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AWS Amplify

Cutting Over From AppSync to Your Own API Without Downtime (and Without Logging Anyone Out)

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November 2, 2026

5 min read

Keep the Cognito user pool, verify the same tokens in the new API, move one screen at a time behind a flag, and keep AppSync alive until old mobile app versions are gone. The order that avoids a big-bang release, and the checks that tell you it is safe to switch off the old backend.

Amplify Exit
AppSync
Amazon Cognito
Migration
Mobile

The risky way to leave AppSync is a release that switches everything at once. The safe way takes longer and is boring on purpose: both backends run, each screen moves when it is ready, and the old one is switched off when nothing calls it.

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Order of work

  1. Auth first. The new API validates the Cognito JWTs the app already has: signature against the user pool's keys, issuer, audience or client id, and expiry. Users notice nothing.

  2. Data next, kept in sync from DynamoDB Streams, so either backend can serve reads.

  3. Reads, screen by screen, behind a remotely controlled flag. Compare responses from both backends in staging, and in production for a sample.

  4. Writes, one entity at a time. When an entity's writes move, publish real-time events from the new API.

  5. Background work last: triggers, scheduled functions and anything that listens to the old tables.

The mobile problem

Web clients update on the next page load. Mobile apps don't. Some users will run a version that calls AppSync for months. Ship the flag-driven client early, add a minimum supported version check, and keep AppSync running, with its data in sync, until that version is old enough to force an update.

Safe to switch off when

  • AppSync request metrics have been at zero, or at a known trickle you have decided to drop, for two weeks.

  • Entity counts and checksums match between old and new stores.

  • A final export of every Amplify table is in S3 with a retention rule.

  • The rollback plan is written down, even if you won't need it.

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As of November 2, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.