Finally, it’s good news! Fanfiction site Archive of Our Own, or AO3, is FINALLY back up. After unexpectedly crashing just over two weeks ago and going down longer than at any other point in the site’s history, AO3 is back online for your fanfic reading pleasure! Huzzah!!! You can head to AO3 dot com RIGHT NOW, but read on for all the details of what happened when AO3 went down, how it came back up, whether you need to worry about anything, and what the future looks like!
AO3 had just passed its two-week mark of being down when it unexpectedly returned from the shadows. The site had estimated it could take two to FOUR weeks to return. Thankfully, that estimate ended up being on the shorter end. We waited just 17 days for AO3 to come back up.
Here’s what AO3 shares about the fanfic site coming back up and resuming its normal functioning. Though it’s long, we’ll share the entire message below. But the TL;DR is AO3 is back up! No AO3 data or work has been deleted. Everything you had on AO3 is safe! AO3 is even extending draft-deletion deadlines so no one loses work they planned to revisit earlier than they should. Given the sensitive, security-related nature of the reason AO3 went down, AO3 will not be sharing details about the incident. But they stress that personal information seems safe at this time. However, they recommend changing your password now that AO3 is back up.
AO3 is now up! Some features have been temporarily disabled to allow us to bring the site back earlier than the four-week mark. At this time, icons across the site (user icons, collection icons, etc.) are disabled, external work importing is unavailable, and works can only be downloaded in HTML format. These features will be restored. No icons have been deleted, they are simply not being displayed currently.
Due to high traffic, you may experience a delay before AO3 loads. This is an intentional measure to help manage traffic. If you see the AO3 downtime page, please refresh and try again!
No AO3 data has been deleted. Your works, bookmarks, kudos, etc., are still safe. Draft deletion was successfully paused and no drafts have been deleted while AO3 was down. In addition, we are going to leave draft deletion paused for the next two weeks to allow users time to log back into their accounts and save copies of or publish their drafts. Beginning November 29, draft deletion will return to normal and all drafts which are 30 days old will be deleted. Please note that the deletion date listed at the top of the draft will remain listed as 30 days after the original creation date and will not reflect the new deadline. We recommend you review your drafts and either save a copy for yourself or post them as soon as you are able.
As this is a security incident, we will not be sharing specifics about what mitigating changes are being made at this time. However, we do want to share that we’ve partnered with a security firm to review the incident and analyze the site to help prevent future incidents. AO3’s security is deeply important to us.
At this time, we have no reason to believe that the user database was compromised, though we cannot rule out that possibility. As the site is now up, we recommend you consider changing your password and ensuring that your email is up-to-date. As a precaution, we also recommend changing your password on any other sites where you have reused your AO3 password.
We understand that the wait and uncertainty surrounding AO3’s return have been difficult, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We greatly appreciate your support during the downtime, and continued patience as our volunteers work hard to return AO3 to its full functionality. We will provide further updates when we have them.
Even though two weeks isn’t actually that long of a time, it was sheer agony for most people I know. And now that AO3 has returned and all our fanfics are safe and at hand once more, we think there will be great celebrating throughout the land. Congratulations on surviving the great AO3 crash of 2026. And may your days be full of light, love, and fanfic now that AO3 is back up again! We thank the many AO3 volunteers for their time and efforts in getting the site back online.
AO3 being down this long has been a great reminder to back up your work and download the fanfics you love. However, and we cannot stress this enough, if you do download a fanfic because you simply cannot live without it, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT AND KUDO FOR THE AUTHOR. Please and THANK YOU! And now, you can head back to your regularly scheduled fanfics and make sure to join the internet party that is AO3 being back up again…