It’s a nightmare scenario for any business owner: You hire a developer, they do great work, and then—poof. They disappear. Maybe they moved on to a new project, maybe they changed industries, or maybe they simply went offline. Either way, you are left holding a website you don’t know how to manage, and you’re terrified to touch anything for fear of breaking it.
The “Emergency Toolkit” You Need to Ask For
If you are currently in this situation, or if you are just being proactive, you need to ensure you have the “keys to the kingdom.” At a minimum, you must have access to these four things:
- Domain Registrar Access: This is your website’s address (e.g., yourname.com). If you don’t own the account, you don’t own your site. Period.
- Web Hosting Control Panel: This is where your files and databases live. You need the ability to access the file system and the database directly.
- SFTP/FTP Credentials: This allows you to upload and download files directly to your server without going through the WordPress dashboard.
- WP-Admin Credentials: The standard administrator login for your WordPress dashboard.
What to Do if You’re Locked Out
If your developer left without handing these over, don’t panic, but do act quickly. Your first step should be contacting your hosting provider to see if they can help you reset access. If that fails, you may need to contact your domain registrar to prove ownership and regain control.
If you find yourself staring at a broken site with no documentation and a missing developer, don’t try to “wing it.” One wrong click in the database can make a site unrecoverable. This is where professional site rescues come in. We specialize in taking over abandoned or broken WordPress sites and getting them back into a stable, manageable state.
If you’re feeling lost, we’re here to help. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you regain control.