diff --git a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.ts b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.ts
index 7c2f634ee..0c547972f 100644
--- a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.ts
+++ b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.ts
@@ -70,16 +70,10 @@ export default class SearchEngineUtils {
 			if (isTodoAutoAdded) delete sortedNotes[idx].is_todo;
 		}
 
-		// Note that when the search engine index is somehow corrupted, it might contain
-		// references to notes that don't exist. Not clear how it can happen, but anyway
-		// handle it here by checking if `user_updated_time` IS NOT NULL. Was causing this
-		// issue: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/how-to-recover-corrupted-database/9367
-		if (noteIds.length !== notes.length) {
-			// remove null objects
-			return sortedNotes.filter(n => n);
-		} else {
-			return sortedNotes;
-		}
-
+		// Note that when the search engine index is somehow corrupted, it might
+		// contain references to notes that don't exist. Not clear how it can
+		// happen, but anyway handle it here. Was causing this issue:
+		// https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/how-to-recover-corrupted-database/9367
+		return sortedNotes.filter(n => n);
 	}
 }