diff --git a/app/Console/Commands/NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes.php b/app/Console/Commands/NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes.php
index 9153d8cb5..9152c7def 100644
--- a/app/Console/Commands/NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes.php
+++ b/app/Console/Commands/NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes.php
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes extends Command
                                        {--steam : Populates the Steam apps index}
                                        {--anime : Populates the anime titles index}
                                        {--all : Populate all supported indexes for the selected engine}
-                                       {--count=50000 : Sets the chunk size}
+                                       {--count=5000 : Sets the database chunk size}
                                        {--parallel=4 : Number of parallel processes}
                                        {--batch-size=5000 : Batch size for bulk operations}
                                        {--disable-keys : Disable database keys during population}
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ class NntmuxPopulateSearchIndexes extends Command
 
     private const GROUP_CONCAT_MAX_LEN = 16384;
 
-    private const DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = 50000;
+    private const DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = 5000;
 
     /** @phpstan-ignore classConstant.unused */
     private const DEFAULT_PARALLEL_PROCESSES = 4;
diff --git a/app/Services/Search/Support/ReleaseIndexProjection.php b/app/Services/Search/Support/ReleaseIndexProjection.php
index 04eceb20a..08430e816 100644
--- a/app/Services/Search/Support/ReleaseIndexProjection.php
+++ b/app/Services/Search/Support/ReleaseIndexProjection.php
@@ -15,10 +15,11 @@ final class ReleaseIndexProjection
 {
     public static function query(): Builder
     {
-        $groupConcat = DB::connection()->getDriverName() === 'sqlite'
-            ? "GROUP_CONCAT(rf.name, ' ')"
-            : "GROUP_CONCAT(rf.name SEPARATOR ' ')";
-        $categoryName = DB::connection()->getDriverName() === 'sqlite'
+        $isSqlite = DB::connection()->getDriverName() === 'sqlite';
+        $filename = $isSqlite
+            ? "COALESCE((SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(rf.name, ' ') FROM release_files rf WHERE rf.releases_id = r.id), '')"
+            : "COALESCE((SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(rf.name SEPARATOR ' ') FROM release_files rf WHERE rf.releases_id = r.id), '')";
+        $categoryName = $isSqlite
             ? "cp.title || ' > ' || c.title"
             : "CONCAT(cp.title, ' > ', c.title)";
 
@@ -38,7 +39,6 @@ final class ReleaseIndexProjection
                 $join->on('tve.id', '=', 'r.tv_episodes_id')
                     ->where('r.tv_episodes_id', '>', 0);
             })
-            ->leftJoin('release_files as rf', 'rf.releases_id', '=', 'r.id')
             ->leftJoin('release_nfos as rn', 'rn.releases_id', '=', 'r.id')
             ->leftJoin('video_data as vd', 'vd.releases_id', '=', 'r.id')
             ->select([
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ final class ReleaseIndexProjection
                 'c.title as sub_category', 'tve.title as episode_title', 'tve.series',
                 'tve.episode', 'tve.firstaired',
                 'cp.title as parent_category', DB::raw("{$categoryName} AS category_name"),
-                DB::raw("COALESCE({$groupConcat}, '') AS filename"),
+                DB::raw("{$filename} AS filename"),
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(mi.tmdbid, 0) AS tmdbid'),
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(mi.traktid, 0) AS traktid'),
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(v.tvdb, 0) AS tvdb'),
@@ -61,16 +61,6 @@ final class ReleaseIndexProjection
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(v.tmdb, 0) AS tmdb'),
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(rn.releases_id, 0) AS nfoid'),
                 DB::raw('COALESCE(vd.releases_id, 0) AS reid'),
-            ])
-            ->groupBy([
-                'r.id', 'r.guid', 'r.name', 'r.searchname', 'r.fromname', 'r.categories_id',
-                'r.groups_id', 'r.size', 'r.postdate', 'r.adddate', 'r.totalpart', 'r.grabs',
-                'r.comments', 'r.passwordstatus', 'r.nzbstatus', 'r.nfostatus', 'r.haspreview',
-                'r.jpgstatus', 'r.videos_id', 'r.tv_episodes_id', 'r.movieinfo_id', 'r.imdbid',
-                'r.anidbid', 'g.name', 'c.root_categories_id', 'c.title', 'tve.title',
-                'tve.series', 'tve.episode', 'tve.firstaired', 'cp.title', 'mi.tmdbid',
-                'mi.traktid', 'v.tvdb', 'v.tvmaze', 'v.tvrage', 'v.trakt', 'v.imdb', 'v.tmdb',
-                'rn.releases_id', 'vd.releases_id',
             ]);
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Services/Search/ReleaseIndexProjectionTest.php b/tests/Unit/Services/Search/ReleaseIndexProjectionTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..187f80818
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Services/Search/ReleaseIndexProjectionTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Tests\Unit\Services\Search;
+
+use App\Services\Search\Support\ReleaseIndexProjection;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\Test;
+use Tests\TestCase;
+
+final class ReleaseIndexProjectionTest extends TestCase
+{
+    #[Test]
+    public function release_population_projection_avoids_a_wide_group_and_sort(): void
+    {
+        $sql = strtolower(ReleaseIndexProjection::query()->orderBy('r.id')->limit(5000)->toSql());
+
+        self::assertStringContainsString('select group_concat(rf.name', $sql);
+        self::assertStringContainsString('where rf.releases_id = r.id', $sql);
+        self::assertStringNotContainsString('join "release_files"', $sql);
+        self::assertStringNotContainsString(' group by ', $sql);
+        self::assertStringContainsString('order by "r"."id" asc limit 5000', $sql);
+    }
+}