Ao3 updates fans about site's restoration progress

AO3 says recovery work is progressing, while queued notification emails and user drafts remain priority

The Archive of Our Own (AO3) outage is continuing as the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) works to restore the website following a security incident detected in October.

In its latest update, posted on November 6, the organisation said recovery efforts were progressing well and that its original restoration estimate remained accurate.

While the website remains unavailable, OTW also confirmed that some notification emails had been released.

These included subscription updates and kudos announcements that had been queued before AO3 went offline in October. The organisation stressed that the messages were genuine and not a reason for concern.

OTW also addressed concerns about users' unfinished works, confirming that it was actively working to ensure drafts saved on AO3 would not be deleted during the outage.

The website was initially taken offline for maintenance on October 29, with the organisation first estimating that the work would take at least 12 hours.

However, an investigation subsequently identified a security incident, extending the expected downtime to between two and four weeks.

In its October 30 statement, OTW said it had no evidence that AO3 data had been deleted, confirming that users' works, bookmarks and kudos remained safe.

The organisation also said it did not currently believe its user database had been stolen, although it could not rule out the possibility.

The database contains account information that may include usernames, email addresses, IP addresses and hashed passwords.

As a precaution, users were advised to change passwords on other websites if they had reused their AO3 password. OTW confirmed that it does not collect real names and that donor information is stored separately.

The organisation has suggested that AO3 could return in a limited or read-only state before full restoration, although temporary shutdowns may still be necessary during recovery. Further updates will be shared as the investigation and restoration work continue.
 

While #AO3 remains down, we wanted to share that work to restore AO3 and make changes to prevent future incidents is ongoing and proceeding well. We believe that our original return time estimate remains accurate. Learn more at https://t.co/xzGXE5HyaB https://t.co/5rc1aWAgjz

— AO3 Status (@AO3_Status) November 6, 2026