diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/backend.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/backend.go
index 7fc6fe5bfa..d8426e5435 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/bleve/backend.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/backend.go
@@ -75,14 +75,10 @@ func (b *Backend) Search(_ context.Context, sir *searchService.SearchIndexReques
 			},
 		)
 		// Scope below the space root: restrict at query level so totals and
-		// paging respect the path too. Path is a case-preserving keyword
-		// (paths act as references, /Foo and /foo are distinct), so the exact
-		// folder or the folder prefix matches all of, and only, the scope.
+		// paging respect the path too. The folder term matches the folder and
+		// its descendants (see PathAnalyzer).
 		if requestedPath := utils.MakeRelativePath(sir.Ref.Path); requestedPath != "." {
-			q.Conjuncts = append(q.Conjuncts, query.NewDisjunctionQuery([]query.Query{
-				&query.TermQuery{FieldVal: "Path", Term: requestedPath},
-				&query.PrefixQuery{FieldVal: "Path", Prefix: requestedPath + "/"},
-			}))
+			q.Conjuncts = append(q.Conjuncts, &query.TermQuery{FieldVal: "Path", Term: requestedPath})
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/bleve.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/bleve.go
index 1bbf53857d..6c244a542a 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/bleve/bleve.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/bleve.go
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 package bleve
 
 import (
-	"regexp"
-
 	bleveSearch "github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2/search"
 	storageProvider "github.com/cs3org/go-cs3apis/cs3/storage/provider/v1beta1"
 
@@ -11,8 +9,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/search"
 )
 
