diff --git a/src/lib-storage/index/index-mail-headers.c b/src/lib-storage/index/index-mail-headers.c
index 7cec825e3f..7e3753f3e6 100644
--- a/src/lib-storage/index/index-mail-headers.c
+++ b/src/lib-storage/index/index-mail-headers.c
@@ -386,6 +386,10 @@ index_mail_cache_parse_init(struct mail *_mail, struct istream *input)
 	mail->data.save_sent_date = TRUE;
 	mail->data.save_bodystructure_header = TRUE;
 	mail->data.save_bodystructure_body = TRUE;
+	/* Don't unnecessarily waste time generating a snippet, since it's
+	   not as cheap as the others to generate. */
+	if (index_mail_want_cache(mail, MAIL_CACHE_BODY_SNIPPET))
+		mail->data.save_body_snippet = TRUE;
 
 	mail->data.tee_stream = tee_i_stream_create(input);
 	input = tee_i_stream_create_child(mail->data.tee_stream);