AO3’s outage now comes with a password warning

If you used your AO3 password elsewhere, the archive’s operator wants you to change those other passwords. Its October 30 statement recommends this as a precaution during a security investigation.

OTW says it does not believe the user database was stolen, but cannot rule that out. Account records may include usernames, email and IP addresses, and hashed passwords. OTW explains that hashing scrambles a stored password rather than keeping it in its original form. It still warns that weak choices and reused credentials can be cracked.

The organization said that no AO3 data had been deleted, describing readers’ works, bookmarks and kudos as safe.

Dexerto records how the shutdown began: the archive went offline for maintenance on October 29, with an initial notice putting the interruption at a minimum of 12 hours. The nonprofit archive hosts fanfiction, fan art and other transformative works for readers and creators.

OTW’s October 30 estimate stretched to two to four weeks offline. Limited or read-only access might resume ahead of full recovery, with further interruptions possible.

Where to follow the recovery

OTW’s official directory points readers to its status page for downtime alerts. It lists AO3 Status on Bluesky as @status.archiveofourown.org, on Tumblr as @ao3org and on X as @AO3_Status. It directs account help and feedback to AO3 Support.

OTW also added a November 1 notice directing readers to safety guidance about possible scams and suspicious sites.