diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/UnifiedHighlighter.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/UnifiedHighlighter.java
index 2d570d2b7c7..2a75e9c58f4 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/UnifiedHighlighter.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/UnifiedHighlighter.java
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.text.Text;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.DocumentMapper;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.IdFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MappedFieldType;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.FetchPhaseExecutionException;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.FetchSubPhase;
@@ -109,7 +110,9 @@ public class UnifiedHighlighter implements Highlighter {
                 final String fieldName = highlighterContext.fieldName;
                 highlighter.setFieldMatcher((name) -> fieldName.equals(name));
             } else {
-                highlighter.setFieldMatcher((name) -> true);
+                // ignore terms that targets the _id field since they use a different encoding
+                // that is not compatible with utf8
+                highlighter.setFieldMatcher(name -> IdFieldMapper.NAME.equals(name) == false);
             }
 
             Snippet[] fieldSnippets = highlighter.highlightField(highlighterContext.fieldName,
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/HighlighterSearchIT.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/HighlighterSearchIT.java
index d1a66969531..1467fd1f097 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/HighlighterSearchIT.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/subphase/highlight/HighlighterSearchIT.java
@@ -2947,6 +2947,29 @@ public class HighlighterSearchIT extends ESIntegTestCase {
         }
     }
 
+    public void testDisableHighlightIdField() throws Exception {
+        assertAcked(prepareCreate("test")
+            .addMapping("doc", "keyword", "type=keyword"));
+        ensureGreen();
+
+        client().prepareIndex("test", "doc", "d33f85bf1e51e84d9ab38948db9f3a068e1fe5294f1d8603914ac8c7bcc39ca1")
+            .setSource("keyword", "Hello World")
+            .setRefreshPolicy(WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE)
+            .get();
+
+        for (String highlighterType : new String[] {"plain", "unified"}) {
+            SearchResponse searchResponse = client().prepareSearch()
+                .setQuery(matchQuery("_id", "d33f85bf1e51e84d9ab38948db9f3a068e1fe5294f1d8603914ac8c7bcc39ca1"))
+                .highlighter(
+                    new HighlightBuilder().field(new Field("*")
+                        .highlighterType(highlighterType).requireFieldMatch(false))
+                )
+                .get();
+            assertHitCount(searchResponse, 1);
+            assertNull(searchResponse.getHits().getAt(0).getHighlightFields().get("_id"));
+        }
+    }
+
     public static class MockAnalysisPlugin extends Plugin implements AnalysisPlugin {
 
         public final class MockSnowBall extends TokenFilter {