My developer has abandoned my app: how to take back control

It happens more than you might think: the freelancer changes job, the agency closes or simply stops answering, and your application is still live with nobody looking after it. While it works there seems to be no hurry, but every month without updates increases the risk. These are the steps to take back control calmly.

1. Gather what is yours

• The complete source code, ideally with access to the repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) and its history.
• Access to the infrastructure: servers or cloud accounts, database, domain and DNS, certificates.
• Third-party accounts: app stores, payment gateway, email delivery, map or SMS services.
• Whatever documentation exists, however little, and the contract: what it says about who owns the code.

Try to have the accounts in your company’s name, not the provider’s. If any of them isn’t, that is the first thing to sort out, because without it nothing can be published or renewed.

2. Check its real state

Before deciding anything, an audit is worthwhile: which technologies it uses and whether they are still supported, how many dependencies are out of date or have known security flaws, whether there are backups and they work, whether there are tests, and whether the code can be understood and deployed without the original author. The outcome should be a clear report, not a list of technicalities.

3. Decide: maintain, evolve or rebuild

• Maintain: if the code is reasonably healthy, it is updated, documented and put under a maintenance plan.
• Evolve: if the foundation is good but has fallen short, the weak points are fixed and building continues on top.
• Rebuild: only if the technology is no longer supported or fixing it costs more than starting again. Even then, the data and what was learnt are kept.

Meanwhile, the urgent things

• Back up the database and keep the copy off the server.
• Change the passwords of every access the previous provider had.
• Check when the domain, the certificates and the store accounts expire.

How to stop it happening again

Insist from the start that the code and every account are yours, that there is documentation so another team can carry on, and a maintenance plan with clear terms and no minimum period. That way, if one day you change provider, it is your decision and not an emergency.

Request an audit of your application