diff --git a/js/modules/types/attachment.js b/js/modules/types/attachment.js
index b168bd2f9f..80dc12a4c8 100644
--- a/js/modules/types/attachment.js
+++ b/js/modules/types/attachment.js
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 
 const dataURLToBlob = require('blueimp-canvas-to-blob');
 const MIME = require('./mime');
+const { autoOrientImage } = require('../auto_orient_image');
+
+// Increment this everytime we change how attachments are processed. This allows us to
+// retroactively update existing attachments. As we add more processing steps, we could
+// design a pipeline that does this incrementally, e.g. from version 0 (unknown) -> 1,
+// 1 --> 2, etc., similar to how we do database migrations:
+const CURRENT_PROCESS_VERSION = 1;
 
 // // Fields
 // {
@@ -36,14 +43,39 @@ const blobToArrayBuffer = blob =>
 const arrayBufferToBlob = (arrayBuffer, mimeType) =>
   new Blob([arrayBuffer], { type: mimeType });
 
-// Processing steps:
-const withLastNormalizedDate = attachment => Object.assign(
-  {},
-  attachment,
-  {lastNormalized: new Date().toISOString()},
-);
+// Middleware
+// type ProcessingStep = Attachment -> Promise Attachment
 
-const autoOrientJPEGs = async (attachment) => {
+// ProcessingStep -> ProcessVersion -> ProcessingStep
+const setProcessVersion = (next, processVersion) => async (attachment) => {
+  const isAlreadyProcessed = attachment.processVersion >= processVersion;
+  if (isAlreadyProcessed) {
+    return attachment;
+  }
+
+  let processedAttachment;
+  try {
+    processedAttachment = await next(attachment);
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.error('Attachment.setProcessVersion: error:', error);
+    processedAttachment = null;
+  }
+
+  const hasSuccessfullyProcessed = processedAttachment !== null;
+  if (!hasSuccessfullyProcessed) {
+    return attachment;
+  }
+
+  // TODO: Enable `...` object spread operator syntax:
+  return Object.assign(
+    {},
+    processedAttachment,
+    { processVersion }
+  );
+};
+
+// Processing steps
+const autoOrientJPEG = async (attachment) => {
   if (!MIME.isJPEG(attachment.contentType)) {
     return attachment;
   }
@@ -54,7 +86,6 @@ const autoOrientJPEGs = async (attachment) => {
   const newAttachment = Object.assign({}, attachment, {
     data: newDataArrayBuffer,
     size: newDataArrayBuffer.byteLength,
-    lastNormalized: new Date().toISOString(),
   });
 
   // `digest` is no longer valid for auto-oriented image data, so we discard it:
@@ -64,8 +95,5 @@ const autoOrientJPEGs = async (attachment) => {
 };
 
 // Public API
-
-// Attachment -> Promise<Attachment>
-exports.normalize = async attachment =>
-  withLastNormalizedDate(await autoOrientJPEGs(attachment));
-
+// ProcessingStep
+exports.process = setProcessVersion(autoOrientJPEG, CURRENT_PROCESS_VERSION);