diff --git a/.eslintignore b/.eslintignore
index 14588a0ff7..e1986ea512 100644
--- a/.eslintignore
+++ b/.eslintignore
@@ -1397,6 +1397,9 @@ packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.test.js.map
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.d.ts
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.js
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.js.map
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.d.ts
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js.map
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.d.ts
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.js
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.js.map
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 08bcc7ef0a..44d1406c6e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1383,6 +1383,9 @@ packages/lib/services/searchengine/SearchEngineUtils.test.js.map
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.d.ts
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.js
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.js.map
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.d.ts
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js
+packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js.map
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.d.ts
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.js
 packages/lib/services/searchengine/queryBuilder.js.map
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8f33cc15c8..600c172001 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -453,6 +453,8 @@ The filters are implicitly connected by and/or connectives depending on the foll
 - To override this default behaviour, use the `any` filter, in which case the search terms will be connected by "OR" instead.
 - There's an exception for the `notebook` filters which are connected by "OR". The reason being that no note can be in multiple notebooks at once.
 
+Incorrect search filters are interpreted as a phrase search, e.g. misspelled `nootebook:Example` or non-existing `https://joplinapp.org`.
+
 ## Search order
 
 Notes are sorted by "relevance". Currently it means the notes that contain the requested terms the most times are on top. For queries with multiple terms, it also matters how close to each other the terms are. This is a bit experimental so if you notice a search query that returns unexpected results, please report it in the forum, providing as many details as possible to replicate the issue.
diff --git a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.ts
similarity index 89%
rename from packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js
rename to packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.ts
index 36f0b70e58..84f1c4f4da 100644
--- a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.js
+++ b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.test.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,8 @@
-/* eslint-disable no-unused-vars */
+import filterParser from './filterParser';
 
-const filterParser = require('../../services/searchengine/filterParser.js').default;
-// import filterParser from '../../services/searchengine/filterParser.js';
-
-const makeTerm = (name, value, negated, quoted = false, wildcard = false) => {
+const makeTerm = (name: string, value: string, negated: boolean, quoted: boolean = false, wildcard: boolean = false) => {
 	if (name === 'text') { return { name, value, negated, quoted, wildcard }; }
-	if (name === 'title' | name === 'body') { return { name, value, negated, wildcard }; }
+	if (name === 'title' || name === 'body') { return { name, value, negated, wildcard }; }
 	return { name, value, negated };
 };
 
@@ -135,13 +132,16 @@ describe('filterParser should be correct filter for keyword', () => {
 
 	it('handle invalid filters', () => {
 		let searchString = 'titletitle:123';
-		expect(() => filterParser(searchString)).toThrow(new Error('Invalid filter: titletitle'));
+		expect(filterParser(searchString)).toContainEqual(makeTerm('text', '"titletitle:123"', false));
 
 		searchString = 'invalid:abc';
-		expect(() => filterParser(searchString)).toThrow(new Error('Invalid filter: invalid'));
+		expect(filterParser(searchString)).toContainEqual(makeTerm('text', '"invalid:abc"', false));
+
+		searchString = '-invalid:abc';
+		expect(filterParser(searchString)).toContainEqual(makeTerm('text', '"invalid:abc"', true));
 
 		searchString = ':abc';
-		expect(() => filterParser(searchString)).toThrow(new Error('Invalid filter: '));
+		expect(filterParser(searchString)).toContainEqual(makeTerm('text', '":abc"', false));
 
 		searchString = 'type:blah';
 		expect(() => filterParser(searchString)).toThrow(new Error('The value of filter "type" must be "note" or "todo"'));
diff --git a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.ts b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.ts
index e6ffc456cd..b1dd8dddff 100644
--- a/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.ts
+++ b/packages/lib/services/searchengine/filterParser.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ const quote = (s: string) => {
 };
 
 
-const getTerms = (query: string): Term[] => {
+const getTerms = (query: string, validFilters: Set<string>): Term[] => {
 	const terms: Term[] = [];
 	let inQuote = false;
 	let inTerm = false;
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ const getTerms = (query: string): Term[] => {
 			continue;
 		}
 
-		if (c === ':' && !inQuote && !inTerm) {
+		if (c === ':' && !inQuote && !inTerm &&
+		(validFilters.has(currentTerm) || currentTerm[0] === '-' && validFilters.has(currentTerm.substr(1, currentTerm.length)))) {
 			currentCol = currentTerm;
 			currentTerm = '';
 			inTerm = true; // to ignore any other ':' before a space eg.'sourceurl:https://www.google.com'
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ const parseQuery = (query: string): Term[] => {
 		'iscompleted', 'due', 'latitude', 'longitude',
 		'altitude', 'resource', 'sourceurl', 'id']);
 
-	const terms = getTerms(query);
+	const terms = getTerms(query, validFilters);
 
 	const result: Term[] = [];
 	for (let i = 0; i < terms.length; i++) {