Back to Community
Home / Community / General

How to Find and Export Emails Collected by the LightStart Chatbot

13 threads Sep 16, 2025

Content

If you're using the chatbot feature in the 'LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder' plugin, you might be wondering where all the collected email addresses are stored. This is a common point of confusion for many users. This guide will walk you through the simple steps to locate and export your subscriber list.

The Problem: Where Are My Subscriber Emails?

The plugin's chatbot is designed to engage visitors and collect their email addresses for notifications about your site's launch or other updates. However, the interface for accessing this collected data is not immediately obvious. Many users report testing the bot, entering an email, and then being unable to find where that information is saved within their WordPress dashboard.

The Solution: Exporting Your Subscriber List

Fortunately, accessing your list of subscribers is a straightforward process. The emails are stored in your website's database, and the plugin provides a built-in tool to export them. Follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Settings > WP Maintenance Mode.
  3. Click on the Modules tab.
  4. Locate and click on the Subscribe module.
  5. Click the Export as CSV button.

This will generate a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file containing all email addresses collected through the chatbot subscription feature. You can then open this file in any spreadsheet application, like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Important Limitations to Be Aware Of

Based on community discussions, there are a few key limitations of the chatbot's subscription feature:

  • Names Are Not Saved: Even if your chatbot conversation asks for a visitor's name, the plugin does not currently store this information. Only the email address is captured and exported.
  • No Instant Email Notifications: The plugin does not have a built-in feature to send you an instant email notification each time a new address is submitted. The primary method to access new emails is to manually export the CSV list.
  • Limited Customization: There is no built-in option to significantly alter the chatbot's questions (e.g., remove the name question entirely) without custom code. The 'LightStart' team has historically recommended hiring a developer for such customizations.

Troubleshooting: What If No Emails Appear?

If you export the CSV file and find it is empty, there are a couple of things to check:

  1. Plugin Conflict: A conflict with another plugin on your site could prevent the subscription function from working correctly. To test for this, deactivate all other plugins except LightStart and see if the issue is resolved. If it is, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit. Using the 'Health Check' plugin's troubleshooting mode is recommended for this, as it allows you to test without affecting your live site's visitors.
  2. Browser Test: Try testing the chatbot submission in a different web browser to rule out local browser-related issues.

By following these steps, you should be able to successfully access the emails collected by your maintenance page's chatbot. For more information, you can review the plugin's settings or seek advice from other users in community forums.

Related Support Threads Support