lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm        |  1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm  | 13 +++++++++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm | 15 +++++++++------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index 0d4b1c11ade60c2462b563df77b582f9a2df7407..24efb49489c39332eb3110025543b41a818121ba 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -739,6 +739,7 @@ 		send($sock, exec_buf(\@cmd, {}), MSG_EOR);
 	} elsif ($self->{oneshot}) {
 		$self->{"mua.pid.$self.$$"} = spawn(\@cmd);
 	}
+	delete $self->{-progress};
 }
 
 # caller needs to "-t $self->{1}" to check if tty
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
index f925086098518f3de4bc1cc22dc64d0fb3e91250..5a6f18fb4491205e003c763bee2b9fdc3e6bfd3a 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiToMail.pm
@@ -365,6 +365,7 @@ 		$self->{base_type} = 'mbox';
 	} else {
 		die "bad mail --format=$fmt\n";
 	}
+	$self->{dst} = $dst;
 	$lei->{dedupe} = PublicInbox::LeiDedupe->new($lei);
 	$self;
 }
@@ -472,6 +473,18 @@ 		close $zpipe->[0];
 	}
 	$self->{wcb} = $self->write_cb($lei);
 	$self->SUPER::ipc_atfork_child;
+}
+
+sub lock_free {
+	$_[0]->{base_type} =~ /\A(?:maildir|mh|imap|jmap)\z/ ? 1 : 0;
+}
+
+sub poke_dst {
+	my ($self) = @_;
+	if ($self->{base_type} eq 'maildir') {
+		my $t = time + 1;
+		utime($t, $t, "$self->{dst}/cur");
+	}
 }
 
 sub write_mail { # via ->wq_do
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
index 0ca871ea8542e635bef78a65d387c2c9dfe0de45..e7f0ef6369e3d6fa400ad332a97314357c5e9ee9 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiXSearch.pm
@@ -308,13 +308,13 @@ }
 
 sub query_done { # EOF callback for main daemon
 	my ($lei) = @_;
-	my $has_l2m = exists $lei->{l2m};
-	for my $f (qw(lxs l2m)) {
-		my $wq = delete $lei->{$f} or next;
-		$wq->wq_wait_old($lei);
+	my $l2m = delete $lei->{l2m};
+	$l2m->wq_wait_old($lei) if $l2m;
+	if (my $lxs = delete $lei->{lxs}) {
+		$lxs->wq_wait_old($lei);
 	}
 	$lei->{ovv}->ovv_end($lei);
-	if ($has_l2m) { # close() calls LeiToMail reap_compress
+	if ($l2m) { # close() calls LeiToMail reap_compress
 		if (my $out = delete $lei->{old_1}) {
 			if (my $mbout = $lei->{1}) {
 				close($mbout) or return $lei->fail(<<"");
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@
 			}
 			$lei->{1} = $out;
 		}
-		$lei->start_mua;
+		$l2m->lock_free ? $l2m->poke_dst : $lei->start_mua;
 	}
 	$lei->{-progress} and
 		$lei->err('# ', $lei->{-mset_total} // 0, " matches");
@@ -355,6 +355,9 @@ }
 
 sub start_query { # always runs in main (lei-daemon) process
 	my ($self, $lei) = @_;
+	if (my $l2m = $lei->{l2m}) {
+		$lei->start_mua if $l2m->lock_free;
+	}
 	if ($lei->{opt}->{thread}) {
 		for my $ibxish (locals($self)) {
 			$self->wq_do('query_thread_mset', [], $ibxish);