diff --git a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/notebook.js b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/notebook.js
index f32a15e8e..61921c3d2 100644
--- a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/notebook.js
+++ b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/notebook.js
@@ -1197,6 +1197,11 @@ var IPython = (function (IPython) {
             var new_cell = null;
             for (i=0; i<ncells; i++) {
                 cell_data = new_cells[i];
+                // handle short-lived plaintext name for raw cells
+                if (cell_data.cell_type === 'plaintext'){
+                    cell_data.cell_type = 'raw';
+                }
+                
                 new_cell = this.insert_cell_below(cell_data.cell_type);
                 new_cell.fromJSON(cell_data);
             };