-var queryEscape = regexp.MustCompile(`([` + regexp.QuoteMeta(`+=&|><!(){}[]^\"~*?:\/`) + `\-\s])`)
-
 func getFieldValue[T any](m map[string]any, key string) (out T) {
 	val, ok := m[key]
 	if !ok {
@@ -84,7 +80,3 @@ func hitToFacet[T any](fields map[string]any, prefix string) *T {
 func matchToResource(match *bleveSearch.DocumentMatch) *search.Resource {
 	return mapping.Deserialize[search.Resource](match.Fields)
 }
-
-func escapeQuery(s string) string {
-	return queryEscape.ReplaceAllString(s, "\\$1")
-}
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/descendants_test.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/descendants_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a4268aa282
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/descendants_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+package bleve
+
+import (
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+
+	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/pkg/log"
+	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/search"
+)
+
+var _ = Describe("searchResourcesByPath", func() {
+	var idx bleve.Index
+
+	BeforeEach(func() {
+		var err error
+		idx, _, err = NewIndex(GinkgoT().TempDir(), log.NopLogger())
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		DeferCleanup(func() { Expect(idx.Close()).To(Succeed()) })
+	})
+
+	ids := func(rootID, lookupPath string) []string {
+		res, err := searchResourcesByPath(rootID, lookupPath, idx)
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		out := make([]string, 0, len(res))
+		for _, r := range res {
+			out = append(out, r.ID)
+		}
+		return out
+	}
+
+	It("returns all of, and only, the descendants of the folder in its space", func() {
+		const rootA, rootB = "s$a!root", "s$b!root"
+		batch := idx.NewBatch()
+		for _, r := range []search.Resource{
+			{ID: "s$a!big", RootID: rootA, Path: "./big", Type: 2},
+			{ID: "s$a!f1", RootID: rootA, Path: "./big/f1.txt", Type: 1},
+			{ID: "s$a!f2", RootID: rootA, Path: "./big/sub/f2.txt", Type: 1},
+			{ID: "s$a!big2", RootID: rootA, Path: "./big2/x.txt", Type: 1},
+			{ID: "s$b!clone", RootID: rootB, Path: "./big/f1.txt", Type: 1},
+			{ID: "s$a!odd", RootID: rootA, Path: `./odd name*[1]/file:with spaces?.txt`, Type: 1},
+		} {
+			Expect(batch.Index(r.ID, r)).To(Succeed())
+		}
+		Expect(idx.Batch(batch)).To(Succeed())
+
+		Expect(ids(rootA, "./big")).To(ConsistOf("s$a!f1", "s$a!f2"))
+		Expect(ids(rootA, "./odd name*[1]")).To(ConsistOf("s$a!odd"))
+		Expect(ids(rootA, ".")).To(ConsistOf("s$a!big", "s$a!f1", "s$a!f2", "s$a!big2", "s$a!odd"))
+	})
+})
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..67959d566b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy.go
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+package hierarchy
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"strconv"
+
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2/analysis"
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2/registry"
+)
+
+// emits every prefix up to a level: "./a/b" -> ".", "./a", "./a/b" with
+// delimiter "/", one level per byte without. tag_depth prepends "<depth>/".
+const Name = "hierarchy"
+
+type Tokenizer struct {
+	delimiter []byte
+	tagDepth  bool
+}
+
+func (t *Tokenizer) Tokenize(input []byte) analysis.TokenStream {
+	if len(input) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	var out analysis.TokenStream
+	emit := func(depth, end int) {
+		term := input[:end]
+		if t.tagDepth {
+			term = strconv.AppendInt(make([]byte, 0, end+4), int64(depth), 10)
+			term = append(term, '/')
+			term = append(term, input[:end]...)
+		}
+		out = append(out, &analysis.Token{
+			Term:     term,
+			Position: depth,
+			Start:    0,
+			End:      end,
+			Type:     analysis.AlphaNumeric,
+		})
+	}
+
+	if len(t.delimiter) == 0 {
+		for i := range input {
+			emit(i+1, i+1)
+		}
+		return out
+	}
+
+	depth := 0
+	for start := 0; start <= len(input); {
+		i := bytes.Index(input[start:], t.delimiter)
+		if i < 0 {
+			if start < len(input) {
+				depth++
+				emit(depth, len(input))
+			}
+			break
+		}
+		if i > 0 {
+			depth++
+			emit(depth, start+i)
+		}
+		start += i + len(t.delimiter)
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func Constructor(config map[string]interface{}, _ *registry.Cache) (analysis.Tokenizer, error) {
+	t := &Tokenizer{}
+	if d, ok := config["delimiter"].(string); ok {
+		t.delimiter = []byte(d)
+	}
+	if v, ok := config["tag_depth"].(bool); ok {
+		t.tagDepth = v
+	}
+	return t, nil
+}
+
+func init() {
+	if err := registry.RegisterTokenizer(Name, Constructor); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_suite_test.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_suite_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a74f37fdd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_suite_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package hierarchy_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+)
+
+func TestHierarchy(t *testing.T) {
+	RegisterFailHandler(Fail)
+	RunSpecs(t, "hierarchy tokenizer")
+}
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_test.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6bc8eaec31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy/hierarchy_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+package hierarchy_test
+
+import (
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2/analysis"
+	"github.com/blevesearch/bleve/v2/registry"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+
+	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy"
+)
+
+func terms(ts analysis.TokenStream) []string {
+	out := make([]string, 0, len(ts))
+	for _, t := range ts {
+		out = append(out, string(t.Term))
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
+func tokenize(config map[string]any, input string) []string {
+	tok, err := hierarchy.Constructor(config, registry.NewCache())
+	Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+	return terms(tok.Tokenize([]byte(input)))
+}
+
+var _ = Describe("hierarchy tokenizer", func() {
+	path := map[string]any{"delimiter": "/"}
+	geohash := map[string]any{"tag_depth": true}
+
+	DescribeTable("emits every prefix up to a level boundary",
+		func(config map[string]any, input string, want []string) {
+			Expect(tokenize(config, input)).To(Equal(want))
+		},
+		Entry("relative path", path, "./a/b.txt", []string{".", "./a", "./a/b.txt"}),
+		Entry("space root", path, ".", []string{"."}),
+		Entry("trailing delimiter is not a level", path, "./a/", []string{".", "./a"}),
+		Entry("delimiter only", path, "/", []string{}),
+		Entry("leading delimiter", path, "/abs/x", []string{"/abs", "/abs/x"}),
+		Entry("double delimiter", path, "./a//b", []string{".", "./a", "./a//b"}),
+		Entry("spaces and special characters stay literal", path, "./odd name*[1]/f:x?.txt",
+			[]string{".", "./odd name*[1]", "./odd name*[1]/f:x?.txt"}),
+		Entry("empty input", path, "", []string{}),
+		Entry("geohash, one level per byte, depth tagged", geohash, "u4pru",
+			[]string{"1/u", "2/u4", "3/u4p", "4/u4pr", "5/u4pru"}),
+	)
+
+	It("keeps byte offsets on the source value", func() {
+		tok, err := hierarchy.Constructor(path, registry.NewCache())
+		Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+		ts := tok.Tokenize([]byte("./a/b"))
+		Expect(ts).To(HaveLen(3))
+		Expect(ts[2].Start).To(Equal(0))
+		Expect(ts[2].End).To(Equal(5))
+		Expect(ts[2].Position).To(Equal(3))
+	})
+})
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/index.go b/services/search/pkg/bleve/index.go
index fd4d50e0d6..a11d126130 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/bleve/index.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/index.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import (
 	storageProvider "github.com/cs3org/go-cs3apis/cs3/storage/provider/v1beta1"
 
