diff --git a/kallithea/controllers/search.py b/kallithea/controllers/search.py
--- a/kallithea/controllers/search.py
+++ b/kallithea/controllers/search.py
@@ -136,10 +136,8 @@ class SearchController(BaseRepoControlle
                     c.runtime = _('Invalid search query. Try quoting it.')
                 searcher.close()
             except EmptyIndexError:
-                log.error(traceback.format_exc())
-                log.error('Empty Index data')
-                c.runtime = _('There is no index to search in. '
-                              'Please run whoosh indexer')
+                log.error("Empty search index - run 'kallithea-cli index-create' regularly")
+                c.runtime = _('The server has no search index.')
             except Exception:
                 log.error(traceback.format_exc())
                 c.runtime = _('An error occurred during search operation.')
diff --git a/kallithea/tests/functional/test_search.py b/kallithea/tests/functional/test_search.py
--- a/kallithea/tests/functional/test_search.py
+++ b/kallithea/tests/functional/test_search.py
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ class TestSearchController(TestControlle
         with mock.patch('kallithea.controllers.search.config', config_mock):
             response = self.app.get(url(controller='search', action='index'),
                                     {'q': HG_REPO})
-            response.mustcontain('There is no index to search in. '
-                                 'Please run whoosh indexer')
+            response.mustcontain('The server has no search index.')
 
     def test_normal_search(self):
         self.log_user()