diff --git a/src/applications/search/engineextension/PhabricatorFerretFulltextEngineExtension.php b/src/applications/search/engineextension/PhabricatorFerretFulltextEngineExtension.php
--- a/src/applications/search/engineextension/PhabricatorFerretFulltextEngineExtension.php
+++ b/src/applications/search/engineextension/PhabricatorFerretFulltextEngineExtension.php
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@
       ->getNgramsFromString($ngrams_source, 'index');
 
     $ferret_document->openTransaction();
+
+    try {
       $this->deleteOldDocument($engine, $object, $document);
 
       $ferret_document->save();
@@ -85,6 +87,11 @@
           $ferret_ngrams->getTableName(),
           $chunk);
       }
+    } catch (Exception $ex) {
+      $ferret_document->killTransaction();
+      throw $ex;
+    }
+
     $ferret_document->saveTransaction();
   }
 
diff --git a/src/applications/search/ngrams/PhabricatorNgramEngine.php b/src/applications/search/ngrams/PhabricatorNgramEngine.php
--- a/src/applications/search/ngrams/PhabricatorNgramEngine.php
+++ b/src/applications/search/ngrams/PhabricatorNgramEngine.php
@@ -26,9 +26,11 @@
           break;
       }
 
-      $len = (strlen($token) - 2);
+      $token_v = phutil_utf8v($token);
+      $len = (count($token_v) - 2);
       for ($ii = 0; $ii < $len; $ii++) {
-        $ngram = substr($token, $ii, 3);
+        $ngram = array_slice($token_v, $ii, 3);
+        $ngram = implode('', $ngram);
         $ngrams[$ngram] = $ngram;
       }
     }