diff --git a/controllers/medusa/medusarestorejob_controller.go b/controllers/medusa/medusarestorejob_controller.go
index 7412ff2e7..0c85551e1 100644
--- a/controllers/medusa/medusarestorejob_controller.go
+++ b/controllers/medusa/medusarestorejob_controller.go
@@ -377,8 +377,7 @@ func updateMedusaRestoreInitContainer(req *medusa.RestoreRequest) error {
 	if err := setRestoreMappingInRestoreContainer(req.RestoreJob.Status.RestoreMapping, req.Datacenter); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	// Temp workaround until this is fixed in cass-operator
-	setAutoUpdateSpecAnnotation(req.Datacenter)
+
 	return setRestoreKeyInRestoreContainer(req.RestoreJob.Status.RestoreKey, req.Datacenter)
 }
 
@@ -476,8 +475,3 @@ func getRestoreInitContainerIndex(dc *cassdcapi.CassandraDatacenter) (int, error
 
 	return 0, fmt.Errorf("restore initContainer (%s) not found", restoreContainerName)
 }
-
-// There's a race condition that blocks restore job from completing after the DC is stopped. This is a temp workaround to fix it.
-func setAutoUpdateSpecAnnotation(cassdc *cassdcapi.CassandraDatacenter) {
-	cassdc.ObjectMeta.Annotations["cassandra.datastax.com/autoupdate-spec"] = "once"
-}
diff --git a/pkg/cassandra/datacenter.go b/pkg/cassandra/datacenter.go
index 22e985abc..1162a96e3 100644
--- a/pkg/cassandra/datacenter.go
+++ b/pkg/cassandra/datacenter.go
@@ -156,9 +156,11 @@ func NewDatacenter(klusterKey types.NamespacedName, template *DatacenterConfig)
 
 	dc := &cassdcapi.CassandraDatacenter{
 		ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
-			Namespace:   namespace,
-			Name:        template.Meta.Name,
-			Annotations: map[string]string{},
+			Namespace: namespace,
+			Name:      template.Meta.Name,
+			Annotations: map[string]string{
+				cassdcapi.UpdateAllowedAnnotation: string(cassdcapi.AllowUpdateAlways),
+			},
 			Labels: utils.MergeMap(map[string]string{
 				api.NameLabel:      api.NameLabelValue,
 				api.PartOfLabel:    api.PartOfLabelValue,
diff --git a/test/e2e/suite_test.go b/test/e2e/suite_test.go
index 7c03654e8..bb4686113 100644
--- a/test/e2e/suite_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/suite_test.go
@@ -716,7 +716,7 @@ func applyPollingDefaults() {
 	polling.medusaBackupDone.timeout = 10 * time.Minute
 	polling.medusaBackupDone.interval = 15 * time.Second
 
-	polling.medusaRestoreDone.timeout = 20 * time.Minute
+	polling.medusaRestoreDone.timeout = 15 * time.Minute
 	polling.medusaRestoreDone.interval = 15 * time.Second
 
 	polling.datacenterUpdating.timeout = 1 * time.Minute