diff --git a/lib/main.dart b/lib/main.dart
index 5a7b1cecd..1b1712a06 100644
--- a/lib/main.dart
+++ b/lib/main.dart
@@ -195,7 +195,9 @@ Future<void> _init(bool isBackground, {String via = ''}) async {
     });
   }
   unawaited(FeatureFlagService.instance.init());
-  unawaited(SemanticSearchService.instance.init());
+  if (!isBackground) {
+    unawaited(SemanticSearchService.instance.init());
+  }
   // Can not including existing tf/ml binaries as they are not being built
   // from source.
   // See https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/12671#note_1294346819