diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
index 2507801532..e7ab40025c 100644
--- a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchObjectProvider.js
@@ -298,18 +298,12 @@ class CouchObjectProvider {
         return Array.from(new Set(array));
     }
 
-    search(query, abortSignal) {
-        const filter = {
-            "selector": {
-                "model": {
-                    "name": {
-                        "$regex": `(?i)${query}`
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        };
-
-        return this.getObjectsByFilter(filter, abortSignal);
+    search() {
+        // Dummy search function. It has to appear to support search,
+        // otherwise the in-memory indexer will index all of its objects,
+        // but actually search results will be provided by a separate search provider
+        // see CoucheSearchProvider.js
+        return Promise.resolve([]);
     }
 
     async getObjectsByFilter(filter, abortSignal) {
diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchSearchProvider.js b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchSearchProvider.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7ef264d5e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/CouchSearchProvider.js
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/*****************************************************************************
+ * Open MCT, Copyright (c) 2014-2021, United States Government
+ * as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space
+ * Administration. All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * Open MCT is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ *
+ * Open MCT includes source code licensed under additional open source
+ * licenses. See the Open Source Licenses file (LICENSES.md) included with
+ * this source code distribution or the Licensing information page available
+ * at runtime from the About dialog for additional information.
+ *****************************************************************************/
+
+// This provider exists because due to legacy reasons, we need to install
+// two plugins for two namespaces for CouchDB: one for "mct", and one for "".
+// Because of this, we need to separate out the search provider from the object
+// provider so we don't return two results for each found object.
+// If the above namespace is ever resolved, we can fold this search provider
+// back into the object provider.
+
+class CouchSearchProvider {
+    constructor(couchObjectProvider) {
+        this.couchObjectProvider = couchObjectProvider;
+    }
+
+    search(query, abortSignal) {
+        const filter = {
+            "selector": {
+                "model": {
+                    "name": {
+                        "$regex": `(?i)${query}`
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        };
+
+        return this.couchObjectProvider.getObjectsByFilter(filter, abortSignal);
+    }
+}
+export default CouchSearchProvider;
diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/plugin.js b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/plugin.js
index 4652069348..5796b96956 100644
--- a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/plugin.js
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/plugin.js
@@ -21,8 +21,10 @@
  *****************************************************************************/
 
 import CouchObjectProvider from './CouchObjectProvider';
+import CouchSearchProvider from './CouchSearchProvider';
 const NAMESPACE = '';
 const LEGACY_SPACE = 'mct';
+const COUCH_SEARCH_ONLY_NAMESPACE = `COUCH_SEARCH_${Date.now()}`;
 
 export default function CouchPlugin(options) {
     return function install(openmct) {
@@ -32,5 +34,6 @@ export default function CouchPlugin(options) {
         // Installing the same provider under both namespaces means that it can respond to object gets for both namespaces.
         openmct.objects.addProvider(LEGACY_SPACE, install.couchProvider);
         openmct.objects.addProvider(NAMESPACE, install.couchProvider);
+        openmct.objects.addProvider(COUCH_SEARCH_ONLY_NAMESPACE, new CouchSearchProvider(install.couchProvider));
     };
 }
diff --git a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/pluginSpec.js b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/pluginSpec.js
index b4011f5360..3db7d7d136 100644
--- a/src/plugins/persistence/couch/pluginSpec.js
+++ b/src/plugins/persistence/couch/pluginSpec.js
@@ -262,7 +262,9 @@ describe('the plugin', () => {
             await Promise.all(openmct.objects.search('test'));
             const requestUrl = fetch.calls.mostRecent().args[0];
 
-            expect(fetch).toHaveBeenCalled();
+            // we only want one call to fetch, not 2!
+            // see https://github.com/nasa/openmct/issues/4667
+            expect(fetch).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
             expect(requestUrl.endsWith('_find')).toBeTrue();
         });