diff --git a/test/automation/src/quickaccess.ts b/test/automation/src/quickaccess.ts
index f28ec436636..1f70668f667 100644
--- a/test/automation/src/quickaccess.ts
+++ b/test/automation/src/quickaccess.ts
@@ -98,6 +98,13 @@ export class QuickAccess {
 			}
 
 			await this.quickInput.closeQuickInput();
+
+			// Back off between retries so that slow file search
+			// indexing (e.g. browser/remote on CI) has a chance to
+			// catch up before we hammer it again.
+			if (retries < 9) {
+				await this.code.wait(250 * retries);
+			}
 		}
 
 		if (!success) {