diff --git a/emacs/notmuch.el b/emacs/notmuch.el
index 3d82f0d0..057b1aec 100644
--- a/emacs/notmuch.el
+++ b/emacs/notmuch.el
@@ -747,6 +747,8 @@ non-authors is found, assume that all of the authors match."
 		  (more t)
 		  (inhibit-read-only t))
 	      (while more
+		(while (and (< line (length string)) (= (elt string line) ?\n))
+		  (setq line (1+ line)))
 		(if (string-match "^\\(thread:[0-9A-Fa-f]*\\) \\([^][]*\\) \\(\\[[0-9/]*\\]\\) \\([^;]*\\); \\(.*\\) (\\([^()]*\\))$" string line)
 		    (let* ((thread-id (match-string 1 string))
 			   (date (match-string 2 string))
@@ -756,6 +758,8 @@ non-authors is found, assume that all of the authors match."
 			   (tags (match-string 6 string))
 			   (tag-list (if tags (save-match-data (split-string tags)))))
 		      (goto-char (point-max))
+		      (if (/= (match-beginning 1) line)
+			  (insert (concat "Error: Unexpected output from notmuch search:\n" (substring string line (match-beginning 1)) "\n")))
 		      (let ((beg (point-marker)))
 			(notmuch-search-show-result date count authors subject tags)
 			(notmuch-search-color-line beg (point-marker) tag-list)
@@ -767,7 +771,12 @@ non-authors is found, assume that all of the authors match."
 			      (set 'found-target beg)
 			      (set 'notmuch-search-target-thread "found"))))
 		      (set 'line (match-end 0)))
-		  (set 'more nil)))))
+		  (set 'more nil)
+		  (while (and (< line (length string)) (= (elt string line) ?\n))
+		    (setq line (1+ line)))
+		  (if (< line (length string))
+		      (insert (concat "Error: Unexpected output from notmuch search:\n" (substring string line) "\n")))
+		  ))))
 	  (if found-target
 	      (goto-char found-target)))
       (delete-process proc))))
diff --git a/test/emacs-large-search-buffer b/test/emacs-large-search-buffer
index f827bb14..78b3ae8b 100755
--- a/test/emacs-large-search-buffer
+++ b/test/emacs-large-search-buffer
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ notmuch new > /dev/null
 test_begin_subtest 'Comparing emacs result to "notmuch search"'
 expected="$(notmuch search '*' | sed -e 's/^thread:[0-9a-f]*  //' -e 's/;//' -e  's/xx*/[BLOB]/')
 End of search results."
-output=$(test_emacs '(notmuch-search "*") (notmuch-test-wait) (message (buffer-string))' 2>&1 | sed -e s',  *, ,g' -e 's/xx*/[BLOB]/')
+output=$(test_emacs '(notmuch-search "*") (notmuch-test-wait) (message (buffer-string))' 2>&1 | sed -e s',  *, ,g' -e 's/xxx*/[BLOB]/g')
 test_expect_equal "$output" "$expected"
 
 test_done