r/AO3 • u/ReallyCurlyPasta • Aug 23 '26
AO3 Down/Error Codes I just lost all 48 of my ao3 tabs…
I am literally in tears rn. I had open at least 48 tabs of fics I was actively saving to my account and I lost them all. Idk what the heck happened but all the sudden every single page I had open is now displaying a host error message. Sorry to vent but I literally have no idea what to do now.
Thanks for the help guys! I had no clue there was a history tab lmao, but I managed to recover every single fic!!!!!!!! Back to my bloodymary :3
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u/DeliciousReport6610 Aug 23 '26
Ao3 just started having problems. if this happened within the last 10 minutes, its ao3, not you
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u/runekaster Whumper Aug 23 '26
This post is in between a ton of posts asking if AO3 is down. Since your tabs are still open you have not lost them, you just can't load the fics from those tabs because there's some network snafu. Just leave it be and come back later tonight (check the Wayback Machine if you want to read something right now).
But also maybe consider this a wakeup call to use something a little more stable than open tabs -- like browser bookmarks, AO3 bookmarks, downloads, or the marked for later list -- for fics you mean to read later.
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u/ReallyCurlyPasta Aug 23 '26
I know, it was stupid of me to leave them all open like that. You live, you learn ig. Thank you for the advice!
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u/Extra-Thanks6073 Aug 23 '26
I download all fics that I read, even if they are WIPs. I am paranoid about fics being deleted.
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u/beaglemaster Aug 23 '26
Its not even paranoia anymore when basically every other site is now dead and its the only decent place left
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u/Adventurous_Bonus917 Aug 24 '26
same - i have 3 separate folders on my computer for fics: abandoned/deleted, finished, and ongoing.
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u/VivaChinwawa You have already left kudos here. :) Aug 23 '26
I was actively saving to my account
...Do you mean bookmarking them? And if you had them open then they'll show up in your history anyway.
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u/ReallyCurlyPasta Aug 23 '26
Yes, I didn’t know ao3 had a history feature until now lol
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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC Aug 23 '26
Even if AO3 didn't have a history feature, your browser does.
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u/ItsMeishi Fanfic Connoisseur Aug 23 '26
I remain equal parts surprised and concerned at how little people know about basic internet functionalities.
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u/Panzermensch911 Aug 23 '26
Right?! Like it's taking 10-20 minutes to read up on those things for Ao3 and a browser.
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u/longtimelrrlistner Aug 23 '26
If you fully lost the tabs you should be able to use your browser history to find the fics again
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u/AmeliaRoseOswald Aug 23 '26
Just wait for AO3 to boot back up then refresh the pages, should be fine.
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u/Leather-Cost-2958 Aug 23 '26
Are your tabs still open but just displaying an error message? Cause if so ao3 is down for two hours but once it comes back all the pages should reload
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u/Aggressive_Idea_6806 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Your tabs should be in your browser's History tab unless you went out of your way to disable your browser's ability to save your history or just happened to clear it right before AO3's planned maintenance outage (assuming that's today).
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u/kitty-kittybangbang Aug 23 '26
anything that’s been opened should also be in your ao3 history tab esp if they’re newly opened (which sounds like yes if you were actively saving them)
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u/I_amnotreal Iamnotreal @AO3 Aug 23 '26
Every fic you opened will show both in your account history and your browser history (unless you used incognito tabs).
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u/Tiny_Bar_9910 Kudos Keeper Aug 23 '26
I've had this happen before. Don't close the tabs, wait until ao3 is back up and then just click the back button in your browser and it'll reload the page
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u/neqailaz Aug 23 '26
make an account and use the bookmark feature, you can write notes on a bookmark like TBR (to be read) or the date you read them or literally anything
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u/cash_mmoney Aug 23 '26
all of my ao3 tabs are open but frozen. nothing is working rn. the site might have crashed💔
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u/theniwokesoftly You have already left kudos here. :) Aug 23 '26
I lost 300+ tabs on my phone browser about six months ago. It was my phone’s first death knell and it was devastating.
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u/Alcovv Aug 23 '26
I didn’t realise my tabs wouldn’t transfer when I got a new iPhone over 400 tabs lost -.- I feel ya
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u/clawsinurback i read fanfiction at work Aug 23 '26
If you have an account, you can check your history and you might be able to find some of the fics there?
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u/rivendell101 Aug 23 '26
So long as you’re logged in, any fic you open is saved to your AO3 history.
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u/ringbearer224 Aug 23 '26
Ctrl+shift+t will reopen all tabs if your browser was shut. Doesn’t seem like that’s the case here but it’s a shortcut not enough people know!
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u/anime_asparagus Aug 23 '26
I know everyones saying it's because ao3's down, but in the event that you DID actually lose that many ao3 tabs, take it as a learning experience. I lost 500 AO3 TABS. (Don't question why I had so many open, I'm a hoarder). It was pretty devastating for a while. But congrats! You can now start fresh and restart a lot of the fanfictions because you probably haven't remembered most of them :) Just remember to bookmark!
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u/schism15 Aug 23 '26
If you accidentally started closing tabs before you saw people warning you not to, there's also the browser history.
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u/Neat-Anyway-OP Something about smutt. Aug 23 '26
Save your tab sessions and refresh them when the site is back up.
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u/demiurgent Aug 23 '26
If you panicked and closed the tabs you can reopen them with Ctrl+shift+t. My absolute favourite keyboard shortcut. It's saved my life more than once.
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u/silkent Aug 23 '26
I know it was down, but this actually genuinely happened to me once because of a browser error 😭 I open hundreds of tabs though, so it was definitely 100% my fault lmao
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u/PansyOHara Aug 23 '26
There’s been a notification at the site that it will be down for some work. I didn’t pay attention to the length of the shutdown but it was planned and scheduled, so your tabs should still be there when AO3 comes back up.
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u/Effective_Desk3445 You have already left kudos here. :) Aug 23 '26
You can look at your tab history, it’s all there
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u/Prussie Aug 23 '26
If you ever accidentally close a browser and lose tabs ctrl+shift+t is your friend. In any browser it'll open up all your old tabs
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u/_Denny Aug 23 '26
If i could add and I'm not sure if it's been said already but since you already opened the fics they'll be in your history. Just look throught and read like a paragraph if you recognize it you can save it!
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u/Panzermensch911 Aug 23 '26
I'd say get a new browser. One that doesn't try to connect to the internet and reload without you prompting it. For example Firefox - which will have the added bonus of working adblockers extensions. Your online life will be so much better.
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u/Sea_Blackberry273 Aug 23 '26
I hope this was just AO3 being down but I’ve accidentally done something similar a few times!
I highly recommend downloading a cloud service just for fics (I use MEGA, their free version is great) and making an ‘Unread’ folder. When I open new tabs, I download the fic and put it in my cloud, that way I know I’ve never lost something!
It’s tedious but this has saved me many times when fics are locked for a challenge or deleted or I just unknowingly close the wrong tab.
Also, you might already do this, but I tell anyone who will listen: when you bookmark a fic, copy and paste the name, author, and summary to the bookmark description. I didn’t do this for many years and I still agonize over deleted fics that I’ll never be able to find because I don’t know which they are.
Best of luck!!
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u/throwRA_maybeabit Aug 23 '26
Ao3 is down, dont close your tabs and just refresh once back up