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Your developer left. Here is what to secure this week.

They quit, retired, or stopped answering. The app still runs, but you are not sure who can log in to it, or whether you could rebuild it tomorrow. This checklist covers the first week. You can do most of it yourself, and none of it needs the old developer's help.

Start the checklist Talk it through

Written by Mike Kerchenski, 25+ years on the Microsoft web stack: classic ASP, .NET Framework and current .NET.

The first-week checklist

Work top to bottom. The first two sections matter most, because they decide whether you control your own business.

Find out who holds the accounts

Make a list of every account the app depends on, and write down whose name and email each one is under. If the answer is "the developer's", that account comes first.

  • Your domain name. The registrar where you pay for the name (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace and others). Whoever holds this login controls your website and your email.
  • DNS. Often at the registrar, sometimes at Cloudflare or the hosting company.
  • Hosting. Azure, AWS, a hosting company, or a server in someone's office.
  • The source code. GitHub, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, or a folder on the developer's laptop.
  • The database. Where the data lives, and who has the admin password.
  • Paid services the app calls. Payment processing, text messages, email delivery, maps. Each has its own account and its own bill.
  • Your business email admin. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.

Shut the doors they still have

  • Remove the developer's logins from every account on the list.
  • Change any password they knew, including shared ones.
  • Check the recovery email and phone number on each account. A recovery address still set to the developer's personal email lets them back in.
  • Have the next developer change the app's keys and connection strings first, or write down that they still need changing. Do not change these yourself: the app stops working if a key changes in one place and not the other.

Prove you have a backup

  • Find out where the database backups are, and how often they run.
  • Get a copy that you hold, outside the hosting account.
  • A backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a backup. Ask for one test restore.

Get the code into your hands

  • Get the latest source code into an account you own.
  • Ask where the running app is deployed from. The code in the repository and the code on the server can differ.
  • Collect anything written down: notes, passwords handed over, a README, old emails with setup steps.

Read the contract

  • Check who owns the code. Most contracts give it to you; some do not say.
  • If the developer is still reachable, ask for a written handover: the account list from step 1, which passwords and keys they held, and where the backups are.

What not to do this week

  • Do not let anyone "quickly fix" the live app before steps 1 to 3 are done.
  • Do not cancel the old hosting until you have a tested backup and the code.
  • Do not hand every password to the next developer on the first call. Give access one account at a time, as the work needs it.

If it runs on Microsoft's web stack, I can take it over

I have built on the Microsoft web stack for more than 25 years. I wrote classic ASP before .NET existed, built on .NET Framework through every version, and build on current .NET today. That is the whole of what I take over:

  • Classic ASP (.asp pages, VBScript)
  • .NET Framework: WebForms (.aspx), ASP.NET MVC, Web API, WCF
  • .NET Core and current .NET: ASP.NET Core, Blazor

If that is what you have, I can pick it up where your developer left it.

Before I quote any ongoing work, I read the code and tell you what you have: what it does, what state it is in, and what needs attention first. Then you decide.

You keep ownership of the code, the accounts and the data. If we stop working together, everything stays with you.

Not sure what your app is built on? Send me what you know. I will tell you, and if it is not on that list, I will say so.

Thinking about replacing the app instead of keeping it? See legacy modernization.

Talk it through

Tell me what the app does and what you have access to today. The first call is free, with no obligation. I'll reply within 24 hours.

Prefer to skip the form? Book directly on Calendly or call (440) 836-3059.