Common Issues
data
I Lost All My App's Data
Your worst nightmare just happened — all the data in your app is gone. User accounts, orders, content, everything. The app might still load, but it's like starting from scratch. All the data your business depends on has vanished.
Data loss can happen in several ways: the database was accidentally deleted, a bad code update wiped tables clean, your free tier expired and the provider deleted your data, or someone with access (malicious or accidental) ran a delete command.
The first thing to know is: don't panic, and don't make changes to anything yet. In many cases, data can be partially or fully recovered — but only if you act quickly and don't overwrite the remnants.
Error Messages You Might See
Table does not exist
Relation 'users' does not exist
404 - Resource not found
No data to display
Database connection refused
Project has been paused
Common Causes
- Free tier database expired — Services like Supabase, Firebase, or Heroku delete databases after a period of inactivity on free plans
- Accidental deletion — Someone ran a delete or drop command without a WHERE clause, wiping entire tables instead of specific rows
- Bad migration — A database schema change (migration) went wrong and dropped tables or columns with data
- No backups configured — There were never any automatic backups set up, so there's nothing to restore from
- Hosting provider data loss — Rare, but hosting providers can have their own failures that affect your data
How to Fix It
- Don't make any changes yet — Stop all deployments and code changes. You don't want to overwrite any recoverable data
- Check if backups exist — Look in your database provider's dashboard for automatic backups, point-in-time recovery, or snapshots
- Check if the data is really gone — Sometimes the app loses connection to the database but the data is still there. Verify by logging into your database directly
- Contact your database provider — Providers like Supabase, Firebase, and AWS sometimes have recovery options. Reach out to their support immediately
- Set up backups going forward — Once you've dealt with the immediate crisis, configure automatic daily backups so this can never happen again
- Check if data exists in other places — Email receipts, CSV exports, logs, or cached API responses might have copies of your data
Real developers can help you.
Yovel Cohen
I got a lot of experience in building Long-horizon AI Agents in production, Backend apps that scale to millions of users and frontend knowledge as well.
Milan Surelia
Milan Surelia is a Mobile App Developer with 5+ years of experience crafting scalable, cross-platform apps at 7Span and Meticha. At 7Span, he engineers feature-rich Flutter apps with smooth performance and modern UI. As the Co-Founder of Meticha, he builds open-source tools and developer-focused products that solve real-world problems.
Expertise:
💡 Developing cross-platform apps using Flutter, Dart, and Jetpack Compose for Android, iOS, and Web.
🖋️ Sharing insights through technical writing, blogging, and open-source contributions.
🤝 Collaborating closely with designers, PMs, and developers to build seamless mobile experiences.
Notable Achievements:
🎯 Revamped the Vepaar app into Vepaar Store & CRM with a 2x performance boost and smoother UX.
🚀 Launched Compose101 — a Jetpack Compose starter kit to speed up Android development.
🌟 Open source contributions on Github & StackOverflow for Flutter & Dart
🎖️ Worked on improving app performance and user experience with smart solutions.
Milan is always happy to connect, work on new ideas, and explore the latest in technology.
Taufan
I’m a product-focused engineer and tech leader who builds scalable systems and turns ideas into production-ready platforms.
Over the past years, I’ve worked across startups and fast-moving teams, leading backend architecture, improving system reliability, and shipping products used by thousands of users. My strength is not just writing code — but connecting product vision, technical execution, and business impact.
legrab
I'll fill this later
Krishna Sai Kuncha
Experienced Professional Full stack Developer with 8+ years of experience across react, python, js, ts, golang and react-native. Developed inhouse websearch tooling for AI before websearch was solved : )
Tejas Chokhawala
Full-stack engineer with 5 years experience building production web apps using React, Next.js and TypeScript.
Focused on performance, clean architecture and shipping fast.
Experienced with Supabase/Postgres backends, Stripe billing, and building AI-assisted developer tools.
Vlad Temian
15+ years shipping production infrastructure for startups. Former CTO at qed.builders (acquired by The Sandbox).
Cursor ambassador and agentic tooling builder.
I've scaled systems, automated deployments, and built observability tools for AI coding workflows. I specialize in taking vibe-coded apps from broken prototype to production-ready: fixing Supabase auth/RLS, Stripe integrations, deployment pipelines, and cleaning up AI-generated spaghetti.
I build tools in this space (agentprobe, claudebin, micode) and understand both sides: how AI generates code and why it breaks.
https://blog.vtemian.com/
Jared Hasson
Full time lead founding dev at a cyber security saas startup, with 10 yoe and a bachelor's in CS. Building & debugging software products is what I've spent my time on for forever
Matthew Jordan
I've been working at a large software company named Kainos for 2 years, and mainly specialise in Platform Engineering. I regularly enjoy working on software products outside of work, and I'm a huge fan of game development using Unity. I personally enjoy Python & C# in my spare time, but I also specialise in multiple different platform-related technologies from my day job.
Bastien Labelle
Full stack dev w/ 20+ years of experience
Describe what's wrong in plain English. No technical knowledge needed.
Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions
Can deleted data be recovered?
It depends. If your database provider has automatic backups (many paid plans do), you can restore from a recent backup. If you're on a free plan with no backups, recovery is very difficult or impossible. Contact your provider's support team immediately — the sooner the better.
How do I prevent this from happening again?
Set up automatic daily backups through your database provider, use a paid plan that includes backup features, and restrict who has permission to delete data. Also consider keeping regular CSV exports of your most important data as an extra safety net.