Shine a Light

Please follow these steps to check and update your email address. If you don't know your password, or if your password is insecure, you will need to reset your password – which requires you to have access to your account's email address.

How do I check what my account’s email address is?

If you are logged in:

Go to your Preferences page (Select "Hi, [USERNAME]!" at the top of the page, and choose "My Preferences" from the drop-down list)

Click on the “Change Email” button at the top of the page

Your email address will be listed on that page, next to “Current email”

If you are not logged in:

Check your email account for recent emails from AO3, such as subscription notifications or kudos and comment emails.

Look at the “To:” field to see what email address is associated with your account.

You will need to enter this email address exactly as it is listed here in order to receive a password reset email.

How do I change my email address? What if I don't have access to my old email address?

You don't need access to your old email address to change it to a new one, as long as you also know your current password.

Log in

Go to your Preferences page (Select "Hi, [USERNAME]!" at the top of the page, and choose "My Preferences" from the drop-down list)

Click on the “Change Email” button at the top of the page

In both the “New email” and “Enter new email again” fields, enter an email address that you have access to

In the “Password” field, enter your current password

Click the “Confirm Email” button

On the next page, make sure that the banner displays the correct new email address

Click the "Yes, Confirm Email" button

Check your new email address for an email titled “[AO3] Confirm your email change”

Click on the confirmation link in that email, making sure to open it in a browser where you are already logged in

Go to the “Change Email” page and double-check that your “Current email” has been successfully updated.

If you still see the banner saying your email change is pending, the most likely reason for this is that you were logged out before you clicked the confirmation link. Make sure to log in to your account before following the email confirmation link, or open the link in a browser where you are already logged in.

I know my current password, but I'm afraid my password is insecure. How can I change my password to a stronger one?

First, refer to the above instructions for checking or updating your email address, so that you can receive a password reset in case your password is insecure. Then:

Log in

Go to your Preferences page (Select "Hi, [USERNAME]!" at the top of the page, and choose "My Preferences" from the drop-down list)

Click on the “Change Password” button at the top of the page

Enter your current password into the “Old password” field

Enter your new password into both the “New password” and “Confirm new password” fields

Click the “Change Password” button

You will be automatically logged out on all devices.

If, upon logging in, you receive a message saying your password is insecure, then the new password you chose was insecure and you can't use it to log back in. You will need to reset your password (refer to the below instructions) and select a more secure password this time. You can use a password generator to choose a stronger password.

I don't know my current password/my password is insecure, but I know and have access to my account's email address.

In a private/incognito browser, go to the Reset Password page: https://archiveofourown.org/users/password/new (also available by clicking the “Forgot Password?” link on the login form)

Enter the email address associated with your AO3 account

Check your email for the password reset email

Click the “use this link to choose a new password” link in the email

Enter a new, secure password

You will be automatically logged in on this device, and automatically logged out on all other devices.

If you continue to receive the message that your password is insecure, then the new password you chose was also insecure. You will need to reset your password again and select a more secure password this time. You can use a password generator to choose a stronger password.

I tried resetting my password, but it didn't work. Help?

The most likely reasons the password reset didn't work are:

You are entering the wrong email address for your AO3 account. Refer to the above instructions on how to check what your account's email address is.

Your email provider is blocking emails from AO3 or sending them to spam/social folders. Search for an email titled “[AO3] Reset your password”.

Your email account doesn't have enough storage and can't receive new emails. You'll need to delete old emails, photos, or videos to empty your storage before requesting a password reset.

You requested multiple password resets in a short time period, resulting in either a “Retry later” page or the link in the first password reset email becoming invalid. Please wait at least one hour before trying again, only submit the form once, and make sure you are using the link in the most recent password reset email.

The new password you chose was insecure, so you can't use it to log back in. You will need to reset your password again and select a more secure password this time. You can use a password generator to choose a stronger password.

I don't know my password/my password is insecure, and I don't know or have access to my account's email address.

You will need to submit a Support ticket containing the following information:

your username

your account’s current email address (if you know it)

an email address that you can access and would like to update your account's email to (enter this email into the Email field so we can contact you)

Take this with a grain of salt but I find it interesting and have spent a decade in arguments about it, so. The (US) audience for many hands-on / interactive events that appeal to both kids and adults, based on all the marketing data I have personally collected or paid tens of thousands of dollars for from third-party agencies, basically says that women ages 30-45 are driving almost all the social media views. Many of those women are trying to plan educational and fun excursions for their children ages 2-13.

The problem comes when you, the adult who is actually invited to participate in said activities, comes to an event with a lot of families with children ages 2-13. People with social graces will say: "I need to let the children enjoy this; it is uncomfortable if I take a spot from a child. Also if I am a man or otherwise have some caution I might be worried that as a solo adult surrounded by kids I will be seen as suspicious." So they just watch from a distance and then usually go home. Which to me sucks because there's often nothing inherent about the activity that makes it enjoyable only to kids.

But too many events don't seem to be at the stage of understanding you need to signal in 1) the advertising and 2) the actual physical setup that both adults and kids are welcome, or need separate stations, or hours that are for certain age groups. I think this is why a lot of museums started doing adult nights, especially science museums. If you ever go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, this will be abundantly clear: the museum is genuinely designed to be fascinating to anyone from a preschooler to a postdoc but unless there's space to allow for all and curated exhibit design with big and small tables, for example, it triggers the mental block of "let the kids have this".

Anyway I spent a decade of my life arguing two things:

Built the event so that both kids and adults have separate and mixed space and train the activity leaders how to welcome and engage the whole spectrum of participants.

Recognize that sometimes you actually do need to provide a separate interaction time or space to make the adults feel welcome, especially childless adults, or at least signage to make sure everyone understands that no, it's actually the point.

I usually work on events that have "low threshold, high ceiling" activities so your mileage may vary. (Meaning: anyone can try doing the thing, even at a very basic or shallow level; the ones who want to go deep focus or discussion about what's behind the activity will find the presenters are VERY capable of talking details or having a back-and-forth about it all day.)

I had a really fun time running an event at a big public television station's festival where just as many adults without kids accompanying them did the activity as kids did, and stayed for a full hour or more as it really was pure fun, and also sensory-friendly compared to much of the other activities. I also wore myself out trying to argue with co-event organizers over the years that hands-on stuff really does appeal to everybody BUT sit-down performances and lectures usually really do have age categories, and it can be a big waste of money to try to combine the two in one mega-event if you don't have ticket revenue or reservations to judge interest by in advance.

That said, I definitely find more events run by neurodivergent people or audiences try harder to be welcoming – especially if the presenters get to engage in their special interests with all kinds of people.