diff --git a/scripts/qiita-recover-jobs b/scripts/qiita-recover-jobs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a8b9e2dbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/qiita-recover-jobs
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright (c) 2014--, The Qiita Development Team.
+#
+# Distributed under the terms of the BSD 3-clause License.
+#
+# The full license is in the file LICENSE, distributed with this software.
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+from subprocess import check_output
+from qiita_db.sql_connection import TRN
+from qiita_db.processing_job import ProcessingJob
+from time import sleep
+
+
+SLEEP_TIME = 2
+
+
+def _submit_jobs(jids_to_recover, recover_type):
+    len_jids_to_recover = len(jids_to_recover) - 1
+    for i, j in enumerate(jids_to_recover):
+        print 'recovering %s: %d/%d' % (recover_type, len_jids_to_recover, i)
+        job = ProcessingJob(j)
+        job._set_status('in_construction')
+        job.submit()
+        sleep(SLEEP_TIME)
+
+
+def qiita_recover_jobs():
+    # Step 1: get current jobs running in the queue
+    qiita_jobs = [line.split()[0] for line in check_output("qstat").split("\n")
+                  # just retriving 'qiita' and ignoring [] (ipython workers)
+                  if 'qiita' in line and '[]' not in line and
+                  # and private jobs
+                  'private' not in line]
+    qiita_jids = []
+    for qj in qiita_jobs:
+        # to retrieve info about the jobs we need to use the fullname, so
+        # appending .ucsd.edu
+        args = ["qstat", "-f", "%s.ucsd.edu" % qj]
+        # the name is the last string of the line and has .txt prepended
+        qji = [line.split()[-1].split(".")[0]
+               for line in check_output(args).split("\n")
+               if 'Job_Name' in line]
+        qiita_jids.extend(qji)
+    qiita_jids = set(qiita_jids)
+
+    sql = """SELECT processing_job_id
+             FROM qiita.processing_job
+             JOIN qiita.processing_job_status
+             USING (processing_job_status_id)
+             WHERE processing_job_status = %s"""
+    sql_validators = """SELECT processing_job_id, array_agg(validator_id)
+                        FROM qiita.processing_job_validator
+                        WHERE processing_job_id in %s
+                        GROUP BY processing_job_id"""
+
+    # Step 2: recover jobs that are in queue status
+    with TRN:
+        recover_type = 'queued'
+        TRN.add(sql, [recover_type])
+        jids = set(TRN.execute_fetchflatten())
+        jids_to_recover = jids - qiita_jids
+
+        _submit_jobs(jids_to_recover, recover_type)
+
+    # Step 3: recover jobs that are running, note that there are several steps
+    #         to recover this group: 3.1. check if they have validators,
+    #         3.2. if so, recover validators, 3. recover failed jobs
+    with TRN:
+        # getting all "running" jobs, discard those in qiita_jids
+        recover_type = 'running'
+        TRN.add(sql, [recover_type])
+        jids = set(TRN.execute_fetchflatten())
+        jids_to_recover = jids - qiita_jids
+
+        # 3.1, and 3.2: checking which jobs have validators, and recover them
+
+        TRN.add(sql_validators, [tuple(jids_to_recover)])
+        jids_validator = TRN.execute_fetchindex()
+        jobs_with_validators = []
+        for j, validators in jids_validator:
+            validators = validators[1:-1].split(',')
+            # we append the main job as it shouldn't be touch
+            # and all their validators
+            jobs_with_validators.append(j)
+            jobs_with_validators.extend(validators)
+            job = ProcessingJob(j)
+            status = set([ProcessingJob(v).status
+                          for v in validators if v not in qiita_jids])
+            # if there are no status, that means that the validators weren't
+            # created and we should rerun from scratch (Step 4)
+            if not bool(status):
+                continue
+            # it multiple status in the validators, it's a complex behaivor
+            # and needs a case by case solution
+            if len(status) != 1:
+                print ("Job '%s' has too many validators status (%d), check "
+                       "them by hand" % (j, len(status)))
+                continue
+            status = list(status)[0]
+
+            if status == 'waiting':
+                print "releasing job validators: %s" % j
+                job.release_validators()
+                sleep(SLEEP_TIME)
+            elif status == 'running':
+                _submit_jobs(validators, recover_type + ' validator, running')
+            elif status == 'error':
+                # in this case is the same process than before but we need
+                # to split the set in_construction and submit in 2 steps,
+                # however, we can still submit via _submit_jobs
+                for v in validators:
+                    vjob = ProcessingJob(v)
+                    vjob._set_status('in_construction')
+                _submit_jobs(validators + ' validator, error')
+            else:
+                print ("Check the status of this job %s : %s and validators"
+                       "%s." % (j, status, validators))
+
+        jids_to_recover = jids_to_recover - set(jobs_with_validators)
+
+    # Step 4: Finally, we recover all the leftover jobs
+    for i, j in enumerate(jids_to_recover):
+        job = ProcessingJob(j)
+        status = job.status
+
+        if status == 'waiting':
+            print "releasing job validators: %s" % j
+            job.release_validators()
+            sleep(SLEEP_TIME)
+        elif 'running' == status:
+            _submit_jobs([j], 'main_job, running')
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    qiita_recover_jobs()