diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/SearchRequest.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/SearchRequest.java
index ebb083e3e5f..329004480cd 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/SearchRequest.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/SearchRequest.java
@@ -119,10 +119,9 @@ public class SearchRequest implements ActionRequest {
         return validationException;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Internal.
-     */
-    public void beforeLocalFork() {
+    public void beforeStart() {
+        // we always copy over if needed, the reason is that a request might fail while being search remotely
+        // and then we need to keep the buffer around
         if (source != null && sourceUnsafe) {
             source = Arrays.copyOfRange(source, sourceOffset, sourceOffset + sourceLength);
             sourceOffset = 0;
@@ -135,6 +134,12 @@ public class SearchRequest implements ActionRequest {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Internal.
+     */
+    public void beforeLocalFork() {
+    }
+
     /**
      * Should the listener be called on a separate thread if needed.
      */
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/type/TransportSearchTypeAction.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/type/TransportSearchTypeAction.java
index 27ed5667d3b..2dfb0af68d7 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/type/TransportSearchTypeAction.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/search/type/TransportSearchTypeAction.java
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ public abstract class TransportSearchTypeAction extends BaseAction<SearchRequest
         }
 
         public void start() {
+            request.beforeStart();
             // count the local operations, and perform the non local ones
             int localOperations = 0;
             for (final ShardIterator shardIt : shardsIts) {