lib/PublicInbox/LeiStore.pm  | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
 lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm |  2 +-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiStore.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiStore.pm
index f978288a81612985f97673b520c9a1caf4c36016..4ba1e647dde82afd9c39f6c31c841216182e5923 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiStore.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiStore.pm
@@ -226,6 +226,18 @@ 	my ($bref, $oidhex, $type, $size, $self) = @_;
 	$self->{im}->remove($bref) if $bref;
 }
 
+sub remove_docids ($;@) {
+	my ($self, @docids) = @_;
+	my $eidx = eidx_init($self);
+	for my $docid (@docids) {
+		$eidx->idx_shard($docid)->ipc_do('xdb_remove', $docid);
+		$self->{oidx}->delete_by_num($docid);
+		$self->{oidx}->{dbh}->do(<<EOF, undef, $docid);
+DELETE FROM xref3 WHERE docid = ?
+EOF
+	}
+}
+
 # remove the entire message from the index, does not touch mail_sync.sqlite3
 sub remove_eml {
 	my ($self, $eml) = @_;
@@ -241,13 +253,25 @@ 			my (undef, undef, $oidbin) = @$row;
 			my $oidhex = unpack('H*', $oidbin);
 			$git->cat_async($oidhex, \&_remove_if_local, $self);
 		}
-		$eidx->idx_shard($docid)->ipc_do('xdb_remove', $docid);
-		$oidx->delete_by_num($docid);
 	}
 	$git->cat_async_wait;
+	remove_docids($self, @docids);
 	\@docids;
 }
 
+sub oid2docid ($$) {
+	my ($self, $oid) = @_;
+	my $eidx = eidx_init($self);
+	my ($docid, @cull) = $eidx->{oidx}->blob_exists($oid);
+	if (@cull) { # fixup old bugs...
+		warn <<EOF;
+W: $oid indexed as multiple docids: $docid @cull, culling to fixup old bugs
+EOF
+		remove_docids($self, @cull);
+	}
+	wantarray ? ($docid) : $docid;
+}
+
 sub add_eml {
 	my ($self, $eml, $vmd, $xoids) = @_;
 	my $im = $self->{-fake_im} // $self->importer; # may create new epoch
@@ -268,7 +292,7 @@ 		delete $xoids->{$smsg->{blob}}; # added later
 		if (scalar keys %$xoids) {
 			my %docids = map { $_ => 1 } @$vivify_xvmd;
 			for my $oid (keys %$xoids) {
-				my @id = $oidx->blob_exists($oid);
+				my @id = oid2docid($self, $oid);
 				@docids{@id} = @id;
 			}
 			@$vivify_xvmd = sort { $a <=> $b } keys(%docids);
@@ -356,15 +380,11 @@ 	my ($eidx, $tl) = eidx_init($self);
 	my $oidx = $eidx->{oidx};
 	my %seen;
 	for my $oid (keys %$xoids) {
-		my @docids = $oidx->blob_exists($oid) or next;
-		scalar(@docids) > 1 and
-			warn "W: $oid indexed as multiple docids: @docids\n";
-		for my $docid (@docids) {
-			next if $seen{$docid}++;
-			my $idx = $eidx->idx_shard($docid);
-			$idx->ipc_do('update_vmd', $docid, $vmd_mod);
-		}
+		my $docid = oid2docid($self, $oid) // next;
 		delete $xoids->{$oid};
+		next if $seen{$docid}++;
+		my $idx = $eidx->idx_shard($docid);
+		$idx->ipc_do('update_vmd', $docid, $vmd_mod);
 	}
 	return unless scalar(keys(%$xoids));
 
@@ -395,15 +415,11 @@ 	my %seen;
 
 	# see if we can just update existing docs
 	for my $oid (keys %$xoids) {
-		my @docids = $oidx->blob_exists($oid) or next;
-		scalar(@docids) > 1 and
-			warn "W: $oid indexed as multiple docids: @docids\n";
-		for my $docid (@docids) {
-			next if $seen{$docid}++;
-			my $idx = $eidx->idx_shard($docid);
-			$idx->ipc_do('set_vmd', $docid, $vmd);
-		}
+		my $docid = oid2docid($self, $oid) // next;
 		delete $xoids->{$oid}; # all done with this oid
+		next if $seen{$docid}++;
+		my $idx = $eidx->idx_shard($docid);
+		$idx->ipc_do('set_vmd', $docid, $vmd);
 	}
 	return unless scalar(keys(%$xoids));
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
index f066cc9285513b29c3f616d92516bf4647b93ab5..f553eda69b42d3ec8dfe23142812afe15d4f4104 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/SearchIdx.pm
@@ -572,7 +572,7 @@ 	my ($doc, $vmd_mod) = @_;
 	my $updated = 0;
 	my @x = @VMD_MAP;
 	while (my ($field, $pfx) = splice(@x, 0, 2)) {
-		# field: "label" or "kw"
+		# field: "L" or "kw"
 		for my $val (@{$vmd_mod->{"-$field"} // []}) {
 			eval {
 				$doc->remove_term($pfx . $val);