diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
index a8c31294086..5a7fe939b15 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
@@ -1499,6 +1499,11 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
                 return true;
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 return false;
+            } catch (AlreadyClosedException e) {
+                /* this one can happen if we already closed the
+                 * underlying store / directory and we call into the
+                 * IndexWriter to free up pending files. */
+                return false;
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchService.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchService.java
index 9e03ad6f6e2..18b69cd52c6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/SearchService.java
@@ -433,11 +433,7 @@ public class SearchService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<SearchService> {
         } catch (Throwable e) {
             context.indexShard().searchService().onFailedFetchPhase(context);
             logger.trace("Fetch phase failed", e);
-            try {
-                freeContext(context); // we just try to make sure this is freed - rethrow orig exception.
-            } catch(Throwable t) {
-                logger.trace("Could not free context", t);
-            }
+            freeContext(context); // we just try to make sure this is freed - rethrow orig exception.
             throw ExceptionsHelper.convertToRuntime(e);
         } finally {
             cleanContext(context);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileRelocatingTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileRelocatingTests.java
index 8cb39d51c11..c0d3fa3fad1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileRelocatingTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/basic/SearchWhileRelocatingTests.java
@@ -57,8 +57,7 @@ public class SearchWhileRelocatingTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
     private void testSearchAndRelocateConcurrently(int numberOfReplicas) throws Exception {
         final int numShards = between(10, 20);
         client().admin().indices().prepareCreate("test")
-                .setSettings(settingsBuilder().put("index.number_of_shards", numShards).put("index.number_of_replicas", numberOfReplicas)
-                .put("index.store.type", "niofs"))
+                .setSettings(settingsBuilder().put("index.number_of_shards", numShards).put("index.number_of_replicas", numberOfReplicas))
                 .addMapping("type1", "loc", "type=geo_point", "test", "type=string").execute().actionGet();
         ensureGreen();
         List<IndexRequestBuilder> indexBuilders = new ArrayList<IndexRequestBuilder>();