diff --git a/settings/gnome.nix b/settings/gnome.nix
index 9af71d9..4330e7c 100644
--- a/settings/gnome.nix
+++ b/settings/gnome.nix
@@ -48,6 +48,11 @@
       # Minimal titlebars — stylix manages the GTK theme; we layer our
       # headerbar shrink on top via stylix.targets.gtk.extraCss.
       gtk.enable = true;
+      # Disable Tracker search — Nautilus tries to connect to the Tracker3
+      # D-Bus service at startup for recursive search. Outside GNOME the
+      # service isn't running, causing a multi-second D-Bus timeout on launch.
+      dconf.settings."org/gnome/nautilus/preferences".recursive-search = "never";
+
       stylix.targets.gtk.extraCss = ''
         headerbar { min-height: 0; padding: 0; margin: 0; }
         headerbar .title { font-size: 0; }