Save Changes.
A blank page or server error — a PHP error is occurring. Check your WordPress debug log.

5. Ask the Subscriber to Re-add the Feed

If the URL is correct and works in a browser but not in the subscriber’s podcast app:

Ask them to remove the feed from their app and add it again with the same URL
Some apps cache a “feed not found” state and won’t retry until the subscription is removed and re-added
If they’re on Apple Podcasts, restarting the app after re-adding can help

6. Reset the Token

If the above steps don’t resolve the issue, reset the subscriber’s token. This generates a new feed URL and immediately invalidates the old one. Send the subscriber their new URL.

Important: after a token reset, the subscriber must remove their old feed URL from their podcast app and add the new one. Their episode history in the app is not affected.

See Token Reset for how to reset from the admin or how subscribers can reset themselves.