diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
index 84093108a14f0..06efd9b88568e 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
@@ -455,9 +455,15 @@ public void testUpdateDoc() throws Exception {
                 updates.put(docId, value);
             }
         }
-        client().performRequest(new Request("POST", index + "/_refresh"));
+        boolean refreshed = randomBoolean();
+        if (refreshed) {
+            client().performRequest(new Request("POST", index + "/_refresh"));
+        }
         for (int docId : updates.keySet()) {
             Request get = new Request("GET", index + "/test/" + docId);
+            if (refreshed && randomBoolean()) {
+                get.addParameter("realtime", "false");
+            }
             Map<String, Object> doc = entityAsMap(client().performRequest(get));
             assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("_source.updated_field", doc), equalTo(updates.get(docId)));
         }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
index dfedc25bb0fd4..a343d5abbc480 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
@@ -675,8 +675,12 @@ public GetResult get(Get get, BiFunction<String, SearcherScope, Searcher> search
                             trackTranslogLocation.set(true);
                         }
                     }
-                    assert versionValue.seqNo >= 0 : versionValue;
-                    refreshIfNeeded("realtime_get", versionValue.seqNo);
+                    if (versionValue.seqNo != SequenceNumbers.UNASSIGNED_SEQ_NO) {
+                        assert versionValue.seqNo >= 0 : versionValue;
+                        refreshIfNeeded("realtime_get", versionValue.seqNo);
+                    } else {
+                        refresh("realtime_get", SearcherScope.INTERNAL);
+                    }
                 }
                 scope = SearcherScope.INTERNAL;
             } else {