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DreamHost says its File Manager is back online after an incident that also affected some webmail and FTP/SFTP users. As of the company’s October 26 status update, password resets were still required for a subset of email and FTP/SFTP accounts; affected users need their account owner to set and share new credentials.
DreamHost says its File Manager is back online after a service incident that disrupted access to several services, but some email and FTP/SFTP users still need password resets. In its October 26 status update, the hosting company said account owners must reset passwords for the affected users; those users cannot sign in until they receive updated credentials.
The incident affected Web Services and Email Services, including the File Manager interface, email hosting and webmail interface, according to DreamHost’s status page. The company’s latest update, posted at 3:35 p.m. PDT on October 26, said engineers had deployed a fix and restored files.dreamhost.com. DreamHost described the service as under monitoring and said it would post again when the File Manager was fully operational.
Password resets were still required for a subset of email and FTP/SFTP accounts. DreamHost said affected account holders had been emailed step-by-step instructions. An account owner must set new passwords for the affected mail or file-transfer users and share those credentials with them; until then, those users will be unable to log in. The company’s status notices direct account owners to use the DreamHost control panel rather than provide passwords in response to email.
DreamHost previously said the issue had caused some webmail users to be signed out or encounter login errors, while its panel File Manager was offline. It also said the old passwords for affected mail accounts would stop working. The company’s October 25 updates reported that it had emailed affected account owners and fixed a separate error some Professional Email customers encountered while changing passwords. These notices describe service effects and mitigation steps; they do not state that customer data was accessed or that the incident was a security breach.
Access Depends on Account Owners
The remaining reset requirement means recovery is not complete for every user even though the File Manager is back online. Email and FTP/SFTP users may remain locked out until the owner of their DreamHost account changes the relevant password and passes the new credentials along. This is particularly relevant for organizations in which one administrator manages accounts used by several employees or contractors.
Users should distinguish the company’s service notification from a request for credentials. DreamHost repeatedly stated that it will never email customers asking for their password and advised them to go directly to panel.dreamhost.com to make changes. That warning matters during a password-reset incident, when unexpected messages about account access could be used to imitate legitimate support instructions. The status updates do not say that such impersonation has occurred.
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From Outage to Password Resets
DreamHost first reported the incident at 5:20 p.m. PDT on October 23, saying it was investigating problems affecting several services. At that point, files.dreamhost.com was offline, and some webmail users had been signed out or were seeing errors. The company said it was resetting passwords for some email accounts as a precaution and would notify affected customers.
In later updates, DreamHost said resets for affected email and FTP/SFTP users were in progress and that account owners could set new passwords in the control panel. The company initially advised some customers to wait for its reset process to finish, then said account owners did not need to wait for an email before making the change. It warned that new passwords could take up to 15 minutes to take effect. By October 25, DreamHost said users whose passwords had been reset would not be able to log in until their account owner set new ones. The October 26 notice reported restoration of the File Manager, while keeping the overall incident under monitoring.
“Our engineers have pushed out a fix to the File Manager, and http://files.dreamhost.com is now back online.”
— DreamHost status page, October 26, 2026
Cause and Full Recovery Status
DreamHost’s published updates do not identify what caused the incident, how many accounts were affected, or whether any customer information was accessed. The company described password resets as a precaution, but its notices do not provide further detail about the risk that prompted them. The available status page also does not specify which individual accounts fall within the affected subset.
The File Manager was reported back online on October 26, but DreamHost said it was still monitoring the service and would post when it was fully operational. It is not clear from the supplied updates whether all remaining password resets have since been completed or whether every affected user has regained access. No separate confirmation of full resolution is included in the latest notice provided.
Watch for DreamHost Updates
DreamHost said it would continue monitoring the File Manager and update its status page when the service was fully operational. Customers who have received an affected-account notification should follow the instructions for their account, or contact the account owner if they use an email or FTP/SFTP login managed by someone else. Account owners can make password changes through the company’s control panel; DreamHost said changes may take up to 15 minutes to work.
Customers should go directly to panel.dreamhost.com rather than follow a login link in an unexpected message, and should not send their password by email. The next clear milestone is DreamHost’s confirmation that monitoring is complete and that the remaining resets and service recovery are resolved. Until the company posts that confirmation, the status should be treated as partly restored and still under monitoring.
Key Questions
Is DreamHost’s File Manager back online?
DreamHost said on October 26, 2026, that files.dreamhost.com was back online after engineers deployed a fix. The company was still monitoring the service and had not yet declared the incident fully clear in the supplied update.
Who needs to reset a password?
DreamHost said a subset of email and FTP/SFTP users still needed new passwords. The account owner must set the new password and share the credentials with the affected user.
Can affected users sign in with their old passwords?
DreamHost said affected users would be unable to log in until their account owner resets their passwords and provides the new credentials. The company said password changes may take up to 15 minutes to take effect.
Has DreamHost said customer data was accessed?
The status updates provided here do not say that customer data was accessed. DreamHost has not explained the cause of the incident or published an affected-account count in those updates.
How should customers handle reset messages?
DreamHost says it will never email customers asking for their password. Customers should go directly to panel.dreamhost.com to change a password and should contact their account owner if they are an email or FTP/SFTP user.
Source: dreamhoststatus.com
