diff --git a/modules/indexer/issue.go b/modules/indexer/issue.go
index 2503a7882..050a623ce 100644
--- a/modules/indexer/issue.go
+++ b/modules/indexer/issue.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/analysis/token/lowercase"
 	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/analysis/token/unicodenorm"
 	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/analysis/tokenizer/unicode"
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/index/upsidedown"
 )
 
 // issueIndexer (thread-safe) index for searching issues
@@ -39,27 +40,25 @@ const issueIndexerAnalyzer = "issueIndexer"
 // InitIssueIndexer initialize issue indexer
 func InitIssueIndexer(populateIndexer func() error) {
 	_, err := os.Stat(setting.Indexer.IssuePath)
-	if err != nil {
-		if os.IsNotExist(err) {
-			if err = createIssueIndexer(); err != nil {
-				log.Fatal(4, "CreateIssuesIndexer: %v", err)
-			}
-			if err = populateIndexer(); err != nil {
-				log.Fatal(4, "PopulateIssuesIndex: %v", err)
-			}
-		} else {
-			log.Fatal(4, "InitIssuesIndexer: %v", err)
-		}
-	} else {
+	if err != nil && !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		log.Fatal(4, "InitIssueIndexer: %v", err)
+	} else if err == nil {
 		issueIndexer, err = bleve.Open(setting.Indexer.IssuePath)
-		if err != nil {
-			log.Error(4, "Unable to open issues indexer (%s)."+
-				" If the error is due to incompatible versions, try deleting the indexer files;"+
-				" gitea will recreate them with the appropriate version the next time it runs."+
-				" Deleting the indexer files will not result in loss of data.",
-				setting.Indexer.IssuePath)
-			log.Fatal(4, "InitIssuesIndexer, open index: %v", err)
+		if err == nil {
+			return
+		} else if err != upsidedown.IncompatibleVersion {
+			log.Fatal(4, "InitIssueIndexer, open index: %v", err)
 		}
+		log.Warn("Incompatible bleve version, deleting and recreating issue indexer")
+		if err = os.RemoveAll(setting.Indexer.IssuePath); err != nil {
+			log.Fatal(4, "InitIssueIndexer: remove index, %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+	if err = createIssueIndexer(); err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(4, "InitIssuesIndexer: create index, %v", err)
+	}
+	if err = populateIndexer(); err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(4, "InitIssueIndexer: populate index, %v", err)
 	}
 }