diff --git a/database/updates.inc b/database/updates.inc
index d4c11803576bf67ba23c7eff3df28ba175c28c38..28cf5e32ab421a84d2ca50043ff3c51131824035 100644
--- a/database/updates.inc
+++ b/database/updates.inc
@@ -1674,3 +1674,27 @@ function system_update_176() {
   $ret[] = update_sql('ALTER TABLE {filter_formats} ADD UNIQUE (name)');
   return $ret;
 }
+
+function system_update_177() {
+  $message_ids = array(
+    'welcome_subject',
+    'welcome_body',
+    'approval_subject',
+    'approval_body',
+    'pass_subject',
+    'pass_body',
+  );
+  foreach ($message_ids as $message_id) {
+    if ($admin_setting = variable_get('user_mail_' . $message_id, FALSE)) {
+      $admin_setting = '<pre>'. $admin_setting .'</pre>'; //else it renders horrible
+      watchdog('legacy', $admin_setting);
+      $last = db_fetch_object(db_query('SELECT max(wid) wid FROM {watchdog}'));
+      variable_del('user_mail_'. $message_id); //deleting is requird, because _user_mail_text() checks for existance.
+      $i++;
+      $ret[$i]['query'] = l(t('The mail template %message_id is reset to the default, and the old one is saved.', array('%message_id' => 'user_mail_'. $message_id)),'admin/logs/event/'. $last->wid);
+      $ret[$i]['success'] = TRUE;
+    }
+  }
+  return $ret;
+}
+