diff --git a/pkg/controller/cronjob/BUILD b/pkg/controller/cronjob/BUILD
index 26cd161379e..94dfb52d41d 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/cronjob/BUILD
+++ b/pkg/controller/cronjob/BUILD
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ go_library(
         "//pkg/apis/batch/v1:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/apis/batch/v2alpha1:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/client/clientset_generated/clientset:go_default_library",
+        "//pkg/controller:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/util/metrics:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/golang/glog:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/robfig/cron:go_default_library",
diff --git a/pkg/controller/cronjob/cronjob_controller.go b/pkg/controller/cronjob/cronjob_controller.go
index cc664b5bca7..d78689a82c4 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/cronjob/cronjob_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/cronjob/cronjob_controller.go
@@ -247,6 +247,12 @@ func syncOne(sj *batchv2alpha1.CronJob, js []batchv1.Job, now time.Time, jc jobC
 		return
 	}
 
+	if err := adoptJobs(sj, js, jc); err != nil {
+		// This is fine. We will retry later.
+		// Adoption is only to advise other controllers. We don't rely on it.
+		glog.V(4).Infof("Unable to adopt Jobs for CronJob %v: %v", nameForLog, err)
+	}
+
 	if sj.Spec.Suspend != nil && *sj.Spec.Suspend {
 		glog.V(4).Infof("Not starting job for %s because it is suspended", nameForLog)
 		return
diff --git a/pkg/controller/cronjob/injection.go b/pkg/controller/cronjob/injection.go
index ba33de68d8d..ecf1b3c89ce 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/cronjob/injection.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/cronjob/injection.go
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ type fakeJobControl struct {
 	Jobs          []batchv1.Job
 	DeleteJobName []string
 	Err           error
+	UpdateJobName []string
 }
 
 var _ jobControlInterface = &fakeJobControl{}
@@ -151,6 +152,7 @@ func (f *fakeJobControl) UpdateJob(namespace string, job *batchv1.Job) (*batchv1
 	if f.Err != nil {
 		return nil, f.Err
 	}
+	f.UpdateJobName = append(f.UpdateJobName, job.Name)
 	return job, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils.go b/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils.go
index c755d3ff8b0..eee83331c8e 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils.go
@@ -28,11 +28,13 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/types"
+	utilerrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/errors"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1/ref"
 	batchv1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/batch/v1"
 	batchv2alpha1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/batch/v2alpha1"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/controller"
 )
 
 // Utilities for dealing with Jobs and CronJobs and time.
@@ -279,3 +281,35 @@ func (o byJobStartTime) Less(i, j int) bool {
 
 	return (*o[i].Status.StartTime).Before(*o[j].Status.StartTime)
 }
+
+// adoptJobs applies missing ControllerRefs to Jobs created by a CronJob.
+//
+// This should only happen if the Jobs were created by an older version of the
+// CronJob controller, since from now on we add ControllerRef upon creation.
+//
+// CronJob doesn't do actual adoption because it doesn't use label selectors to
+// find its Jobs. However, we should apply ControllerRef for potential
+// server-side cascading deletion, and to advise other controllers we own these
+// objects.
+func adoptJobs(sj *batchv2alpha1.CronJob, js []batchv1.Job, jc jobControlInterface) error {
+	var errs []error
+	sjControllerRef := *newControllerRef(sj)
+	for i := range js {
+		job := &js[i]
+		controllerRef := controller.GetControllerOf(job)
+		if controllerRef != nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		job.OwnerReferences = append(job.OwnerReferences, sjControllerRef)
+		updatedJob, err := jc.UpdateJob(job.Namespace, job)
+		if err != nil {
+			// If there's a ResourceVersion or other error, don't bother retrying.
+			// We will just try again on a subsequent CronJob sync.
+			errs = append(errs, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		// Save it back to the array for later consumers.
+		js[i] = *updatedJob
+	}
+	return utilerrors.NewAggregate(errs)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils_test.go b/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils_test.go
index 66ebffdd04e..299393fa1f3 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/cronjob/utils_test.go
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1"
 	batchv1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/batch/v1"
 	batchv2alpha1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/batch/v2alpha1"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/controller"
 )
 
 func TestGetJobFromTemplate(t *testing.T) {
@@ -366,5 +367,30 @@ func TestGetRecentUnmetScheduleTimes(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Errorf("unexpected error")
 		}
 	}
-
+}
+
+func TestAdoptJobs(t *testing.T) {
+	sj := cronJob()
+	jc := &fakeJobControl{}
+	jobs := []batchv1.Job{newJob("uid0"), newJob("uid1")}
+	jobs[0].OwnerReferences = nil
+	jobs[0].Name = "job0"
+	jobs[1].OwnerReferences = []metav1.OwnerReference{*newControllerRef(&sj)}
+	jobs[1].Name = "job1"
+
+	if err := adoptJobs(&sj, jobs, jc); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("adoptJobs() error: %v", err)
+	}
+	for i := range jobs {
+		controllerRef := controller.GetControllerOf(&jobs[i])
+		if controllerRef == nil {
+			t.Errorf("Job should have ControllerRef: %#v", jobs[i])
+		}
+	}
+	if got, want := len(jc.UpdateJobName), 1; got != want {
+		t.Errorf("len(UpdateJobName) = %v, want %v", got, want)
+	}
+	if got, want := jc.UpdateJobName[0], "job0"; got != want {
+		t.Errorf("UpdateJobName = %v, want %v", got, want)
+	}
 }