 	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/pkg/log"
+	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/bleve/hierarchy"
 	searchmapping "github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/mapping"
 	"github.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud/services/search/pkg/search"
 )
@@ -208,6 +209,40 @@ func NewMapping() (mapping.IndexMapping, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
+	// path: every ancestor prefix is a term, so one term query matches a folder
+	// and all of its descendants
+	err = indexMapping.AddCustomTokenizer("path_hierarchy", map[string]any{
+		"type":      hierarchy.Name,
+		"delimiter": "/",
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	err = indexMapping.AddCustomAnalyzer(searchmapping.PathAnalyzer, map[string]any{
+		"type":      custom.Name,
+		"tokenizer": "path_hierarchy",
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	// geohash: no field uses it yet. It is part of the v5 schema so that #3272
+	// can add its geohash field additively: new fields reconcile at startup,
+	// a changed analysis block does not (classifyStoredMapping), so the names
+	// and the config below must not change.
+	err = indexMapping.AddCustomTokenizer("geohash_hierarchy", map[string]any{
+		"type":      hierarchy.Name,
+		"tag_depth": true,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	err = indexMapping.AddCustomAnalyzer(searchmapping.GeohashAnalyzer, map[string]any{
+		"type":      custom.Name,
+		"tokenizer": "geohash_hierarchy",
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 
 	return indexMapping, nil
 }
@@ -226,11 +261,15 @@ func searchResourceByID(id string, index bleve.Index) (*search.Resource, error)
 	return matchToResource(res.Hits[0]), nil
 }
 
+// searchResourcesByPath returns the descendants of the folder at lookupPath.
+// The folder term matches the folder and everything below it in one term
+// query (see PathAnalyzer); the folder itself is dropped from the result.
 func searchResourcesByPath(rootID string, lookupPath string, index bleve.Index) ([]*search.Resource, error) {
-	q := bleve.NewConjunctionQuery(
-		bleve.NewQueryStringQuery("RootID:"+rootID),
-		bleve.NewQueryStringQuery("Path:"+escapeQuery(lookupPath+"/*")),
-	)
+	rootQuery := bleve.NewTermQuery(rootID)
+	rootQuery.SetField("RootID")
+	pathQuery := bleve.NewTermQuery(lookupPath)
+	pathQuery.SetField("Path")
+	q := bleve.NewConjunctionQuery(rootQuery, pathQuery)
 	bleveReq := bleve.NewSearchRequest(q)
 	bleveReq.Size = math.MaxInt
 	bleveReq.Fields = []string{"*"}
@@ -241,7 +280,11 @@ func searchResourcesByPath(rootID string, lookupPath string, index bleve.Index)
 
