diff --git a/searchlib/src/vespa/searchlib/docstore/filechunk.cpp b/searchlib/src/vespa/searchlib/docstore/filechunk.cpp
index 7d4867a817be..f5e4dd7b1cd0 100644
--- a/searchlib/src/vespa/searchlib/docstore/filechunk.cpp
+++ b/searchlib/src/vespa/searchlib/docstore/filechunk.cpp
@@ -296,6 +296,27 @@ appendChunks(FixedParams * args, Chunk::UP chunk)
     }
 }
 
+/*
+ * Wrapper for future unique pointer to chunk that drains the
+ * pending task if the future is still valid at destruction time.
+ */
+class FutureChunk {
+    std::future<std::unique_ptr<Chunk>> _future;
+public:
+    FutureChunk(std::future<std::unique_ptr<Chunk>> future)
+        : _future(std::move(future))
+    {
+    }
+    FutureChunk(const FutureChunk&) = delete;
+    FutureChunk(FutureChunk&&) = default;
+    ~FutureChunk() {
+        if (_future.valid()) {
+            _future.wait();
+        }
+    }
+    std::unique_ptr<Chunk> get() { return _future.get(); }
+};
+
 }
 
 void
@@ -308,15 +329,19 @@ FileChunk::appendTo(vespalib::Executor & executor, const IGetLid & db, IWriteDat
     assert(numChunks <= getNumChunks());
     FixedParams fixedParams = {db, dest, lidReadGuard, getFileId().getId(), visitorProgress};
     size_t limit = std::thread::hardware_concurrency();
-    vespalib::ArrayQueue<std::future<Chunk::UP>> queue;
+    vespalib::ArrayQueue<FutureChunk> queue;
     for (size_t chunkId(0); chunkId < numChunks; chunkId++) {
         std::promise<Chunk::UP> promisedChunk;
-        std::future<Chunk::UP> futureChunk = promisedChunk.get_future();
+        FutureChunk futureChunk(promisedChunk.get_future());
         auto task = vespalib::makeLambdaTask([promise = std::move(promisedChunk), chunkId, this]() mutable {
-            const ChunkInfo & cInfo(_chunkInfo[chunkId]);
-            vespalib::DataBuffer whole(0ul, ALIGNMENT);
-            FileRandRead::FSP keepAlive(_file->read(cInfo.getOffset(), whole, cInfo.getSize()));
-            promise.set_value(std::make_unique<Chunk>(chunkId, whole.getData(), whole.getDataLen()));
+            try {
+                const ChunkInfo & cInfo(_chunkInfo[chunkId]);
+                vespalib::DataBuffer whole(0ul, ALIGNMENT);
+                FileRandRead::FSP keepAlive(_file->read(cInfo.getOffset(), whole, cInfo.getSize()));
+                promise.set_value(std::make_unique<Chunk>(chunkId, whole.getData(), whole.getDataLen()));
+            } catch (...) {
+                promise.set_exception(std::current_exception());
+            }
         });
         executor.execute(CpuUsage::wrap(std::move(task), cpu_category));