Common Issues general

My App Was Working Yesterday and Now It's Completely Down

Your app was running perfectly fine — maybe for days, weeks, or even months. Then suddenly, without you changing anything, it stopped working. Users are seeing errors, the page won't load, or features that worked yesterday are now broken.

This is terrifying, especially if you have paying customers or an important demo coming up. You didn't touch anything, so why did it break? The answer is usually that something in the background changed — a subscription expired, a service went down, or an automatic update broke something.

The key is to figure out what changed and fix it as quickly as possible. Most sudden outages have simple causes once you know where to look.

Error Messages You Might See

503 Service Unavailable 500 Internal Server Error This site's security certificate has expired ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID Database connection limit reached Account suspended
503 Service Unavailable500 Internal Server ErrorThis site's security certificate has expiredERR_CERT_DATE_INVALIDDatabase connection limit reachedAccount suspended

Common Causes

  • Hosting subscription expired — Your free trial or paid plan ended and the hosting provider took your app offline
  • Database hit its limit — Your database ran out of free storage or connections and stopped accepting requests
  • API key expired or was revoked — A third-party service you depend on (payments, email, maps) changed or expired your access key
  • SSL certificate expired — Your site's security certificate ran out and browsers now block the page entirely
  • Automatic updates broke something — A library or dependency auto-updated to a version that's not compatible with your code
  • The service your app depends on went down — If Supabase, Firebase, Vercel, or another service has an outage, your app goes down too

How to Fix It

  1. Check your hosting platform first — Log in and see if there are any warnings, billing issues, or outage notices
  2. Check third-party service status — Visit the status pages of services you use (Supabase status, Vercel status, Stripe status, etc.)
  3. Look at billing and subscriptions — Check if any free trials expired or credit cards were declined
  4. Check your domain and SSL — Make sure your domain is still connected and the SSL certificate hasn't expired
  5. Look at error messages — Open the app and note any error codes (500, 503, etc.) to help identify the problem
  6. Redeploy the app — Sometimes simply redeploying from your hosting dashboard fixes temporary issues

Real developers can help you.

Jen Jacobsen Jen Jacobsen I’m a Full-Stack Developer with over 10 years of experience building modern web and mobile applications. I enjoy working across the full product lifecycle — turning ideas into real, well-built products that are intuitive for users and scalable for businesses. I particularly enjoy building mobile apps, modern web platforms, and solving complex technical problems in a way that keeps systems clean, reliable, and easy to maintain. legrab legrab I'll fill this later Caio Rodrigues Caio Rodrigues I'm a full-stack developer focused on building practical and scalable web applications. My main experience is with **React, TypeScript, and modern frontend architectures**, where I prioritize clean code, component reusability, and maintainable project structures. I have strong experience working with **dynamic forms, state management (Redux / React Hook Form), and complex data-driven interfaces**. I enjoy solving real-world problems by turning ideas into reliable software that companies can actually use in their daily operations. Beyond coding, I care about **software quality and architecture**, following best practices for componentization, code organization, and performance optimization. I'm also comfortable working across the stack when needed, integrating APIs, handling business logic, and helping transform prototypes into production-ready systems. My goal is always to deliver solutions that are **simple, efficient, and genuinely useful for the people using them.** Vlad Temian 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/ Mehdi Ben Haddou Mehdi Ben Haddou - Founder of Chessigma (1M+ users) & many small projects - ex Founding Engineer @Uplane (YC F25) - ex Software Engineer @Amazon and @Booking.com Yovel Cohen 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. Jaime Orts-Caroff Jaime Orts-Caroff I'm a Senior Android developer, open to work in various fields Sage Fulcher Sage Fulcher Hey I'm Sage! Im a Boston area software engineer who grew up in South Florida. Ive worked at a ton of cool places like a telehealth kidney care startup that took part in a billion dollar merger (Cricket health/Interwell health), a boutique design agency where I got to work on a ton of exciting startups including a photography education app, a collegiate Esports league and more (Philosophie), a data analytics as a service startup in Cambridge (MA) as well as at Phillips and MIT Lincoln Lab where I designed and developed novel network security visualizations and analytics. I've been writing code and furiously devoted to using computers to make people’s lives easier for about 17 years. My degree is in making computers make pretty lights and sounds. Outside of work I love hip hop, the Celtics, professional wrestling, magic the gathering, photography, drumming, and guitars (both making and playing them) Meïr Ankri Meïr Ankri Full-stack developer specializing in React / Next.js / Node.js with 6+ years of experience. I've worked across various sectors including automotive (Reezocar/Société Générale), healthcare (Medical Link SaaS), and e-commerce (Glasman). I build web apps end-to-end, from architecture to production, with a focus on scalability, performance, and code quality. I also mentor junior developers and contribute to technical decisions and code reviews. Stanislav Prigodich Stanislav Prigodich 15+ years building iOS and web apps at startups and enterprise companies. I want to use that experience to help builders ship real products - when something breaks, I'm here to fix it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

I didn't change anything, so why did it break?

Many things can change without you doing anything: hosting subscriptions expire, database storage fills up, SSL certificates expire, or services you depend on have their own outages. Regular maintenance prevents most of these surprises.

How can I prevent this from happening again?

Set up uptime monitoring (free tools like UptimeRobot will alert you immediately), keep track of when subscriptions renew, and make sure payment methods on all services are up to date.

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