diff --git a/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/main.yaml
index 18f5b3bbc9..b7b3aad496 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/main.yaml
@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@
   service:
     name: apache2
     state: reloaded
+
+- name: mailman restart containers
+  include_tasks: roles/mailman3/handlers/restart_mailman.yaml
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/restart_mailman.yaml b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/restart_mailman.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9a8bc1b009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/handlers/restart_mailman.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+- name: mailman check for running containers
+  command: pgrep -f uwsgi
+  ignore_errors: yes
+  register: uwsgi_pids
+
+- name: mailman restart containers if running
+  # Also makes sure the containers weren't just restarted by an image update
+  when: uwsgi_pids.rc == 0 and "is up-to-date" in mailman_dcup.stdout
+  block:
+    - name: down containers
+      shell:
+        cmd: docker-compose -f /etc/mailman-compose/docker-compose.yaml down
+    - name: up containers
+      shell:
+        cmd: docker-compose -f /etc/mailman-compose/docker-compose.yaml up -d
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/mailman3/tasks/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/tasks/main.yaml
index 2ec20efadc..36eba320c1 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/mailman3/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/mailman3/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
     owner: 100
     group: 65533
     mode: '0644'
+  notify: mailman restart containers
 
 - name: Ensure Mailman database volume directory exists
   file:
@@ -76,6 +77,7 @@
     owner: 100
     group: 101
     mode: '0644'
+  notify: mailman restart containers
 
 - name: Check for initial setup flag file
   stat:
@@ -100,6 +102,7 @@
     owner: 100
     group: 101
     mode: '0644'
+  notify: mailman restart containers
 
 - name: Copy our max_allowed_packet override config
   copy:
@@ -108,6 +111,7 @@
     owner: 999
     group: 999
     mode: '0644'
+  notify: mailman restart containers
 
 - name: Ensure /etc/mailman-compose directory
   file:
@@ -120,6 +124,7 @@
     src: docker-compose.yaml.j2
     dest: /etc/mailman-compose/docker-compose.yaml
     mode: '0600'
+  notify: mailman restart containers
 
 - name: Run docker-compose pull
   shell:
@@ -130,6 +135,7 @@
   shell:
     cmd: docker-compose up -d
     chdir: /etc/mailman-compose/
+  register: mailman_dcup
 
 - name: Run docker prune to cleanup unneeded images
   shell: