Hi folks!

The Scratch Team is getting ready to make some necessary updates to our site to keep Scratch reliable and accessible now and in the future. To support this work, Scratch will be in maintenance mode with limited accessibility on the weekend of August 11-August 13, and some Scratch features will not be available on the weekends of August 18-August 20 and August 25-August 27.

What’s happening, and when?

• August 11 at 8 PM ET - August 13 at 1159 PM ET: scratch.mit.edu will be in maintenance mode during portions of this weekend, and you may not be able to access Scratch. If you want to use Scratch during this time, make sure to download the Scratch App to your device.
  
• August 18, 8 PM ET - August 20, 1159 ET: Translation extension blocks, Text-To-Speech extension blocks, and access to projects and assets will be temporarily unavailable during portions of the weekend. The rest of the site should be working normally during this time.
  
• August 25, 8 PM ET - August 27, 1159 ET: The Backpack tool, translation extension blocks, and Cloud Data will be temporarily unavailable during portions of the weekend. The rest of the site should be working normally during this time.
  

Why are we making changes?
We are moving our API and other Scratch services from an older version of our web service platform to a new configuration. In order to do this work as quickly as possible, we need to temporarily pause site features and the site itself.

Will anything happen to my projects, studios, comments, or profile while Scratch is down?
No – your projects, studios, comments, profile, and all content on Scratch will not be affected by this downtime.

Will the assets in my Backpack disappear?
No – the assets in your Backpack will not be affected by this work, they just won’t be available during the scheduled downtime. When the Backpack tool returns, all of your content will still be there. If you need content in your Backpack on the weekend of August 25-27, we recommend downloading it to your device.

What if I want to create projects while Scratch is offline?
You can download the Scratch App to continue making projects while Scratch is offline. If there are any projects you wish to work on during the weekend of August 11-13, make sure to download them to your device before the scheduled downtime.

Thank you for your patience as we complete this necessary work!

Scratch Team