diff --git a/src/nautilus-application.c b/src/nautilus-application.c
index e9f97ed2f17a0bb5f313b1bb0afc65a2a4b04da9..0ff06795d002c8afc9b398c1b96774565985d00d 100644
--- a/src/nautilus-application.c
+++ b/src/nautilus-application.c
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <gdk/gdk.h>
 #include <gio/gio.h>
+#include <gio/gunixmounts.h>
 #include <glib/gi18n.h>
 #include <glib/gstdio.h>
 #include <gtk/gtk.h>
@@ -88,6 +89,8 @@ typedef struct
 
     NautilusTagManager *tag_manager;
 
+    GUnixMountMonitor *mount_monitor;
+
     NautilusDBusLauncher *dbus_launcher;
 } NautilusApplicationPrivate;
 
@@ -567,6 +570,8 @@ nautilus_application_finalize (GObject *object)
 
     g_clear_object (&priv->tag_manager);
 
+    g_clear_object (&priv->mount_monitor);
+
     g_clear_object (&priv->dbus_launcher);
 
     nautilus_trash_monitor_clear ();
@@ -996,6 +1001,11 @@ nautilus_application_init (NautilusApplication *self)
     priv->undo_manager = nautilus_file_undo_manager_new ();
     priv->tag_manager = nautilus_tag_manager_new ();
 
+    /* Retain a mount monitor so GIO's caching works. This helps to speed
+     * up various filesystem queries, e.g. those determining whether to
+     * recurse during searches. */
+    priv->mount_monitor = g_unix_mount_monitor_get ();
+
     priv->dbus_launcher = nautilus_dbus_launcher_new ();
 
     nautilus_tracker_setup_miner_fs_connection ();
diff --git a/src/nautilus-search-engine-simple.c b/src/nautilus-search-engine-simple.c
index 8d1a1ea9d99c6c0f338977ec2abec7ed6cda3621..b8800bc43bd5bcfa42d678ad9e7dee64bfba76af 100644
--- a/src/nautilus-search-engine-simple.c
+++ b/src/nautilus-search-engine-simple.c
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@
 
 #include <string.h>
 #include <glib.h>
-#include <gio/gunixmounts.h>
 #include <gio/gio.h>
 
 #define BATCH_SIZE 500
@@ -484,20 +483,11 @@ static gpointer
 search_thread_func (gpointer user_data)
 {
     SearchThreadData *data;
-    g_autoptr (GUnixMountMonitor) mount_monitor = NULL;
     GFile *dir;
     GFileInfo *info;
     const char *id;
 
     data = user_data;
-
-    if (nautilus_query_get_recursive (data->query) == NAUTILUS_QUERY_RECURSIVE_LOCAL_ONLY)
-    {
-        /* Need to retain a mount monitor so that filesystem queries used to
-         * determine if we recurse are done fast. */
-        mount_monitor = g_unix_mount_monitor_get ();
-    }
-
     /* Insert id for toplevel directory into visited */
     dir = g_queue_peek_head (data->directories);
     info = g_file_query_info (dir, G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ID_FILE, 0, data->cancellable, NULL);