diff --git a/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md b/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3c669ce545
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/reject-failed-index-tasks.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/search-backend-node': patch
+---
+
+propagate indexing errors so they don't appear successful to the task scheduler
diff --git a/plugins/search-backend-node/src/IndexBuilder.ts b/plugins/search-backend-node/src/IndexBuilder.ts
index 235bac905a..2131c6937d 100644
--- a/plugins/search-backend-node/src/IndexBuilder.ts
+++ b/plugins/search-backend-node/src/IndexBuilder.ts
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ export class IndexBuilder {
           const indexer = await this.searchEngine.getIndexer(type);
 
           // Compose collator/decorators/indexer into a pipeline
-          return new Promise<void>(done => {
+          return new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
             pipeline(
               [collator, ...decorators, indexer],
               (error: NodeJS.ErrnoException | null) => {
@@ -136,12 +136,12 @@ export class IndexBuilder {
                   this.logger.error(
                     `Collating documents for ${type} failed: ${error}`,
                   );
+                  reject(error);
                 } else {
+                  // Signal index pipeline completion!
                   this.logger.info(`Collating documents for ${type} succeeded`);
+                  resolve();
                 }
-
-                // Signal index pipeline completion!
-                done();
               },
             );
           });