diff --git a/src/caosdb/utils/caosdb_admin.py b/src/caosdb/utils/caosdb_admin.py
index 250c2878d5d615b0815bdd7b0bb287d1567fe085..ab8cec654f2fd0eb2b77df0c969295b1f084171c 100755
--- a/src/caosdb/utils/caosdb_admin.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/utils/caosdb_admin.py
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ def do_retrieve(args):
                 c.append(db.Entity(id=eid))
             except ValueError:
                 c.append(db.Entity(name=i))
-        c.retrieve()
+        c.retrieve(flags=eval(args.flags))
     print(c)