diff --git a/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.test.ts b/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.test.ts
index ad7fba7cd1..dd16a3121b 100644
--- a/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.test.ts
@@ -1412,5 +1412,13 @@ describe("PostgresSearchProvider", () => {
         `"this<->is<->a<->test"`
       );
     });
+    it("should strip interleaved trailing operator and escape characters", () => {
+      // pg-tsquery reorders trailing operators and may emit a tail like
+      // `&\` that, if stripped one character at a time in the wrong order,
+      // leaves a dangling `&` and triggers "no operand in tsquery".
+      expect(PostgresSearchProvider.webSearchQuery(`"plugins"\\&`)).toBe(
+        `"plugins"`
+      );
+    });
   });
 });
diff --git a/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.ts b/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.ts
index c00bc091e4..8eca93125a 100644
--- a/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.ts
+++ b/plugins/search-postgres/server/PostgresSearchProvider.ts
@@ -861,10 +861,10 @@ export default class PostgresSearchProvider extends BaseSearchProvider {
         // spaces. Ref: https://github.com/caub/pg-tsquery/issues/27
         quotedSearch ? limitedQuery.trim() : `${limitedQuery.trim()}*`
       )
-        // Remove any trailing join characters
-        .replace(/&$/, "")
-        // Remove any trailing escape characters
-        .replace(/\\$/, "")
+        // Strip any trailing join (&) or escape (\) characters, in any
+        // combination, so we never hand to_tsquery an operator with no
+        // operand (e.g. a tail of "&\" would leave a dangling "&").
+        .replace(/[&\\]+$/, "")
     );
   }