diff --git a/htdocs/search/elasticsearch/lib.php b/htdocs/search/elasticsearch/lib.php
index d3a01f499cbd0639a4a5f3646faa17cfee03e4ca..bfd5e4468478de20085b526cb1335a1bd8582ad4 100644
--- a/htdocs/search/elasticsearch/lib.php
+++ b/htdocs/search/elasticsearch/lib.php
@@ -467,6 +467,7 @@ class PluginSearchElasticsearch extends PluginSearch {
             set_config_plugin('search', 'elasticsearch', 'indexname', 'mahara');
             set_config_plugin('search', 'elasticsearch', 'analyzer', 'mahara_analyzer');
             set_config_plugin('search', 'elasticsearch', 'types', 'usr,interaction_instance,interaction_forum_post,group,view,artefact');
+            set_config_plugin('search', 'elasticsearch', 'cronlimit', '50000');
 
             $elasticsearchartefacttypesmap = file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/elasticsearchartefacttypesmap.txt');
             set_config_plugin('search', 'elasticsearch', 'artefacttypesmap', $elasticsearchartefacttypesmap);