License Activation and Connection Issues

Site Verification Failed During Connection

During the OAuth connection flow, Benecaster.com sends a probe request to your site’s verify endpoint to confirm the site is publicly reachable. If the probe fails, you’ll see a “Site verification failed” notice with:

The exact URL that was probed
The HTTP response code and elapsed time (or a cURL error)
Suggested next steps

To diagnose, test the endpoint yourself:

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

You should see HTTP/2 400 in the response — a 400 error is expected for a probe request (it means the endpoint exists and Benecaster is handling the request; the 400 indicates the code/nonce/show_uuid values are not real). Any other result indicates a problem:

Connection refused / DNS failure — your site is not publicly accessible. Check your host’s external-facing configuration.
HTTP 403 / 503 — a firewall, security plugin, or CDN is blocking the request. Add an exception for /wp-json/benecaster/v1/verify.
HTTP 200 with HTML — a maintenance-mode plugin or page-cache plugin is serving HTML instead of routing to the REST API. Disable page caching for /wp-json/ paths and disable maintenance mode, then retry.
SSL error — your SSL certificate is expired or the chain is incomplete. Renew or repair the certificate.

See Connecting Your Site for a detailed walkthrough of each cause. After resolving, click Connect to Benecaster again — the flow generates a fresh PKCE state on every attempt.

Activation Failed — Key Not Accepted

Check for extra spaces or characters. Copy the key directly from your purchase email or from benecaster.com — don’t retype it. The key format is XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. An extra space before or after the key is the most common cause of failed activation.

Check that your server can reach benecaster.com. Activation requires an outbound HTTPS connection from your server to benecaster.com. Some hosts block outbound connections by default or require firewall rules to be opened. Go to Tools → Site Health → Info → WordPress Constants and look for any proxy settings that might be intercepting requests. If you’re on a managed host with a firewall, contact your host and ask them to allow outbound HTTPS to benecaster.com.

Check whether the key is already activated. Each license allows one production activation. If the key is already active on another site, activation on a new site will fail. Log in to benecaster.com under My Account → Licenses to see where your license is currently activated. Deactivate it from the old site first, then activate on the new one.

Check that the license hasn’t expired or been refunded. Expired or refunded licenses cannot be activated. Log in to benecaster.com to check your license status.

Activation Succeeded but Features Are Locked

If the plugin accepted your license key but premium features (subscriber authentication, private feeds) are still unavailable, the most likely cause is that no subscription plugin bridge has been connected yet.

Premium features are locked until a supported membership plugin (MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Paid Memberships Pro, or Restrict Content Pro) is installed, active, and connected through Benecaster’s setup wizard.

Go to Benecaster → Settings → Subscription and confirm a bridge is selected. If the list is empty, your membership plugin either isn’t installed or isn’t active.

License Shows as Active but Plugin Reverted to Free

This happens when the license validation check-in fails and enough time passes without a successful check-in.

Benecaster is fail-open — short check-in failures don’t affect anything. But if check-ins have been failing for an extended period, you’ll see a warning in the Benecaster admin.

Check outbound connectivity. Go to Benecaster → Tools and use the connection test to confirm your server can reach the license server. If the test fails, investigate your host’s outbound firewall settings.

Check your subscription status. Log in to benecaster.com to confirm your subscription hasn’t lapsed or your payment method hasn’t expired.

Try deactivating and reactivating your license. Go to Benecaster → License, deactivate, then reactivate with your key. This forces a fresh check-in.

Staging Site Counted Against Activation Limit

Benecaster automatically detects common local and staging URL patterns (localhost, .local, .test, .dev, IP addresses) and doesn’t count them against your activation limit.

If your staging environment uses a production-style domain (e.g. staging.yourshow.com), it may be counted as a production activation. In this case, deactivate the license from the staging site when you’re done with it, or contact support to discuss your setup.

License Key Not Found in Purchase Email

If you can’t find your license key:

Check your spam or junk folder for an email from benecaster.com
Log in to benecaster.com — your license key is listed under My Account → Licenses
If you don’t remember your benecaster.com account password, use the password reset on the login page
If none of the above works, contact support at support@benecaster.com with your order number

Still Stuck?

Contact support at support@benecaster.com. Include:

Your license key (or order number)
The URL of the site you’re trying to activate on
Any error message shown during activation
Your PHP version and WordPress version (visible in Tools → Site Health)