diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 68873b74238..d568df0ae72 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -529,6 +529,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-1794: Dataimport of CLOB fields fails when getCharacterStream() is 
   defined in a superclass. (Gunnar Gauslaa Bergem via rmuir)
+
+* SOLR-2173 Suggester should always rebuild Lookup data if Lookup.load fails. (ab)
   
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
diff --git a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/Suggester.java b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/Suggester.java
index dce4aa9cf84..95fc71148bc 100644
--- a/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/Suggester.java
+++ b/solr/src/java/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/Suggester.java
@@ -129,20 +129,10 @@ public class Suggester extends SolrSpellChecker {
       if (lookup.load(storeDir)) {
         return;  // loaded ok
       }
+      LOG.debug("load failed, need to build Lookup again");
     }
-    // dictionary based on the current index may need refreshing
-    if (dictionary instanceof HighFrequencyDictionary) {
-      reader = reader.reopen();
-      dictionary = new HighFrequencyDictionary(reader, field, threshold);
-      try {
-        lookup.build(dictionary);
-        if (storeDir != null) {
-          lookup.store(storeDir);
-        }
-      } catch (Exception e) {
-        throw new IOException(e);
-      }
-    }
+    // loading was unsuccessful - build it again
+    build(core, searcher);
   }
 
   public void add(String query, int numHits) {
diff --git a/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/SuggesterTest.java b/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/SuggesterTest.java
index 133392eaf03..de0001fab23 100644
--- a/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/SuggesterTest.java
+++ b/solr/src/test/org/apache/solr/spelling/suggest/SuggesterTest.java
@@ -62,6 +62,20 @@ public class SuggesterTest extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
         "//lst[@name='spellcheck']/lst[@name='suggestions']/lst[@name='ac']/arr[@name='suggestion']/str[2][.='accommodate']"
     );
   }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testReload() throws Exception {
+    addDocs();
+    assertU(commit());
+    assertQ(req("qt","/suggest", "q","ac", SpellingParams.SPELLCHECK_COUNT, "2", SpellingParams.SPELLCHECK_ONLY_MORE_POPULAR, "true"),
+        "//lst[@name='spellcheck']/lst[@name='suggestions']/lst[@name='ac']/int[@name='numFound'][.='2']");
+    assertU(adoc("id", "4",
+        "text", "actually"
+       ));
+    assertU(commit());
+    assertQ(req("qt","/suggest", "q","ac", SpellingParams.SPELLCHECK_COUNT, "2", SpellingParams.SPELLCHECK_ONLY_MORE_POPULAR, "true"),
+    "//lst[@name='spellcheck']/lst[@name='suggestions']/lst[@name='ac']/int[@name='numFound'][.='2']");
+  }
 
   
   private TermFreqIterator getTFIT() {