diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedFilterParser.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedFilterParser.java
index e4b7ad00886..538152a39bc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedFilterParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedFilterParser.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.index.query;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Filter;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.join.FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ScoreMode;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ToParentBlockJoinQuery;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
@@ -150,6 +151,9 @@ public class NestedFilterParser implements FilterParser {
                 //}
                 parentFilter = parseContext.cacheFilter(parentFilter, null);
             }
+            // if the filter cache is disabled, then we still have a filter that is not cached while ToParentBlockJoinQuery
+            // expects FixedBitSet instances
+            parentFilter = new FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter(parentFilter);
 
             Filter nestedFilter;
             if (join) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryParser.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryParser.java
index b710d039477..9d73346b0c7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryParser.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NestedQueryParser.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.AtomicReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.DocIdSet;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Filter;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.join.FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ScoreMode;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.join.ToParentBlockJoinQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Bits;
@@ -154,6 +155,9 @@ public class NestedQueryParser implements QueryParser {
                 //}
                 parentFilter = parseContext.cacheFilter(parentFilter, null);
             }
+            // if the filter cache is disabled, then we still have a filter that is not cached while ToParentBlockJoinQuery
+            // expects FixedBitSet instances
+            parentFilter = new FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter(parentFilter);
 
             ToParentBlockJoinQuery joinQuery = new ToParentBlockJoinQuery(query, parentFilter, scoreMode);
             joinQuery.setBoost(boost);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/nested/IncludeNestedDocsQuery.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/nested/IncludeNestedDocsQuery.java
index 03e2b2b675b..cf74def8cb7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/nested/IncludeNestedDocsQuery.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/nested/IncludeNestedDocsQuery.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Bits;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.FixedBitSet;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.docset.DocIdSets;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -117,7 +118,13 @@ public class IncludeNestedDocsQuery extends Query {
                 return null;
             }
             if (!(parents instanceof FixedBitSet)) {
-                throw new IllegalStateException("parentFilter must return FixedBitSet; got " + parents);
+                if (parents.isCacheable()) {
+                    // the filter is cached, yet not with the right type
+                    throw new IllegalStateException("parentFilter must return FixedBitSet; got " + parents);
+                } else {
+                    // may happen if the filter cache type is none
+                    parents = DocIdSets.toFixedBitSet(parents.iterator(), context.reader().maxDoc());
+                }
             }
 
             int firstParentDoc = parentScorer.nextDoc();
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/nested/NestedAggregator.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/nested/NestedAggregator.java
index f42421fd720..ef455b6aeb4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/nested/NestedAggregator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/nested/NestedAggregator.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.nested;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.AtomicReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.DocIdSet;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Filter;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.join.FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Bits;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.FixedBitSet;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.ReaderContextAware;
@@ -82,6 +83,8 @@ public class NestedAggregator extends SingleBucketAggregator implements ReaderCo
                 parentFilterNotCached = closestNestedAggregator.childFilter;
             }
             parentFilter = SearchContext.current().filterCache().cache(parentFilterNotCached);
+            // if the filter cache is disabled, we still need to produce bit sets
+            parentFilter = new FixedBitSetCachingWrapperFilter(parentFilter);
         }
 
         try {