diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGatewayNodeAllocation.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGatewayNodeAllocation.java
index 3f58a501439..aedadad0952 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGatewayNodeAllocation.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGatewayNodeAllocation.java
@@ -154,8 +154,11 @@ public class LocalGatewayNodeAllocation extends NodeAllocation {
         RoutingNodes routingNodes = allocation.routingNodes();
 
         for (IndexRoutingTable indexRoutingTable : routingNodes.routingTable()) {
-            // TODO we need to also handle a case where all shards per replication group are unassigned, in that case, we ignore until we
-            // manage to find a place to allocate them...
+            // only do the allocation if there is a local "INDEX NOT RECOVERED" block
+            if (!routingNodes.blocks().hasIndexBlock(indexRoutingTable.index(), LocalGateway.INDEX_NOT_RECOVERED_BLOCK)) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
             if (indexRoutingTable.allPrimaryShardsUnassigned()) {
                 // all primary are unassigned for the index, see if we can allocate it on existing nodes, if not, don't assign
                 Set<String> nodesIds = Sets.newHashSet();
@@ -245,7 +248,6 @@ public class LocalGatewayNodeAllocation extends NodeAllocation {
             return changed;
         }
 
-        // go ahead and see if we can optimize replica allocation to an existing node...
         Iterator<MutableShardRouting> unassignedIterator = routingNodes.unassigned().iterator();
         while (unassignedIterator.hasNext()) {
             MutableShardRouting shard = unassignedIterator.next();