lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm  | 8 +++++---
 lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm | 3 ++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index f000a950e48b2754a54fb8477ace9de34c106712..54a6eb32e184f71b8350454292dc4dbf06534314 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -254,9 +254,11 @@ sub msg_by_mid ($$;$) {
 	my ($self, $mid, $ref) = @_;
 	my $srch = search($self) or
 			return msg_by_path($self, mid2path($mid), $ref);
-	my $smsg = $srch->lookup_skeleton($mid) or return;
-	$smsg->load_expand;
-	msg_by_smsg($self, $smsg, $ref);
+	my $smsg;
+	$srch->retry_reopen(sub {
+		$smsg = $srch->lookup_skeleton($mid) and $smsg->load_expand;
+	});
+	$smsg ? msg_by_smsg($self, $smsg, $ref) : undef;
 }
 
 1;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
index b20b2ccd3e39f3b0ede3425c1b46c55f03654674..1df87d0ef6ce89bbb1e72223e107e87b6e53b043 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ }
 
 sub get_thread {
 	my ($self, $mid, $opts) = @_;
-	my $smsg = eval { $self->lookup_skeleton($mid) };
+	my $smsg = retry_reopen($self, sub { lookup_skeleton($self, $mid) });
 
 	return { total => 0, msgs => [] } unless $smsg;
 	my $qtid = Search::Xapian::Query->new('G' . $smsg->thread_id);
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@ 		# you should call Xapian::Database::reopen()
 		if (ref($@) eq 'Search::Xapian::DatabaseModifiedError') {
 			reopen($self);
 		} else {
+			warn "ref: ", ref($@), "\n";
 			die;
 		}
 	}