diff --git a/fix_gerrit_email.py b/fix_gerrit_email.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fdc22f9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fix_gerrit_email.py
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+import os
+import sys
+import uuid
+import os
+import subprocess
+
+from datetime import datetime
+
+import StringIO
+import ConfigParser
+
+import MySQLdb
+
+GERRIT_USER = os.environ.get('GERRIT_USER', 'gerrit2')
+GERRIT_CONFIG = os.environ.get('GERRIT_CONFIG',
+                                 '/home/gerrit2/review_site/etc/gerrit.config')
+GERRIT_SECURE_CONFIG = os.environ.get('GERRIT_SECURE_CONFIG',
+                                 '/home/gerrit2/review_site/etc/secure.config')
+GERRIT_SSH_KEY = os.environ.get('GERRIT_SSH_KEY',
+                                 '/home/gerrit2/.ssh/launchpadsync_rsa')
+GERRIT_CACHE_DIR = os.path.expanduser(os.environ.get('GERRIT_CACHE_DIR',
+                                '~/.launchpadlib/cache'))
+GERRIT_CREDENTIALS = os.path.expanduser(os.environ.get('GERRIT_CREDENTIALS',
+                                '~/.launchpadlib/creds'))
+GERRIT_BACKUP_PATH = os.environ.get('GERRIT_BACKUP_PATH',
+                                '/home/gerrit2/dbupdates')
+
+for check_path in (os.path.dirname(GERRIT_CACHE_DIR),
+                   os.path.dirname(GERRIT_CREDENTIALS),
+                   GERRIT_BACKUP_PATH):
+  if not os.path.exists(check_path):
+    os.makedirs(check_path)
+
+def get_broken_config(filename):
+  """ gerrit config ini files are broken and have leading tabs """
+  text = ""
+  with open(filename,"r") as conf:
+    for line in conf.readlines():
+      text = "%s%s" % (text, line.lstrip())
+
+  fp = StringIO.StringIO(text)
+  c=ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
+  c.readfp(fp)
+  return c
+
+def get_type(in_type):
+  if in_type == "RSA":
+    return "ssh-rsa"
+  else:
+    return "ssh-dsa"
+
+gerrit_config = get_broken_config(GERRIT_CONFIG)
+secure_config = get_broken_config(GERRIT_SECURE_CONFIG)
+
+DB_USER = gerrit_config.get("database", "username")
+DB_PASS = secure_config.get("database","password")
+DB_DB = gerrit_config.get("database","database")
+
+db_backup_file = "%s.%s.sql" % (DB_DB, datetime.isoformat(datetime.now()))
+db_backup_path = os.path.join(GERRIT_BACKUP_PATH, db_backup_file)
+retval = os.system("mysqldump --opt -u%s -p%s %s > %s" %
+                     (DB_USER, DB_PASS, DB_DB, db_backup_path))
+if retval != 0:
+  print "Problem taking a db dump, aborting db update"
+  sys.exit(retval)
+
+conn = MySQLdb.connect(user = DB_USER, passwd = DB_PASS, db = DB_DB)
+cur = conn.cursor()
+
+cur.execute("""select account_id, email_address, external_id 
+                 from account_external_ids""")
+
+accounts = {}
+for (account_id, email_address, external_id) in cur.fetchall():
+  account = accounts.get(account_id, {})
+  if email_address is not None:
+    if not account.has_key('email_address'):
+      account['email_address'] = email_address
+  if external_id[:7] == "mailto:":
+    if not account.has_key('external_id'):
+      account['external_id'] = external_id
+  accounts[account_id] = account
+
+for (account_id, account) in accounts.items():
+  if not account.has_key('external_id') and account.has_key('email_address'):
+    external_id = 'mailto:%s' % account['email_address']
+    cur.execute("""insert into account_external_ids
+                   (account_id, email_address, external_id)
+                   values (%s, %s, %s)""",
+                   (account_id, account['email_address'], external_id))
+
+os.system("ssh -i %s -p29418 %s@localhost gerrit flush-caches" %
+          (GERRIT_SSH_KEY, GERRIT_USER))