DreamHost Investigates File Manager and Webmail Outage, Resets Passwords for Affected Users

DreamHost is working through an ongoing service disruption that has kept its File Manager offline and affected webmail and email hosting since October 23 2026, and the company is resetting the passwords of some email and FTP/SFTP users as a precaution. DreamHost has not disclosed a cause; its first update said the team was still working to identify one.

Incident Timeline

The company’s Operations team began investigating connectivity problems affecting the File Manager interface on October 23 2026 at 2:20 PM PDT. By 5:20 PM PDT the incident covered several services: the panel File Manager at files.dreamhost.com was taken offline, some webmail users were signed out or saw an error when logging in, and DreamHost began resetting the passwords of some email accounts. The company warned that webmail and email apps such as Outlook, Apple Mail and phone clients would stop accepting the old password once a reset was applied.

At 8:01 PM PDT DreamHost said the investigation was continuing and that more information would follow shortly.

Password Reset Process

In an update at 10:13 PM PDT on October 23, DreamHost said resets for some email and FTP/SFTP users were under way and that affected account owners would be emailed step-by-step instructions for setting new passwords. It asked users to wait for that email before changing passwords themselves, because changes made before the reset finished would be overwritten. An update at 12:25 AM PDT on October 24 said the work was continuing overnight.

At 10:37 AM PDT on October 24 DreamHost reported the reset complete. Account owners could set new passwords directly at panel.dreamhost.com under “Mail > Manage Email” or “Websites > SFTP Users & Files”, with up to 15 minutes for a new password to take effect, and the company said there was no need to wait for its email. By 6:09 PM PDT it said the emails were going out in batches and would continue over the next few hours.

Current Status and Guidance

On October 25 at 11:43 AM PDT DreamHost said most of the emails had been sent and that a “Failed to edit” error seen by some Professional Email customers when setting a new password had been fixed. In its latest update, at 9:32 PM PDT the same day, the company said all impacted account holders had now been emailed instructions. Those users cannot log in until the account owner resets their passwords and shares the new credentials with them.

The File Manager at files.dreamhost.com remains unavailable while restoration work continues. DreamHost repeated that it will never email customers asking for a password and that password changes should be made directly at panel.dreamhost.com.

Sources: dreamhoststatus.com