diff --git a/lib/galaxy/config/sample/object_store_conf.xml.sample b/lib/galaxy/config/sample/object_store_conf.xml.sample
index 401e27a4655..db5163a46a7 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/config/sample/object_store_conf.xml.sample
+++ b/lib/galaxy/config/sample/object_store_conf.xml.sample
@@ -59,10 +59,16 @@
 
     In distributed and hierarchical world, you can choose that some backends are
     automatically unused whenever they become too full. Setting the maxpctfull
-    attribute (on top level object_store it behaves as a global default) enables
+    attribute (on top level backends tag it behaves as a global default) enables
     this, or it can be applied to individual backends to override a global
     setting. This only applies to disk based backends and not remote object
     stores.
+
+    By default, if a dataset should exist but its object_store_id is null, all
+    backends will be searched until it is found. This is to aid in Galaxy
+    servers moving from non-distributed to distributed object stores, but this
+    behavior can be disabled by setting search_for_missing="false" on the top
+    level backends tag.
 -->
 <!--
 <object_store type="distributed">
diff --git a/lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py
index 2e06ae9a1c1..7fb62d5f95f 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py
@@ -3238,12 +3238,20 @@ class Dataset(StorableObject, Serializable, _HasTable):
         return self.state in self.ready_states
 
     def get_file_name(self):
+        if self.purged:
+            log.warning(f"Attempt to get file name of purged dataset {self.id}")
+            return ''
         if not self.external_filename:
             assert self.object_store is not None, f"Object Store has not been initialized for dataset {self.id}"
             if self.object_store.exists(self):
-                return self.object_store.get_filename(self)
+                file_name = self.object_store.get_filename(self)
             else:
-                return ''
+                file_name = ''
+            if not file_name and self.state not in (self.states.NEW, self.states.QUEUED):
+                # Queued datasets can be assigned an object store and have a filename, but they aren't guaranteed to.
+                # Anything after queued should have a file name.
+                log.warning(f"Failed to determine file name for dataset {self.id}")
+            return file_name
         else:
             filename = self.external_filename
         # Make filename absolute
diff --git a/lib/galaxy/objectstore/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/objectstore/__init__.py
index 2470d3591ca..b32ad7865d0 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/objectstore/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/objectstore/__init__.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import yaml
 
 from galaxy.exceptions import ObjectInvalid, ObjectNotFound
 from galaxy.util import (
+    asbool,
     directory_hash_id,
     force_symlink,
     parse_xml,
@@ -775,6 +776,7 @@ class DistributedObjectStore(NestedObjectStore):
         self.original_weighted_backend_ids = []
         self.max_percent_full = {}
         self.global_max_percent_full = config_dict.get("global_max_percent_full", 0)
+        self.search_for_missing = config_dict.get("search_for_missing", True)
         random.seed()
 
         for backend_def in config_dict["backends"]:
@@ -812,6 +814,7 @@ class DistributedObjectStore(NestedObjectStore):
 
         backends: List[Dict[str, Any]] = []
         config_dict = {
+            'search_for_missing': asbool(backends_root.get('search_for_missing', True)),
             'global_max_percent_full': float(backends_root.get('maxpctfull', 0)),
             'backends': backends,
         }
@@ -857,6 +860,7 @@ class DistributedObjectStore(NestedObjectStore):
     def to_dict(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         as_dict = super().to_dict()
         as_dict["global_max_percent_full"] = self.global_max_percent_full
+        as_dict["search_for_missing"] = self.search_for_missing
         backends: List[Dict[str, Any]] = []
         for backend_id, backend in self.backends.items():
             backend_as_dict = backend.to_dict()
@@ -918,15 +922,15 @@ class DistributedObjectStore(NestedObjectStore):
             else:
                 log.warning('The backend object store ID (%s) for %s object with ID %s is invalid'
                             % (obj.object_store_id, obj.__class__.__name__, obj.id))
-        # if this instance has been switched from a non-distributed to a
-        # distributed object store, or if the object's store id is invalid,
-        # try to locate the object
-        for id, store in self.backends.items():
-            if store.exists(obj, **kwargs):
-                log.warning('%s object with ID %s found in backend object store with ID %s'
-                            % (obj.__class__.__name__, obj.id, id))
-                obj.object_store_id = id
-                return id
+        elif self.search_for_missing:
+            # if this instance has been switched from a non-distributed to a
+            # distributed object store, or if the object's store id is invalid,
+            # try to locate the object
+            for id, store in self.backends.items():
+                if store.exists(obj, **kwargs):
+                    log.warning(f"{obj.__class__.__name__} object with ID {obj.id} found in backend object store with ID {id}")
+                    obj.object_store_id = id
+                    return id
         return None