lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm |  3 +--
 lib/PublicInbox/MiscIdx.pm      | 19 ++++++++++++-------
 lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm   |  4 ----
 t/miscsearch.t                  |  1 -

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
index c782a62a83b6330eda77818e30dea8531d90190d..9b7340df6806dd2a9ca1179d2fb214a01d0c0ebf 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/ExtSearchIdx.pm
@@ -1003,8 +1003,7 @@ 	$self->parallel_init($self->{indexlevel});
 	$self->with_umask(\&_idx_init, $self, $opt);
 	$self->{oidx}->begin_lazy;
 	$self->{oidx}->eidx_prep;
-	$self->git->batch_prepare;
-	$self->{midx}->begin_txn;
+	$self->{midx}->create_xdb if @new;
 }
 
 sub _watch_commit { # PublicInbox::DS::add_timer callback
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/MiscIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/MiscIdx.pm
index ab5e029a4625c6b77f16c9166de1d0e9afacbf3b..f5a374b2997a8c27ec9879f6f3c2695ebc2283b1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/MiscIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/MiscIdx.pm
@@ -39,25 +39,30 @@ 		indexlevel => 'full', # small DB, no point in medium?
 	}, $class;
 }
 
-sub begin_txn {
+sub _begin_txn ($) {
 	my ($self) = @_;
-	croak 'BUG: already in txn' if $self->{xdb}; # XXX make lazy?
 	my $wdb = $PublicInbox::Search::X{WritableDatabase};
 	my $xdb = eval { $wdb->new($self->{mi_dir}, $self->{flags}) };
 	croak "Failed opening $self->{mi_dir}: $@" if $@;
-	$self->{xdb} = $xdb;
 	$xdb->begin_transaction;
+	$xdb;
 }
 
 sub commit_txn {
 	my ($self) = @_;
-	croak 'BUG: not in txn' unless $self->{xdb}; # XXX make lazy?
-	delete($self->{xdb})->commit_transaction;
+	my $xdb = delete $self->{xdb} or return;
+	$xdb->commit_transaction;
+}
+
+sub create_xdb {
+	my ($self) = @_;
+	$self->{xdb} //= _begin_txn($self);
+	commit_txn($self);
 }
 
 sub remove_eidx_key {
 	my ($self, $eidx_key) = @_;
-	my $xdb = $self->{xdb};
+	my $xdb = $self->{xdb} //= _begin_txn($self);
 	my $head = $xdb->postlist_begin('Q'.$eidx_key);
 	my $tail = $xdb->postlist_end('Q'.$eidx_key);
 	my @docids; # only one, unless we had bugs
@@ -74,7 +79,7 @@ # adds or updates according to $eidx_key
 sub index_ibx {
 	my ($self, $ibx) = @_;
 	my $eidx_key = $ibx->eidx_key;
-	my $xdb = $self->{xdb};
+	my $xdb = $self->{xdb} //= _begin_txn($self);
 	# Q = uniQue in Xapian terminology
 	my $head = $xdb->postlist_begin('Q'.$eidx_key);
 	my $tail = $xdb->postlist_end('Q'.$eidx_key);
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
index 0104f87ae421e25960220c5a64d9c5d30c41f136..7f9342b08d36941d1784615739f300ebf532542f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
@@ -623,10 +623,6 @@ 		if ($dbh) {
 			$dbh->commit;
 			$dbh->begin_work;
 		}
-		if ($midx) {
-			$self->git->batch_prepare;
-			$midx->begin_txn;
-		}
 	}
 	$self->{total_bytes} += $self->{transact_bytes};
 	$self->{transact_bytes} = 0;
diff --git a/t/miscsearch.t b/t/miscsearch.t
index 0424328d5f9031a874459b84b3116020346025b4..413579fbc422b3ab5271bd67c14526159bf21d22 100644
--- a/t/miscsearch.t
+++ b/t/miscsearch.t
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ 		version => 1,
 	});
 	$v1->init_inbox;
 	my $mi = PublicInbox::MiscIdx->new($eidx);
-	$mi->begin_txn;
 	$mi->index_ibx($v1);
 	$mi->commit_txn;
 }