diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterScriptConfiguration.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterScriptConfiguration.java
index 867e684db86..7465fa6e127 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterScriptConfiguration.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterScriptConfiguration.java
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ public Options getOptions() {
         options.addOption("v", "verbose", false, "print all extracted text and other details to STDOUT");
         options.addOption("q", "quiet", false, "do not print anything except in the event of errors.");
         options.addOption("f", "force", false, "force all bitstreams to be processed");
-        options.addOption("i", "identifier", true, "ONLY process bitstreams belonging to identifier");
+        options.addOption("i", "identifier", true,
+            "ONLY process bitstreams belonging to the provided handle identifier");
         options.addOption("m", "maximum", true, "process no more than maximum items");
         options.addOption("h", "help", false, "help");
 
diff --git a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterServiceImpl.java b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterServiceImpl.java
index aed9247a2d7..a6ba9fde88d 100644
--- a/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterServiceImpl.java
+++ b/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/mediafilter/MediaFilterServiceImpl.java
@@ -132,12 +132,18 @@ public void applyFiltersAllItems(Context context) throws Exception {
     @Override
     public void applyFiltersCommunity(Context context, Community community)
         throws Exception {   //only apply filters if community not in skip-list
+        // ensure that the community is attached to the current hibernate session
+        // as we are committing after each item (handles, sub-communties and
+        // collections are lazy attributes)
+        community = context.reloadEntity(community);
         if (!inSkipList(community.getHandle())) {
             List<Community> subcommunities = community.getSubcommunities();
             for (Community subcommunity : subcommunities) {
                 applyFiltersCommunity(context, subcommunity);
             }
-
+            // ensure that the community is attached to the current hibernate session
+            // as we are committing after each item
+            community = context.reloadEntity(community);
             List<Collection> collections = community.getCollections();
             for (Collection collection : collections) {
                 applyFiltersCollection(context, collection);
@@ -148,6 +154,9 @@ public void applyFiltersCommunity(Context context, Community community)
     @Override
     public void applyFiltersCollection(Context context, Collection collection)
         throws Exception {
+        // ensure that the collection is attached to the current hibernate session
+        // as we are committing after each item (handles are lazy attributes)
+        collection = context.reloadEntity(collection);
         //only apply filters if collection not in skip-list
         if (!inSkipList(collection.getHandle())) {
             Iterator<Item> itemIterator = itemService.findAllByCollection(context, collection);