What to do when your app developer disappears

The messages stop. Then the invoice reminders stop. Then you get a Play Console warning with a deadline on it, and the only person who knows how the app works is not answering.

We are the developers in this story, not the owner: we keep 17 apps of our own live on the App Store and Google Play and run both consoles for all of them, with a release pipeline and a pre-release check in front of every build. What follows is the inventory we would run on day one if we were handed your account, because the first hour is mostly about finding out what you actually hold.

Step 1: find out what you have

An app is four things, and you may own some without the others.

1. The store listings. Is the app published from your Apple and Google accounts, or the developer's? Sign in to App Store Connect and Play Console with your own login. If you can't see the app, it isn't in your account.
2. The source code. Do you have a repository you can log in to, or a copy of the code from the last release? "They said it's backed up" doesn't count.
3. The signing keys and certificates. Covered below; less scary than it sounds.
4. The services behind the app. Firebase, a database, push notifications, the domain. Who owns those logins?

Write the four answers down. Everything after this depends on them.

Step 2: if the app is in your account, secure it

This is the good case. You own the app; the developer was a guest.

Apple. As Account Holder or Admin, open Users and Access in App Store Connect and remove the developer. Admins and the Account Holder can revoke distribution certificates (Apple: Program roles). Check that you are the Account Holder; if the developer somehow is, only they can transfer that role (Transfer the Account Holder role), which puts you in Step 3.

Google. In Play Console, open Users and permissions and remove them. If they held "Admin (all permissions)", do this first, since that permission includes removing users (Add users and manage permissions). Google says only the account owner can transfer ownership of the account (Transferring ownership), so if the account is yours, it stays yours.

Android signing. If your app uses Play App Signing, Google holds the app signing key. The developer only had the upload key, and Google says that if the upload key is lost or compromised you are not locked out; you create a new upload key and request a reset from Play Console (Play App Signing). Your next developer creates the key and you file the reset.

Then change the passwords on any service the developer had, and turn on two-factor authentication everywhere.

Step 3: if the app is in the developer's account

This is the hard case, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Both stores can move an app between accounts, but only the current owner can start it. On Apple, the developer's Account Holder initiates the transfer and yours accepts (Overview of app transfer). On Google, both accounts must be registered and active and you need both registration transaction IDs (Transfer apps to a different developer account). We could not find any official process on either store for forcing a transfer when the owner is unreachable. If someone offers you one, be careful.

What you can do:

• Keep trying, in writing, with a specific ask: "Please initiate an app transfer to account X" for Apple, or "Please send your registration transaction ID and accept the transfer" for Google. A specific request gets answered more often than "please call me."
• Check your contract for who owns the work. If it says you, a lawyer's letter asking for the transfer and the code is a normal next step.
• Meanwhile, plan for the worst: a fresh listing under your own account, published from source. It loses the reviews and install count. It does not lose your users if you can tell them where to go.

Two clocks are running while you wait. If the developer's Apple membership lapses, the app stops being available for download (Membership renewal). If their Google account goes inactive under Google's criteria, it can be closed after email notices to the owner (Closure of inactive developer accounts).

Step 4: if you don't have the source code

A store listing without source code is a photograph of an app. It keeps working for people who already have it, but nothing can change.

There is no clean shortcut. The binary in the store can't be edited into an update, and both stores require new uploads to be built with current tools: Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK since April 28, 2026 (Apple: Upcoming requirements), and this year's target API on Google Play (target API level requirements).

Practical options, in order:

1. Ask again, specifically, for repository access or a zip of the latest code. Include the app's current version number so there's no ambiguity.
2. Look for partial copies: an old developer, a previous agency, a laptop, an email attachment. Even an old version is a starting point.
3. If none exists, rebuilding is the honest answer. Get a quote to rebuild the current app as it is, not with new features. Screenshots and a walk-through of every screen are the spec.

Step 5: find your deadline

Before you hire anyone, know how much time you have. Open Play Console and read any policy warning and its date. Google's target API deadline was August 31 in 2025 and again in 2026, with an extension to November 1 you can request from the warning's details page. On Apple, check the last update date; an app not updated in three years with few downloads can get a 90-day removal notice (App Store Improvements).

Bring that date to whoever you hire next. A developer who knows the deadline works differently from one who doesn't. It is the first thing we look up on our own apps each season, and we keep every one of them on a shared toolchain so that a deadline is one upgrade and a rebuild, not a scramble.

What to do this week

• Sign in to both stores with your own login and write down which apps you can see.
• Remove the developer from Users and Access (Apple) and Users and permissions (Google) if the app is yours.
• Send one written, specific request for the code and, if needed, the transfer.
• Change passwords on every service the developer could reach.
• Read the Play Console warning and put its date on your calendar.

When you're ready to hand the app to someone who will answer, App Care starts with exactly this inventory. You invite us into your accounts as a user, never the owner, and we bring the same pipeline and support desk that keep our own 17 apps live.

Sources

• Apple, Program roles: https://developer.apple.com/support/roles/
• Apple, Transfer the Account Holder role: https://developer.apple.com/help/account/access/transfer-the-account-holder-role
• Apple, Overview of app transfer: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/transfer-an-app/overview-of-app-transfer
• Apple, Membership renewal: https://developer.apple.com/support/renewal/
• Apple, App Store Improvements: https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store-improvements/
• Apple, Upcoming requirements: https://developer.apple.com/news/upcoming-requirements/
• Google Play Console, Add developer account users and manage permissions: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9844686
• Google Play Console, Transferring ownership of a Play Console developer account: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/16909862
• Google Play Console, Transfer apps to a different developer account: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6230247
• Google Play Console, Use Play App Signing: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9842756
• Google Play Console, Closure of inactive developer accounts: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/11605267
• Google Play target API level requirements: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/11926878