diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineService.java b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineService.java
index 9e4341347d8a8..012d6695c042b 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineService.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineService.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 import org.opensearch.core.xcontent.NamedXContentRegistry;
 import org.opensearch.env.Environment;
 import org.opensearch.gateway.GatewayService;
+import org.opensearch.index.IndexNotFoundException;
 import org.opensearch.index.IndexSettings;
 import org.opensearch.index.analysis.AnalysisRegistry;
 import org.opensearch.ingest.ConfigurationUtils;
@@ -64,6 +65,8 @@
 /**
  * The main entry point for search pipelines. Handles CRUD operations and exposes the API to execute search pipelines
  * against requests and responses.
+ *
+ * @opensearch.internal
  */
 public class SearchPipelineService implements ClusterStateApplier, ReportingService<SearchPipelineInfo> {
 
@@ -393,22 +396,26 @@ public PipelinedRequest resolvePipeline(SearchRequest searchRequest, IndexNameEx
                 // Named pipeline specified for the request
                 pipelineId = searchRequest.pipeline();
             } else if (state != null && searchRequest.indices() != null && searchRequest.indices().length != 0) {
-                // Check for index default pipeline
-                Index[] concreteIndices = indexNameExpressionResolver.concreteIndices(state, searchRequest);
-                for (Index index : concreteIndices) {
-                    IndexMetadata indexMetadata = state.metadata().index(index);
-                    if (indexMetadata != null) {
-                        Settings indexSettings = indexMetadata.getSettings();
-                        if (IndexSettings.DEFAULT_SEARCH_PIPELINE.exists(indexSettings)) {
-                            String currentPipelineId = IndexSettings.DEFAULT_SEARCH_PIPELINE.get(indexSettings);
-                            if (NOOP_PIPELINE_ID.equals(pipelineId)) {
-                                pipelineId = currentPipelineId;
-                            } else if (pipelineId.equals(currentPipelineId) == false) {
-                                pipelineId = NOOP_PIPELINE_ID;
-                                break;
+                try {
+                    // Check for index default pipeline
+                    Index[] concreteIndices = indexNameExpressionResolver.concreteIndices(state, searchRequest);
+                    for (Index index : concreteIndices) {
+                        IndexMetadata indexMetadata = state.metadata().index(index);
+                        if (indexMetadata != null) {
+                            Settings indexSettings = indexMetadata.getSettings();
+                            if (IndexSettings.DEFAULT_SEARCH_PIPELINE.exists(indexSettings)) {
+                                String currentPipelineId = IndexSettings.DEFAULT_SEARCH_PIPELINE.get(indexSettings);
+                                if (NOOP_PIPELINE_ID.equals(pipelineId)) {
+                                    pipelineId = currentPipelineId;
+                                } else if (!pipelineId.equals(currentPipelineId)) {
+                                    pipelineId = NOOP_PIPELINE_ID;
+                                    break;
+                                }
                             }
                         }
                     }
+                } catch (IndexNotFoundException e) {
+                    logger.debug("Default pipeline not applied for {}", (Object) searchRequest.indices());
                 }
             }
             if (NOOP_PIPELINE_ID.equals(pipelineId) == false) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineServiceTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineServiceTests.java
index 0788b2b483a96..f5857922fdff2 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineServiceTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/search/pipeline/SearchPipelineServiceTests.java
@@ -1664,4 +1664,39 @@ public void testNoIndexResolveIndexDefaultPipeline() throws Exception {
         assertEquals(5, pipelinedRequest.source().size());
     }
 
+    public void testInvalidIndexResolveIndexDefaultPipeline() throws Exception {
+        SearchPipelineService service = createWithProcessors();
+
+        SearchPipelineMetadata metadata = new SearchPipelineMetadata(
+            Map.of(
+                "p1",
+                new PipelineConfiguration(
+                    "p1",
+                    new BytesArray("{\"request_processors\" : [ { \"scale_request_size\": { \"scale\" : 2 } } ] }"),
+                    MediaTypeRegistry.JSON
+                )
+            )
+        );
+        Settings defaultPipelineSetting = Settings.builder()
+            .put(IndexMetadata.INDEX_NUMBER_OF_SHARDS_SETTING.getKey(), 1)
+            .put(IndexMetadata.INDEX_NUMBER_OF_REPLICAS_SETTING.getKey(), 0)
+            .put(IndexMetadata.SETTING_INDEX_VERSION_CREATED.getKey(), Version.CURRENT)
+            .put(IndexSettings.DEFAULT_SEARCH_PIPELINE.getKey(), "p1")
+            .build();
+        IndexMetadata indexMetadata = new IndexMetadata.Builder("my_index").settings(defaultPipelineSetting).build();
+        ClusterState clusterState = ClusterState.builder(new ClusterName("_name")).build();
+        ClusterState previousState = clusterState;
+        clusterState = ClusterState.builder(clusterState)
+            .metadata(Metadata.builder().put(indexMetadata, false).putCustom(SearchPipelineMetadata.TYPE, metadata))
+            .build();
+
+        ClusterChangedEvent cce = new ClusterChangedEvent("", clusterState, previousState);
+        service.applyClusterState(cce);
+
+        SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest("xyz").source(SearchSourceBuilder.searchSource().size(5));
+        PipelinedRequest pipelinedRequest = syncTransformRequest(service.resolvePipeline(searchRequest, indexNameExpressionResolver));
+        assertEquals("_none", pipelinedRequest.getPipeline().getId());
+        assertEquals(5, pipelinedRequest.source().size());
+    }
+
 }