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Evidence shows that visual working memory (VWM) is strongly served by attentional mechanisms, whereas other evidence shows that VWM representations readily survive when attention is taken away. To reconcile these findings, we tested the hypothesis that directing attention away makes a memory representation vulnerable to interference from the test pattern, but only temporarily so. When given sufficient time, the robustness of VWM can be restored. In six experiments, participants remembered a single grating for a later memory test. In the crucial conditions, participants also performed a letter change detection task in between, during the delay period. Using various replications, Experiments 1-4 demonstrate, the effect predicted: The intervening task had an adverse effect on memory performance, but only when the test display appeared immediately after the secondary task. At long delays (of 3.5 seconds …