diff --git a/administrator/components/com_finder/src/Controller/IndexerController.php b/administrator/components/com_finder/src/Controller/IndexerController.php
index 6fa43f72bb89d..f232264c18826 100644
--- a/administrator/components/com_finder/src/Controller/IndexerController.php
+++ b/administrator/components/com_finder/src/Controller/IndexerController.php
@@ -96,7 +96,8 @@ public function start()
 
             $output = ob_get_contents();
 
-            if ($output) {
+            // Finder plugins should not create output of any kind. If there is output, that very likely is the result of a PHP error.
+            if (trim($output)) {
                 throw new \Exception(Text::_('COM_FINDER_AN_ERROR_HAS_OCCURRED'));
             }
 
@@ -201,7 +202,8 @@ public function batch()
 
             $output = ob_get_contents();
 
-            if ($output) {
+            // Finder plugins should not create output of any kind. If there is output, that very likely is the result of a PHP error.
+            if (trim($output)) {
                 throw new \Exception(Text::_('COM_FINDER_INDEXER_ERROR_PLUGIN_FAILURE'));
             }
 
@@ -251,7 +253,8 @@ public function optimize()
 
             $output = ob_get_contents();
 
-            if ($output) {
+            // Finder plugins should not create output of any kind. If there is output, that very likely is the result of a PHP error.
+            if (trim($output)) {
                 throw new \Exception(Text::_('COM_FINDER_AN_ERROR_HAS_OCCURRED'));
             }