 	resources := make([]*search.Resource, 0, res.Hits.Len())
 	for _, match := range res.Hits {
-		resources = append(resources, matchToResource(match))
+		resource := matchToResource(match)
+		if resource.Path == lookupPath {
+			continue
+		}
+		resources = append(resources, resource)
 	}
 
 	return resources, nil
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/bleve/testdata/mapping.golden.json b/services/search/pkg/bleve/testdata/mapping.golden.json
index 61ea6474f1..5606b61a20 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/bleve/testdata/mapping.golden.json
+++ b/services/search/pkg/bleve/testdata/mapping.golden.json
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
         "fields": [
           {
             "type": "text",
-            "analyzer": "keyword",
+            "analyzer": "path",
             "store": true,
             "index": true,
             "include_term_vectors": true,
@@ -1259,7 +1259,25 @@
         "type": "regexp"
       }
     },
+    "tokenizers": {
+      "geohash_hierarchy": {
+        "tag_depth": true,
+        "type": "hierarchy"
+      },
+      "path_hierarchy": {
+        "delimiter": "/",
+        "type": "hierarchy"
+      }
+    },
     "analyzers": {
+      "geohash": {
+        "tokenizer": "geohash_hierarchy",
+        "type": "custom"
+      },
+      "path": {
+        "tokenizer": "path_hierarchy",
+        "type": "custom"
+      },
       "words": {
         "char_filters": [
           "dot_to_space"
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/mapping/bleve.go b/services/search/pkg/mapping/bleve.go
index 0a3a55c45b..5c45faa2ef 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/mapping/bleve.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/mapping/bleve.go
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ func buildBleveDocMapping(t reflect.Type, overrides map[string]FieldOpts, prefix
 		}
 
 		if fieldType == TypeKeyword || fieldType == TypePath {
-			// bleve has no path tokenizer, so a path is a plain keyword here.
 			base := bleveKeywordMapping(fieldType, opts)
 			doc.AddFieldMappingsAt(fi.Name, base)
 			if opts.caseInsensitive() {
@@ -84,8 +83,9 @@ func buildBleveDocMapping(t reflect.Type, overrides map[string]FieldOpts, prefix
 	return doc, err
 }
 
-// bleveKeywordMapping is a case-preserving keyword field; path fields stay out
-// of _all by default.
+// bleveKeywordMapping is a case-preserving keyword field; path fields are
+// analyzed into their ancestor prefixes (see PathAnalyzer) and stay out of
+// _all by default.
 func bleveKeywordMapping(fieldType string, opts FieldOpts) *bleveMapping.FieldMapping {
 	fm := bleve.NewKeywordFieldMapping()
 	switch {
@@ -94,6 +94,9 @@ func bleveKeywordMapping(fieldType string, opts FieldOpts) *bleveMapping.FieldMa
 	case fieldType == TypePath:
 		fm.IncludeInAll = false
 	}
+	if fieldType == TypePath {
+		fm.Analyzer = PathAnalyzer
+	}
 	return fm
 }
 
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/mapping/opts.go b/services/search/pkg/mapping/opts.go
index d8af5f17bf..fc0fe31c73 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/mapping/opts.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/mapping/opts.go
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@ const WordsSuffix = "_words"
 // WordsAnalyzer names the analyzer both engines register for the words sibling.
 const WordsAnalyzer = "words"
 
