A stupid mistake cost me months of work

darylh · 2025-03-11T10:06:58.958Z

I’ve been working on a highly complex business app. Unfortunately, at the same time, I’ve been battling cancer. It got to the point where I needed to take a break so I downgraded to the free plan, thinking that I could immediately pick up where I left off once my health improved.

After downgrading, I read about the NoCodeFusion AI builder for Bubble, and, out of curiosity, decided to give it a try.

I’m not exactly sure what happened. The AI tool created a basic app and I imported it into my bubble account. I didn’t notice at the time, but instead of creating a new app, it completely overwrote my existing business app. It was only logging in a month later to look at something in my business app that I noticed it was all gone. I’m sure it was my mistake. My bubble account has the same name as my business app, so maybe I thought I was importing the app as a new app into my account, wheres it was actually overwriting the app with the same name.

I contacted Bubble support and they couldn’t help. The save points and retention windows are based on your current plan. As soon as you downgrade to the free plan you lose it all.

It’s nearly a year’s worth of development lost due to a stupid mistake. It has left me feeling totally burnt by the whole experience, and my stupidity. I should have exported the app and taken an offline backup when I downgraded. I should have been more aware of the retention periods for the different plans.

I started with Bubble because of years of frustration trying to develop in code. I’ve taken courses in Python, Ruby on Rails and Apple Swift in the past but it never really stuck because development isn’t my day job. I feel unless you have a knack for coding, it’s hard to maintain the skills and knowledge if you’re not working on it day in and day out.

Now I’m not sure if I’ll even continue with bubble. I’m experimenting with ChatGPT and Claude AI, and think that it might be at the point where it can make up for my gaps in coding skills. It also has the added advantage of being able to save my work to a git repository. I can commit often, for free, and not have to worry about my work being lost.

I guess the lesson is, if you can afford it, make sure you’re on a plan with a decent retention period and version control. Then, make sure you export your app regularly to take offline backups.

georgecollier · 2025-03-11T10:18:11.156Z

I’m sorry to hear that.

As you point out, it does overwrite the app:

CleanShot 2025-03-11 at 10.13.48@2x1052×544 36 KB

If you ever had a live version, you should be able to restore from that (upgrade plan, then ‘Reset to live’) so it shouldn’t be lost. If you never deployed to live, then I don’t have any other suggestions.

Of course, hindsight is always useful, but everyone should take backups of their apps, even for more benign reasons (e.g restoring a page you deleted ages ago).

darylh · 2025-03-11T10:28:06.450Z

darylh:

I’ve been working on a highly complex business app. Unfortunately, at the same time, I’ve been battling cancer. It got to the point where I needed to take a break so I downgraded to the free plan, thinking that I could immediately pick up where I left off once my health improved.

After downgrading, I read about the NoCodeFusion AI builder for Bubble, and, out of curiosity, decided to give it a try.

I’m not exactly sure what happened. The AI tool created a basic app and I imported it into my bubble account. I didn’t notice at the time, but instead of creating a new app, it completely overwrote my existing business app. It was only logging in a month later to look at something in my business app that I noticed it was all gone. I’m sure it was my mistake. My bubble account has the same name as my business app, so maybe I thought I was importing the app as a new app into my account, wheres it was actually overwriting the app with the same name.

I contacted Bubble support and they couldn’t help. The save points and retention windows are based on your current plan. As soon as you downgrade to the free plan you lose it all.

It’s nearly a year’s worth of development lost due to a stupid mistake. It has left me feeling totally burnt by the whole experience, and my stupidity. I should have exported the app and taken an offline backup when I downgraded. I should have been more aware of the retention periods for the different plans.

I started with Bubble because of years of frustration trying to develop in code. I’ve taken courses in Python, Ruby on Rails and Apple Swift in the past but it never really stuck because development isn’t my day job. I feel unless you have a knack for coding, it’s hard to maintain the skills and knowledge if you’re not working on it day in and day out.

Now I’m not sure if I’ll even continue with bubble. I’m experimenting with ChatGPT and Claude AI, and think that it might be at the point where it can make up for my gaps in coding skills. It also has the added advantage of being able to save my work to a git repository. I can commit often, for free, and not have to worry about my work being lost.

I guess the lesson is, if you can afford it, make sure you’re on a plan with a decent retention period and version control. Then, make sure you export your app regularly to take offline backups.

I must have pressed confirm before properly reading that message. Stupid mistake, I should know that I haven’t been thinking properly while on chemo. I hadn’t yet deployed to live. I’ve been keeping track of everything I did in Linear, but of course, knowing what you’ve implemented and actually implementing it are two different things.

betteredbritain · 2025-03-11T13:06:20.638Z

Hey man really sorry about the Cancer. How are you holding up?

darylh · 2025-03-11T13:42:17.326Z

I’m ok, thanks. I got diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2023 while living in Australia. I’m back in the UK now, had a stem cell transplant, relapsed, and now having other treatment. I’m currently in remission and hoping for the best. I’ve been writing about my experience on my blog - darylhaines.com.

betteredbritain · 2025-03-11T13:48:34.140Z

Definitely gonna check it out. Good luck with your recovery and fingers crossed