diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index d7be88baa..17433eb84 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 Release 0.5.2 (in development)
 ==============================
 
+* Fix a problem in the HTML search if the index takes too long
+  to load.
+
 * Don't output system messages while resolving, because they
   would stay in the doctrees even if keep_warnings is false.
 
diff --git a/sphinx/static/searchtools.js b/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
index f9d9b6c39..c4ac17d89 100644
--- a/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
+++ b/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ var Search = {
     if (this.hasIndex())
       this.query(query);
     else
-      this.setQuery(query);
+      this.deferQuery(query);
   },
 
   query : function(query) {