diff --git a/backfiller/backfiller/main.py b/backfiller/backfiller/main.py
index 7a34234..ec55c98 100644
--- a/backfiller/backfiller/main.py
+++ b/backfiller/backfiller/main.py
@@ -177,6 +177,7 @@ class BackfillerManager(object):
 		self.stopping = gevent.event.Event()
 		self.logger = logging.getLogger("BackfillerManager({})".format(stream))
 		self.workers = {} # {node url: worker}
+		self.logger.info('Starting')
 
 	def stop(self):
 		"""Shut down all workers and stop backfilling."""
@@ -196,6 +197,13 @@ class BackfillerManager(object):
 		"""Stop the worker for given node."""
 		self.workers.pop(node).stop()
 
+	def restart_worker(self, node):
+		"""Restart the worker for given node."""
+		self.stop_worker(node)
+		self.stopping.wait(common.jitter(self.RESTART_INTERVAL))
+		self.start_worker(node)
+		
+
 	def run(self):
 		while not self.stopping.is_set():
 			new_nodes = set(get_nodes() + self.static_nodes)
@@ -226,6 +234,7 @@ class BackfillerWorker(object):
 	base_dir/stream for all variants. If run_once, only backfill once.""" 
 
 	WAIT_INTERVAL = 120 #seconds between backfills
+	RETRY_INTERVAL = 5 #seconds between retrying a failed backfill 
 
 	def __init__(self, manager, base_dir, node, stream, variants, run_once=False):
 		self.manager = manager
@@ -237,6 +246,9 @@ class BackfillerWorker(object):
 		self.run_once = run_once
 		self.stopping = gevent.event.Event()
 		self.done = gevent.event.Event()
+		self.failures = 0
+
+		self.logger.info('Starting')
 
 	def __repr__(self):
 			return '<{} at 0x{:x} for {!r}/{!r}>'.format(type(self).__name__, id(self), self.node, self.stream)
@@ -254,10 +266,6 @@ class BackfillerWorker(object):
 		hour in hours.
 	
 		Keyword arguments:
-		segment_order -- If 'random', randomise the order of segments (default).
-			If 'forward', sort the segment in ascending order. If 'reverse',
-			sort the segments in descending order. Otherwise, do not change the
-			order of segments.
 		recent_cutoff -- Skip backfilling segments younger than this number of
 			seconds to prioritise letting the downloader grab these segments."""
 	
@@ -273,13 +281,9 @@ class BackfillerWorker(object):
 				remote_segments = set(list_remote_segments(self.node, self.stream, variant, hour))
 				missing_segments = list(remote_segments - local_segments)
 	
-				# useful if running in parallel so multiple nodes don't request the same segment at the same time
-				if segment_order == 'random':
-					random.shuffle(missing_segments)
-				elif segment_order == 'forward':
-					missing_segments.sort()
-				elif segment_order == 'reverse':
-					missing_segments.sort(reverse=True)
+				# randomise the order of the segments to reduce the chance that
+				# multiple workers request the same segment at the same time
+				random.shuffle(missing_segments)
 	
 				for missing_segment in missing_segments:
 	
@@ -307,8 +311,17 @@ class BackfillerWorker(object):
 		self.logger.info('Worker starting')
 
 		while not self.stopping.is_set():
-			self.backfill(list_hours(self.node, self.stream, self.variants))
-			self.stopping.wait(common.jitter(self.WAIT_INTERVAL))
+
+			try:
+				self.backfill(list_hours(self.node, self.stream, self.variants))
+				self.failures = 0 #reset failure count on a successful backfill
+				self.stopping.wait(common.jitter(self.WAIT_INTERVAL))
+
+			except Exception:
+				self.failures += 1
+				delay = common.jitter(self.RETRY_INTERVAL * 2**self.failures)
+				self.logger.exception('Backfill failed. Retrying in {:.0f} s'.format(delay))
+				self.stopping.wait(delay)
 
 			if self.run_once:
 				break