lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxPart.pm |  1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm    | 13 ++++++-------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxPart.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxPart.pm
index 6025fc4034cf3e5837e873ef5c1645dd3c77825f..2f577ecff5a807d921ea9ddab0be7a802f008e25 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxPart.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdxPart.pm
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ 	while (my $line = $r->getline) {
 		if ($line eq "commit\n") {
 			$xdb->commit_transaction if $txn;
 			$txn = undef;
+			$self->{skeleton}->remote_commit;
 		} elsif ($line eq "close\n") {
 			$self->_xdb_release;
 			$xdb = $txn = undef;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
index ff3b6573dbd0029395dfb8457378d3ec72e6e1ad..73110ff06df6e1373bbee6ed991062e790843dc3 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
@@ -131,22 +131,21 @@ 	my ($self, $more) = @_;
 
 	# order matters, we can only close {skel} after all partitions
 	# are done because the partitions also write to {skel}
-
 	if (my $parts = $self->{idx_parts}) {
 		foreach my $idx (@$parts) {
-			$idx->remote_commit;
+			$idx->remote_commit; # propagates commit to skel
 			$idx->remote_close unless $more;
 		}
 		delete $self->{idx_parts} unless $more;
 	}
 
 	if (my $skel = $self->{skel}) {
-		$skel->{mm}->{dbh}->commit;
+		my $dbh = $skel->{mm}->{dbh};
+		$dbh->commit;
 		if ($more) {
-			$skel->{mm}->{dbh}->begin_work;
-		}
-		$skel->remote_commit;
-		unless ($more) {
+			$dbh->begin_work;
+		} else {
+			$skel->remote_commit; # XXX should be unnecessary...
 			$skel->remote_close;
 			delete $self->{skel};
 		}