The western Acehnese coastline in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, receded on average 110 m due to subsidence and tsunami inundation in the course of the December 26, 2004 SumatraAndaman earthquake and tsunami. Here, we investigate the re-growth of the coast through field surveys, spatial imagery analysis, and numerical modeling. The coastline change was quantified by digitizing the shoreline on satellite and aerial images taken between 2002 and 2013 and by computing the shoreline change rates using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) developed by the US Geological Survey. Shoreline analysis indicates that following initial erosion, the coast prograded rapidly and a wide new beach ridge formed. Still an average of 45 m from its initial position in 2011, the coastline, however, never fully recovered to its pre-2004 position. Three topographic surveys conducted in 2009, 2012, and 2013 over a beach ridge plain in West Aceh show that the newly formed beach ridge stands out 80 cm higher than older beach ridges further inland, a response to coseismic subsidence and a higher relative sea level. Most recent satellite imagery and surveying data from 2013 show a renewed retreat of the coastline of up to 41 m since 2011. In order to understand the coastal changes in Aceh and the complex interaction of land level changes, sediment supply, and hydrodynamic parameters, we have applied the coastal model Unibest-TC developed by Deltares to our data. Coseismic subsidence caused an increase in accommodation space which typically results in coastal retreat if the sediment supply is low. While not normally a sediment poor environment, the redistribution of nearshore sediment by the tsunami and the building of a higher beach ridge have probably resulted in an overall decrease in sediment supply. Postseismic uplift lowered relative sea level, typically causing progradation but with sediment loss within the system, the coastline could not maintain a progradational profile and started to retreat.