diff --git a/helpdesk/south_migrations/0011_populate_usersettings.py b/helpdesk/south_migrations/0011_populate_usersettings.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8b0514b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpdesk/south_migrations/0011_populate_usersettings.py
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from south.utils import datetime_utils as datetime
+from south.db import db
+from south.v2 import DataMigration
+from django.db import models
+from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
+from helpdesk.settings import DEFAULT_USER_SETTINGS
+
+
+def pickle_settings(data):
+    """Pickling as defined at migration's creation time"""
+    import cPickle
+    from helpdesk.lib import b64encode
+    return b64encode(cPickle.dumps(data))
+
+
+# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/migrations/#data-migrations
+def populate_usersettings(orm):
+    """Create a UserSettings entry for each existing user.
+    This will only happen once (at install time, or at upgrade)
+    when the UserSettings model doesn't already exist."""
+
+    _User = get_user_model()
+    
+    # Import historical version of models
+    User = orm[_User._meta.app_label+'.'+_User._meta.model_name]
+    UserSettings = orm["helpdesk"+'.'+"UserSettings"]
+    settings_pickled = pickle_settings(DEFAULT_USER_SETTINGS)
+
+    for u in User.objects.all():
+        try:
+            UserSettings.objects.get(user=u)
+        except UserSettings.DoesNotExist:
+            UserSettings.objects.create(user=u, settings_pickled=settings_pickled)
+
+class Migration(DataMigration):
+
+    def forwards(self, orm):
+        populate_usersettings(orm)
+
+    def backwards(self, orm):
+        pass
+
+    models = {
+        u'auth.group': {
+            'Meta': {'object_name': 'Group'},
+            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
+            'name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'unique': 'True', 'max_length': '80'}),
+            'permissions': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ManyToManyField', [], {'to': u"orm['auth.Permission']", 'symmetrical': 'False', 'blank': 'True'})
+        },
+        u'auth.permission': {
+            'Meta': {'ordering': "(u'content_type__app_label', u'content_type__model', u'codename')", 'unique_together': "((u'content_type', u'codename'),)", 'object_name': 'Permission'},
+            'codename': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '100'}),
+            'content_type': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ForeignKey', [], {'to': u"orm['contenttypes.ContentType']"}),
+            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
+            'name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '50'})
+        },
+        u'auth.user': {
+            'Meta': {'object_name': 'User'},
+            'date_joined': ('django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField', [], {'default': 'datetime.datetime.now'}),
+            'email': ('django.db.models.fields.EmailField', [], {'max_length': '75', 'blank': 'True'}),
+            'first_name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '30', 'blank': 'True'}),
+            'groups': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ManyToManyField', [], {'symmetrical': 'False', 'related_name': "u'user_set'", 'blank': 'True', 'to': u"orm['auth.Group']"}),
+            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
+            'is_active': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'True'}),
+            'is_staff': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'False'}),
+            'is_superuser': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'False'}),
+            'last_login': ('django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField', [], {'default': 'datetime.datetime.now'}),
+            'last_name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '30', 'blank': 'True'}),
+            'password': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '128'}),
+            'user_permissions': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ManyToManyField', [], {'symmetrical': 'False', 'related_name': "u'user_set'", 'blank': 'True', 'to': u"orm['auth.Permission']"}),
+            'username': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'unique': 'True', 'max_length': '30'})
+        },
+        u'contenttypes.contenttype': {
+            'Meta': {'ordering': "('name',)", 'unique_together': "(('app_label', 'model'),)", 'object_name': 'ContentType', 'db_table': "'django_content_type'"},
+            'app_label': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '100'}),
+            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
+            'model': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '100'}),
+            'name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '100'})
+        },
+        u'helpdesk.usersettings': {
+            'Meta': {'object_name': 'UserSettings'},
+            u'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
+            'settings_pickled': ('django.db.models.fields.TextField', [], {'null': 'True', 'blank': 'True'}),
+            'user': ('django.db.models.fields.related.OneToOneField', [], {'to': u"orm['auth.User']", 'unique': 'True'})
+        }
+    }
+
+    complete_apps = ['helpdesk']
+    symmetrical = True