diff --git a/app/services/search_service.rb b/app/services/search_service.rb
index 2b28dfbecc5cf8..9e51b684a5413e 100644
--- a/app/services/search_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/search_service.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ def call(query, account, limit, options = {})
     @offset    = options[:type].blank? ? 0 : options[:offset].to_i
     @resolve   = options[:resolve] || false
     @following = options[:following] || false
-    @searchability = options[:searchability] || account.user&.setting_default_searchability_of_search.to_s || 'public'
+    @searchability = options[:searchability] || account&.user&.setting_default_searchability_of_search.to_s || 'public'
 
     default_results.tap do |results|
       next if @query.blank? || @limit.zero?
diff --git a/spec/lib/search_query_transformer_spec.rb b/spec/lib/search_query_transformer_spec.rb
index 5817e3d1d2015c..61aa36e1639d54 100644
--- a/spec/lib/search_query_transformer_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/search_query_transformer_spec.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 require 'rails_helper'
 
 describe SearchQueryTransformer do
-  subject { described_class.new.apply(parser, current_account: account) }
+  subject { described_class.new.apply(parser, current_account: account, searchability: :public) }
 
   let(:account) { Fabricate(:account) }
   let(:parser) { SearchQueryParser.new.parse(query) }