lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm     | 4 +++-
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm | 2 ++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 34191fc79508f04ff9ce00cc3782333dd1c033bf..87c2c9fcdb57c14a50f625192b36a344abdc8ffe 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -99,7 +99,9 @@
 sub msg_by_path ($$;$) {
 	my ($self, $path, $ref) = @_;
 	# TODO: allow other refs:
-	git($self)->cat_file('HEAD:'.$path, $ref);
+	my $str = git($self)->cat_file('HEAD:'.$path, $ref);
+	$$str =~ s/\A[\r\n]*From [^\r\n]*\r?\n//s;
+	$str;
 }
 
 sub msg_by_mid ($$;$) {
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
index 58eccc1a2d67241ed273e940fee0d1fb2b27c51d..c2bf9a2ddc25d3232a58fb526566665407582ec6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
@@ -311,6 +311,8 @@ sub do_cat_mail {
 	my ($git, $blob, $sizeref) = @_;
 	my $mime = eval {
 		my $str = $git->cat_file($blob, $sizeref);
+		# fixup bugs from import:
+		$$str =~ s/\A[\r\n]*From [^\r\n]*\r?\n//s;
 		Email::MIME->new($str);
 	};
 	$@ ? undef : $mime;