diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/recovery/RecoverySourceHandler.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/recovery/RecoverySourceHandler.java
index 132141af72a5a..9c073a21a10f1 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/recovery/RecoverySourceHandler.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/recovery/RecoverySourceHandler.java
@@ -200,14 +200,17 @@ public RecoveryResponse recoverToTarget() throws IOException {
     boolean isTranslogReadyForSequenceNumberBasedRecovery(final Translog.View translogView) throws IOException {
         final long startingSeqNo = request.startingSeqNo();
         final long endingSeqNo = shard.seqNoStats().getMaxSeqNo();
-        if (startingSeqNo <= endingSeqNo) {
-            // we need to wait for all operations up to the current max to complete, otherwise we can not guarantee that all
-            // operations in the required range will be available for replaying from the translog of the source
+        logger.trace("starting: [{}], ending: [{}}", startingSeqNo, endingSeqNo);
+        if (startingSeqNo - 1 <= endingSeqNo) {
             logger.trace(
                 "{} waiting for all operations in the range [{}, {}] to complete",
                 shard.shardId(),
                 startingSeqNo,
                 endingSeqNo);
+            /*
+             * We need to wait for all operations up to the current max to complete, otherwise we can not guarantee that all
+             * operations in the required range will be available for replaying from the translog of the source.
+             */
             cancellableThreads.execute(() -> shard.waitForOpsToComplete(endingSeqNo));
 
             final LocalCheckpointTracker tracker = new LocalCheckpointTracker(shard.indexSettings(), startingSeqNo, startingSeqNo - 1);
@@ -218,7 +221,7 @@ boolean isTranslogReadyForSequenceNumberBasedRecovery(final Translog.View transl
             }
             return tracker.getCheckpoint() >= endingSeqNo;
         }
-        return true;
+        return false;
     }
 
     /**
@@ -492,7 +495,8 @@ protected int sendSnapshot(final long startingSeqNo, final Translog.Snapshot sna
                 throw new IndexShardClosedException(request.shardId());
             }
             cancellableThreads.checkForCancel();
-            if (operation.seqNo() < startingSeqNo) continue;
+            // we have to send older ops for which no sequence number was assigned, and any ops after the starting sequence number
+            if (operation.seqNo() == SequenceNumbersService.UNASSIGNED_SEQ_NO || operation.seqNo() < startingSeqNo) continue;
             operations.add(operation);
             ops++;
             size += operation.estimateSize();