diff --git a/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.spec.ts b/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.spec.ts
index f1c38f6ee..4503d54c6 100644
--- a/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.spec.ts
+++ b/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.spec.ts
@@ -149,6 +149,21 @@ describe('SearchUtils', () => {
       const query = { userQuery: '"test"' };
       expect(extractSearchedWordFromEncodedQuery(encodeQuery(query))).toBe('test');
     });
+
+    it('should properly extract search term when userQuery does not contain quotes', () => {
+      const query = { userQuery: 'TEXT:abcdef' };
+      expect(extractSearchedWordFromEncodedQuery(encodeQuery(query))).toBe('TEXT:abcdef');
+    });
+
+    it('should properly extract search term when userQuery contains field without quotes', () => {
+      const query = { userQuery: 'cm:name:searchterm' };
+      expect(extractSearchedWordFromEncodedQuery(encodeQuery(query))).toBe('cm:name:searchterm');
+    });
+
+    it('should handle mixed conditions with and without quotes', () => {
+      const query = { userQuery: 'cm:name:"quoted term" AND TEXT:unquoted' };
+      expect(extractSearchedWordFromEncodedQuery(encodeQuery(query))).toBe('quoted term TEXT:unquoted');
+    });
   });
 
   describe('extractFiltersFromEncodedQuery', () => {
diff --git a/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.ts b/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.ts
index bad9ad4f8..c3e2f15fc 100644
--- a/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.ts
+++ b/projects/aca-content/src/lib/utils/aca-search-utils.ts
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ export function extractSearchedWordFromEncodedQuery(encodedQuery: string): strin
       ? userQuery
           .split('AND')
           .map((searchCondition) => {
-            const searchTerm = searchCondition.split('"')[1];
+            const searchTerm = searchCondition.includes('"') ? searchCondition.split('"')[1] : searchCondition.trim();
             return searchTerm?.endsWith('*') && searchTerm !== '*' ? searchTerm.slice(0, -1) : searchTerm;
           })
           .join(' ')