diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5d9320cbe2e95..0b5e8dd92f318 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ All notable changes to Sourcegraph are documented in this file.
 - Fixed an issue with `sourcegraph/server` Docker deployments where syntax highlighting could produce `server closed idle connection` errors. [#4269](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/issues/4269)
 - Repositories containing submodules not on Sourcegraph will now load without error [#2947](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/issues/2947)
 - HTTP metrics in Prometheus/Grafana now distinguish between different types of GraphQL requests.
+- Fixed an issue where syntax highlighting taking too long would result in errors or wait long amounts of time without properly falling back to plaintext rendering after a few seconds. [#4267](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/issues/4267) [#4268](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/issues/4268)
 
 ## 3.4.2
 
diff --git a/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.test.tsx b/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.test.tsx
index bccd98d856a63..c498a74bbcf31 100644
--- a/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.test.tsx
+++ b/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.test.tsx
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import * as React from 'react'
 import _VisibilitySensor from 'react-visibility-sensor'
+import sinon from 'sinon'
 export class MockVisibilitySensor extends React.Component<{ onChange?: (isVisible: boolean) => void }> {
     constructor(props: { onChange?: (isVisible: boolean) => void }) {
         super(props)
@@ -23,7 +24,9 @@ jest.mock(
 )
 
 import { cleanup, getAllByText, getByText, render } from 'react-testing-library'
+import { of } from 'rxjs'
 import {
+    HIGHLIGHTED_FILE_LINES,
     HIGHLIGHTED_FILE_LINES_REQUEST,
     HIGHLIGHTED_FILE_LINES_SIMPLE_REQUEST,
 } from '../../../web/src/search/testHelpers'
@@ -104,4 +107,24 @@ describe('CodeExcerpt', () => {
             expect(span.textContent === 'test')
         }
     })
+
+    it('does not disable the highlighting timeout', () => {
+        /*
+            Because disabling the timeout should only ever be done in response
+            to the user asking us to do so, something that we do not do for
+            code excerpts because falling back to plaintext rendering is most
+            ideal.
+        */
+        const fetchHighlightedFileLines = sinon.spy(ctx => of(HIGHLIGHTED_FILE_LINES))
+        const highlightRange = [{ line: 12, character: 7, highlightLength: 4 }]
+        render(
+            <CodeExcerpt
+                {...defaultProps}
+                highlightRanges={highlightRange}
+                fetchHighlightedFileLines={fetchHighlightedFileLines}
+            />
+        )
+        sinon.assert.calledOnce(fetchHighlightedFileLines)
+        sinon.assert.calledWithMatch(fetchHighlightedFileLines, { disableTimeout: false })
+    })
 })
diff --git a/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.tsx b/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.tsx
index b9c23d51a684f..5fb076284f4c9 100644
--- a/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.tsx
+++ b/shared/src/components/CodeExcerpt.tsx
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ export class CodeExcerpt extends React.PureComponent<Props, State> {
                             commitID,
                             filePath,
                             isLightTheme,
-                            disableTimeout: true,
+                            disableTimeout: false,
                         })
                     ),
                     catchError(error => [asError(error)])
diff --git a/web/src/repo/backend.tsx b/web/src/repo/backend.tsx
index 55314eb5a4606..6802227ce222d 100644
--- a/web/src/repo/backend.tsx
+++ b/web/src/repo/backend.tsx
@@ -218,9 +218,6 @@ export const fetchHighlightedFileLines = memoizeObservable(
                 if (result.isDirectory) {
                     return []
                 }
-                if (result.highlightedFile.aborted) {
-                    throw new Error('aborted fetching highlighted contents')
-                }
                 let parsed = result.highlightedFile.html.substr('<table>'.length)
                 parsed = parsed.substr(0, parsed.length - '</table>'.length)
                 const rows = parsed.split('</tr>')