diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/DataFrameIndexer.java b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/DataFrameIndexer.java
index 60119ad5788..20e8218c274 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/DataFrameIndexer.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/DataFrameIndexer.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchPhaseExecutionException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.ShardSearchFailure;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.support.IndicesOptions;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.breaker.CircuitBreakingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.BoolQueryBuilder;
@@ -323,7 +324,8 @@ public abstract class DataFrameIndexer extends AsyncTwoPhaseIndexer<DataFrameInd
         assert nextCheckpoint != null;
 
         SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest(getConfig().getSource().getIndex())
-                .allowPartialSearchResults(false);
+                .allowPartialSearchResults(false)
+                .indicesOptions(IndicesOptions.LENIENT_EXPAND_OPEN);
         SearchSourceBuilder sourceBuilder = new SearchSourceBuilder()
                 .size(0);
 
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/Pivot.java b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/Pivot.java
index 2ecebb915c2..3406e3b2356 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/Pivot.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/Pivot.java
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchRequest;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.support.IndicesOptions;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.LoggingDeprecationHandler;
@@ -112,8 +113,8 @@ public class Pivot {
         sourceBuilder.size(0);
         sourceBuilder.query(queryBuilder);
         searchRequest.source(sourceBuilder);
+        searchRequest.indicesOptions(IndicesOptions.LENIENT_EXPAND_OPEN);
         return searchRequest;
-
     }
 
     public AggregationBuilder buildAggregation(Map<String, Object> position, int pageSize) {
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/SchemaUtil.java b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/SchemaUtil.java
index 4ac77c38f7d..2aad83f5a25 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/SchemaUtil.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/data-frame/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/dataframe/transforms/pivot/SchemaUtil.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.mapping.get.GetFieldMappingsAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.mapping.get.GetFieldMappingsRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.mapping.get.GetFieldMappingsResponse.FieldMappingMetaData;
+import org.elasticsearch.action.support.IndicesOptions;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.NumberFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregationBuilder;
@@ -174,6 +175,7 @@ public final class SchemaUtil {
         GetFieldMappingsRequest fieldMappingRequest = new GetFieldMappingsRequest();
         fieldMappingRequest.indices(index);
         fieldMappingRequest.fields(fields);
+        fieldMappingRequest.indicesOptions(IndicesOptions.LENIENT_EXPAND_OPEN);
 
         client.execute(GetFieldMappingsAction.INSTANCE, fieldMappingRequest, ActionListener.wrap(
             response -> listener.onResponse(extractFieldMappings(response.mappings())),