diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/uid/UidField.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/uid/UidField.java
index e26d2190d45..8b7f8270c71 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/uid/UidField.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/uid/UidField.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.uid;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenStream;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.tokenattributes.CharTermAttribute;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.tokenattributes.PayloadAttribute;
@@ -55,11 +56,12 @@ public class UidField extends Field {
 
     // this works fine for nested docs since they don't have the payload which has the version
     // so we iterate till we find the one with the payload
+    // LUCENE 4 UPGRADE: We can get rid of the do while loop, since there is only one _uid value (live docs are taken into account)
     public static DocIdAndVersion loadDocIdAndVersion(AtomicReaderContext context, Term term) {
         int docId = Lucene.NO_DOC;
         try {
             DocsAndPositionsEnum uid = context.reader().termPositionsEnum(term);
-            if (uid.nextDoc() == DocIdSetIterator.NO_MORE_DOCS) {
+            if (uid == null || uid.nextDoc() == DocIdSetIterator.NO_MORE_DOCS) {
                 return null; // no doc
             }
             // Note, only master docs uid have version payload, so we can use that info to not
@@ -87,10 +89,11 @@ public class UidField extends Field {
      * Load the version for the uid from the reader, returning -1 if no doc exists, or -2 if
      * no version is available (for backward comp.)
      */
+    // LUCENE 4 UPGRADE: We can get rid of the do while loop, since there is only one _uid value (live docs are taken into account)
     public static long loadVersion(AtomicReaderContext context, Term term) {
         try {
             DocsAndPositionsEnum uid = context.reader().termPositionsEnum(term);
-            if (uid.nextDoc() == DocIdSetIterator.NO_MORE_DOCS) {
+            if (uid == null || uid.nextDoc() == DocIdSetIterator.NO_MORE_DOCS) {
                 return -1;
             }
             // Note, only master docs uid have version payload, so we can use that info to not
@@ -117,10 +120,8 @@ public class UidField extends Field {
 
     private long version;
 
-    private final UidPayloadTokenStream tokenStream;
-
     public UidField(String name, String uid, long version) {
-        super(name, uid, UidFieldMapper.Defaults.UID_FIELD_TYPE);
+        super(name, UidFieldMapper.Defaults.UID_FIELD_TYPE);
         this.uid = uid;
         this.version = version;
         this.tokenStream = new UidPayloadTokenStream(this);
@@ -153,7 +154,7 @@ public class UidField extends Field {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public TokenStream tokenStreamValue() {
+    public TokenStream tokenStream(Analyzer analyzer) throws IOException {
         return tokenStream;
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/uid/UidFieldTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/uid/UidFieldTests.java
index eccb3d38960..bf4042ab3e1 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/uid/UidFieldTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/uid/UidFieldTests.java
@@ -21,13 +21,11 @@ package org.elasticsearch.test.unit.common.lucene.uid;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Document;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Field;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriterConfig;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
+import org.apache.lucene.index.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.RAMDirectory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.Lucene;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.uid.UidField;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.internal.UidFieldMapper;
 import org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert;
 import org.testng.annotations.Test;
 
@@ -44,43 +42,49 @@ public class UidFieldTests {
     public void testUidField() throws Exception {
         IndexWriter writer = new IndexWriter(new RAMDirectory(), new IndexWriterConfig(Lucene.VERSION, Lucene.STANDARD_ANALYZER));
 
-        IndexReader reader = IndexReader.open(writer, true);
-        MatcherAssert.assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-1l));
+        DirectoryReader directoryReader = DirectoryReader.open(writer, true);
+        AtomicReader atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        MatcherAssert.assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-1l));
 
         Document doc = new Document();
-        doc.add(new Field("_uid", "1", Field.Store.YES, Field.Index.NOT_ANALYZED));
+        doc.add(new Field("_uid", "1", UidFieldMapper.Defaults.UID_FIELD_TYPE));
         writer.addDocument(doc);
-        reader = reader.reopen();
-        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-2l));
-        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(reader, 0, new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(-2l));
+        directoryReader = DirectoryReader.openIfChanged(directoryReader);
+        atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-2l));
+        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(-2l));
 
         doc = new Document();
         doc.add(new UidField("_uid", "1", 1));
         writer.updateDocument(new Term("_uid", "1"), doc);
-        reader = reader.reopen();
-        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(1l));
-        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(reader, 0, new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(1l));
+        directoryReader = DirectoryReader.openIfChanged(directoryReader);
+        atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(1l));
+        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(1l));
 
         doc = new Document();
         UidField uid = new UidField("_uid", "1", 2);
         doc.add(uid);
         writer.updateDocument(new Term("_uid", "1"), doc);
-        reader = reader.reopen();
-        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(2l));
-        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(reader, 0, new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(2l));
+        directoryReader = DirectoryReader.openIfChanged(directoryReader);
+        atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(2l));
+        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(2l));
 
         // test reuse of uid field
         doc = new Document();
         uid.version(3);
         doc.add(uid);
         writer.updateDocument(new Term("_uid", "1"), doc);
-        reader = reader.reopen();
-        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(3l));
-        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(reader, 0, new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(3l));
+        directoryReader = DirectoryReader.openIfChanged(directoryReader);
+        atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(3l));
+        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")).version, equalTo(3l));
 
         writer.deleteDocuments(new Term("_uid", "1"));
-        reader = reader.reopen();
-        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(reader, new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-1l));
-        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(reader, 0, new Term("_uid", "1")), nullValue());
+        directoryReader = DirectoryReader.openIfChanged(directoryReader);
+        atomicReader = SlowCompositeReaderWrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
+        assertThat(UidField.loadVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), equalTo(-1l));
+        assertThat(UidField.loadDocIdAndVersion(atomicReader.getContext(), new Term("_uid", "1")), nullValue());
     }
 }