Archive of Our Own reopened on November 15, 2026, after a reported 17-day outage following a security incident. The fanfiction archive, better known as AO3, is back with several features temporarily disabled by its operator, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). Source Source
OTW says no AO3 data was deleted, including works, bookmarks, kudos and drafts. That’s welcome news, but preservation and privacy are different questions: the organization still cannot rule out a compromise of its user database. Source
First, the password precautions
“At this time, we have no reason to believe that the user database was compromised, though we cannot rule out that possibility,” OTW said in the reopening update reproduced by Nerdist. Source
The organization recommends that users:
- Consider changing their AO3 password.
- Make sure their account email address is up to date.
- Change passwords on other sites where they reused their AO3 password. Source
These are precautionary recommendations, not an announcement that passwords were stolen or a mandatory password reset. OTW also says it has partnered with a security firm to review the incident and analyze the site. It is not sharing specifics about its mitigating changes at this stage. Source
What’s still missing
OTW’s November 15 update, reproduced by Nerdist, lists these temporary restrictions:
- Icons are hidden: User icons, collection icons and other icons aren’t being displayed. OTW says they haven’t been deleted.
- External work importing is unavailable.
- Downloads are limited to HTML (web-page format) for now. A very minimalist selection. Source Source
OTW says disabling features allowed it to reopen before the four-week mark; its earlier recovery estimate was two to four weeks. The update promises those features will return but gives no restoration date. Source Source
Loading may also take longer because of intentional traffic-management measures. If the downtime page appears, AO3 advises refreshing and trying again. Dexerto reported the site’s status as “degraded performance” at reopening. Source Source
Give those drafts a backup
OTW says draft deletion was paused throughout the outage and will remain paused for two weeks after reopening. Normal deletion is scheduled to resume on November 29, when all drafts that are 30 days old or older will be deleted. Save copies or publish any drafts you want to keep before then. Source
The deletion date displayed at the top of a draft will still show 30 days after its original creation date, not the extended deadline. OTW recommends reviewing drafts and saving or posting them as soon as possible. Source
The next cliffhanger belongs in the fic, not in whether you saved a copy.
Comments