diff --git a/migrations/20250620100013_add_database_guardrails.sql b/migrations/20250620100013_add_database_guardrails.sql
index 67f86a6..26a4cf2 100644
--- a/migrations/20250620100013_add_database_guardrails.sql
+++ b/migrations/20250620100013_add_database_guardrails.sql
@@ -53,9 +53,10 @@ WHERE status IN ('pending', 'processing');
 CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION validate_ocr_consistency()
 RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
 BEGIN
-    -- Prevent updating completed OCR unless explicitly allowed
-    IF OLD.ocr_status = 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status != 'completed' THEN
-        RAISE EXCEPTION 'Cannot modify completed OCR data for document %', OLD.id;
+    -- Allow OCR retry operations: completed -> pending is allowed for retry functionality
+    -- Prevent other modifications to completed OCR data
+    IF OLD.ocr_status = 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status != 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status != 'pending' THEN
+        RAISE EXCEPTION 'Cannot modify completed OCR data for document %. Only retry (pending) is allowed.', OLD.id;
     END IF;
     
     -- Ensure OCR text and metadata consistency
diff --git a/migrations/20250702000002_fix_ocr_retry_guardrails.sql b/migrations/20250702000002_fix_ocr_retry_guardrails.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96d904c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/20250702000002_fix_ocr_retry_guardrails.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+-- Fix OCR retry functionality by allowing completed -> pending transitions
+-- This addresses the issue where retry operations were blocked by database guardrails
+
+-- Update the OCR consistency validation function to allow retry operations
+CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION validate_ocr_consistency()
+RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
+BEGIN
+    -- Allow OCR retry operations: completed -> pending is allowed for retry functionality
+    -- Prevent other modifications to completed OCR data
+    IF OLD.ocr_status = 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status != 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status != 'pending' THEN
+        RAISE EXCEPTION 'Cannot modify completed OCR data for document %. Only retry (pending) is allowed.', OLD.id;
+    END IF;
+    
+    -- Ensure OCR text and metadata consistency
+    IF NEW.ocr_status = 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_text IS NOT NULL THEN
+        -- Check that confidence and word count are reasonable
+        IF NEW.ocr_confidence IS NULL OR NEW.ocr_word_count IS NULL THEN
+            RAISE WARNING 'OCR completed but missing confidence or word count for document %', NEW.id;
+        END IF;
+        
+        -- Validate word count roughly matches text length
+        IF NEW.ocr_word_count > 0 AND length(NEW.ocr_text) < NEW.ocr_word_count THEN
+            RAISE WARNING 'OCR word count (%) seems too high for text length (%) in document %', 
+                NEW.ocr_word_count, length(NEW.ocr_text), NEW.id;
+        END IF;
+    END IF;
+    
+    -- Set completion timestamp when status changes to completed
+    IF OLD.ocr_status != 'completed' AND NEW.ocr_status = 'completed' THEN
+        NEW.ocr_completed_at = NOW();
+    END IF;
+    
+    RETURN NEW;
+END;
+$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
+
+-- Add comment to document the change
+COMMENT ON FUNCTION validate_ocr_consistency() IS 'Validates OCR data consistency during updates. Updated to allow retry operations (completed -> pending transitions).';
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/routes/documents_ocr_retry.rs b/src/routes/documents_ocr_retry.rs
index bce5f03..11874eb 100644
--- a/src/routes/documents_ocr_retry.rs
+++ b/src/routes/documents_ocr_retry.rs
@@ -521,7 +521,8 @@ async fn get_all_failed_ocr_documents(
         r#"
         SELECT id, filename, file_size, mime_type, ocr_failure_reason
         FROM documents
-        WHERE ($1::uuid IS NULL OR user_id = $1)
+        WHERE ocr_status = 'failed'
+          AND ($1::uuid IS NULL OR user_id = $1)
         ORDER BY created_at DESC
         "#
     )