diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index a7c316d3db4a5b9bdee464fd69ac71aab73e768d..f5c02765030424e4e983b81ab092a545518c56f2 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ OpenLDAP 2.3.35 Engineering
 	Fixed zero-length IA5string handling (ITS#4823)
 	Fixed slapd-bdb/hdb startup with missing shm env (ITS#4851)
 	Fixed slapd-ldap/meta consistency in referral proxying (ITS#4861)
+	Fixed slapd-meta search cleanup
 	Fixed slapd-meta/slapo-rwm filter mapping
 	Fixed slapd-sql subtree shortcut (ITS#4856)
 	Fixed slapo-refint config message (ITS#4853)
diff --git a/servers/slapd/back-meta/search.c b/servers/slapd/back-meta/search.c
index 5d6c7ea471d6bd2ee82317ffc2ad0fe7384d8528..242d5a9576b090d03f35165f56b12886b9e4a735 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/back-meta/search.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/back-meta/search.c
@@ -303,6 +303,7 @@ down:;
 		if ( *mcp == NULL ) {
 			retcode = META_SEARCH_ERR;
 			rs->sr_err = LDAP_UNAVAILABLE;
+			candidates[ candidate ].sr_msgid = META_MSGID_IGNORE;
 			break;
 		}
 		/* fall thru */
@@ -614,6 +615,7 @@ retry:;
 
 		if ( *mcp == NULL ) {
 			retcode = META_SEARCH_ERR;
+			candidates[ candidate ].sr_msgid = META_MSGID_IGNORE;
 			break;
 		}
 		/* fall thru */