+// PathAnalyzer names the bleve analyzer for TypePath fields: every ancestor
+// prefix is a term, like path_hierarchy in OpenSearch.
+const PathAnalyzer = "path"
+
+// GeohashAnalyzer names the bleve analyzer for a geohash: every prefix is a
+// depth-tagged term (1/u, 2/u4, ...), so a terms facet with TermPrefix
+// "<precision>/" is a geohash grid at that precision.
+const GeohashAnalyzer = "geohash"
+
 // FieldOpts overrides the default type inference for a struct field. Keys in
 // the override map are json-tag names (e.g. "Name", "location", "audio.artist"),
 // not Go field names.
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler.go b/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler.go
index 1ca00dbe7e..a1dba9a65a 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler.go
@@ -123,6 +123,13 @@ func walk(offset int, nodes []ast.Node) (bleveQuery.Query, int, error) {
 
 			var q bleveQuery.Query = bleveQuery.NewQueryStringQuery(k + ":" + v)
 			switch {
+			case searchQuery.FieldIsPath(n.Key) && !isWildcard:
+				// the folder term matches the folder itself and its descendants
+				// (see PathAnalyzer); a query string would analyze the value into
+				// its prefixes and match everything under the root
+				tq := bleveQuery.NewTermQuery(val)
+				tq.SetField(k)
+				q = tq
 			case n.Exact && !isWildcard:
 				// = matches the whole value, on the lowercased sibling for
 				// case-insensitive fields
@@ -140,17 +147,6 @@ func walk(offset int, nodes []ast.Node) (bleveQuery.Query, int, error) {
 				bq.SetMinShould(1)
 				q = bq
 			}
-			if searchQuery.FieldIsPath(n.Key) {
-				// bleve has no path hierarchy analyzer, unlike OpenSearch: match the
-				// folder itself and its descendants (`\/*`). A BooleanQuery keeps
-				// this atomic; a DisjunctionQuery would be redistributed by an
-				// enclosing AND (mapBinary treats a left disjunction as an OR-chain).
-				bq := bleve.NewBooleanQuery()
-				bq.AddShould(q, bleveQuery.NewQueryStringQuery(k+":"+v+`\/*`))
-				bq.SetMinShould(1)
-				q = bq
-			}
-
 			if prev == nil {
 				prev = q
 			} else {
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler_test.go b/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler_test.go
index c4becff38f..632a29b387 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler_test.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/query/bleve/compiler_test.go
@@ -51,23 +51,17 @@ func Test_compile(t *testing.T) {
 			wantErr: false,
 		},
 		{
-			// path fields expand to match the folder itself and its descendants,
-			// since bleve has no path hierarchy analyzer.
+			// one term matches the folder itself and its descendants
 			name: `path:/Foo`,
 			args: &ast.Ast{
 				Nodes: []ast.Node{
 					&ast.StringNode{Key: "path", Value: "/Foo"},
 				},
 			},
-			// a BooleanQuery (should: exact OR descendants), not a DisjunctionQuery,
-			// so an enclosing AND does not redistribute the folder-itself clause.
 			want: func() query.Query {
-				bq := query.NewBooleanQuery(nil, []query.Query{
-					query.NewQueryStringQuery(`Path:\/Foo`),
-					query.NewQueryStringQuery(`Path:\/Foo\/*`),
-				}, nil)
-				bq.SetMinShould(1)
-				return query.NewConjunctionQuery([]query.Query{bq})
+				tq := query.NewTermQuery("/Foo")
+				tq.SetField("Path")
+				return query.NewConjunctionQuery([]query.Query{tq})
 			}(),
 			wantErr: false,
 		},
diff --git a/services/search/pkg/search/search.go b/services/search/pkg/search/search.go
index 009c8afa87..fb81135f2f 100644
--- a/services/search/pkg/search/search.go
+++ b/services/search/pkg/search/search.go
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import (
 // on a breaking mapping change: each version gets its own index (OpenSearch name
 // suffix, bleve path suffix), so the service builds a fresh index instead of
 // colliding with the old one. No migration; reindex to populate.
-const SchemaVersion = 4
+const SchemaVersion = 5
 
 var scopeRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`scope:\s*([^" "\n\r]*)`)