diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
index 5dec98b950c52..e29b6ca362df6 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
@@ -2108,8 +2108,9 @@ private IndexWriterConfig getIndexWriterConfig() {
         // Give us the opportunity to upgrade old segments while performing
         // background merges
         MergePolicy mergePolicy = config().getMergePolicy();
+        // always configure soft-deletes field so an engine with soft-deletes disabled can open a Lucene index with soft-deletes.
+        iwc.setSoftDeletesField(Lucene.SOFT_DELETES_FIELD);
         if (softDeleteEnabled) {
-            iwc.setSoftDeletesField(Lucene.SOFT_DELETES_FIELD);
             mergePolicy = new RecoverySourcePruneMergePolicy(SourceFieldMapper.RECOVERY_SOURCE_NAME, softDeletesPolicy::getRetentionQuery,
                 new SoftDeletesRetentionMergePolicy(Lucene.SOFT_DELETES_FIELD, softDeletesPolicy::getRetentionQuery, mergePolicy));
         }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
index c77a9682fa758..2d1f71b5e947c 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngineTests.java
@@ -5454,6 +5454,34 @@ public void testRebuildLocalCheckpointTracker() throws Exception {
         }
     }
 
+    public void testOpenSoftDeletesIndexWithSoftDeletesDisabled() throws Exception {
+        try (Store store = createStore()) {
+            Path translogPath = createTempDir();
+            final AtomicLong globalCheckpoint = new AtomicLong(SequenceNumbers.NO_OPS_PERFORMED);
+            final IndexSettings softDeletesEnabled = IndexSettingsModule.newIndexSettings(
+                IndexMetaData.builder(defaultSettings.getIndexMetaData()).settings(Settings.builder().
+                    put(defaultSettings.getSettings()).put(IndexSettings.INDEX_SOFT_DELETES_SETTING.getKey(), true)).build());
+            final List<DocIdSeqNoAndTerm> docs;
+            try (InternalEngine engine = createEngine(
+                config(softDeletesEnabled, store, translogPath, newMergePolicy(), null, null, globalCheckpoint::get))) {
+                List<Engine.Operation> ops = generateReplicaHistory(between(1, 100), randomBoolean());
+                applyOperations(engine, ops);
+                globalCheckpoint.set(randomLongBetween(globalCheckpoint.get(), engine.getLocalCheckpoint()));
+                engine.syncTranslog();
+                engine.flush();
+                docs = getDocIds(engine, true);
+            }
+            final IndexSettings softDeletesDisabled = IndexSettingsModule.newIndexSettings(
+                IndexMetaData.builder(defaultSettings.getIndexMetaData()).settings(Settings.builder()
+                    .put(defaultSettings.getSettings()).put(IndexSettings.INDEX_SOFT_DELETES_SETTING.getKey(), false)).build());
+            EngineConfig config = config(softDeletesDisabled, store, translogPath, newMergePolicy(), null, null, globalCheckpoint::get);
+            trimUnsafeCommits(config);
+            try (InternalEngine engine = createEngine(config)) {
+                assertThat(getDocIds(engine, true), equalTo(docs));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     static void trimUnsafeCommits(EngineConfig config) throws IOException {
         final Store store = config.getStore();
         final TranslogConfig translogConfig = config.getTranslogConfig();
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/EngineTestCase.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/EngineTestCase.java
index 8158830e96fb4..833687bf3c480 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/EngineTestCase.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/EngineTestCase.java
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.AllocationId;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.CheckedFunction;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.Randomness;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesArray;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
@@ -704,6 +705,32 @@ public static List<Engine.Operation> generateSingleDocHistory(boolean forReplica
         return ops;
     }
 
+    public List<Engine.Operation> generateReplicaHistory(int numOps, boolean allowGapInSeqNo) {
+        long seqNo = 0;
+        List<Engine.Operation> operations = new ArrayList<>(numOps);
+        for (int i = 0; i < numOps; i++) {
+            String id = Integer.toString(between(1, 100));
+            final ParsedDocument doc = EngineTestCase.createParsedDoc(id, null);
+            if (randomBoolean()) {
+                operations.add(new Engine.Index(EngineTestCase.newUid(doc), doc, seqNo, primaryTerm.get(),
+                    i, null, Engine.Operation.Origin.REPLICA, threadPool.relativeTimeInMillis(),
+                    -1, true));
+            } else if (randomBoolean()) {
+                operations.add(new Engine.Delete(doc.type(), doc.id(), EngineTestCase.newUid(doc), seqNo, primaryTerm.get(),
+                    i, null, Engine.Operation.Origin.REPLICA, threadPool.relativeTimeInMillis()));
+            } else {
+                operations.add(new Engine.NoOp(seqNo, primaryTerm.get(), Engine.Operation.Origin.REPLICA,
+                    threadPool.relativeTimeInMillis(), "test-" + i));
+            }
+            seqNo++;
+            if (allowGapInSeqNo && rarely()) {
+                seqNo++;
+            }
+        }
+        Randomness.shuffle(operations);
+        return operations;
+    }
+
     public static void assertOpsOnReplica(
             final List<Engine.Operation> ops,
             final InternalEngine replicaEngine,
@@ -788,14 +815,7 @@ public static void concurrentlyApplyOps(List<Engine.Operation> ops, InternalEngi
                 int docOffset;
                 while ((docOffset = offset.incrementAndGet()) < ops.size()) {
                     try {
-                        final Engine.Operation op = ops.get(docOffset);
-                        if (op instanceof Engine.Index) {
-                            engine.index((Engine.Index) op);
-                        } else if (op instanceof Engine.Delete){
-                            engine.delete((Engine.Delete) op);
-                        } else {
-                            engine.noOp((Engine.NoOp) op);
-                        }
+                        applyOperation(engine, ops.get(docOffset));
                         if ((docOffset + 1) % 4 == 0) {
                             engine.refresh("test");
                         }
@@ -814,6 +834,36 @@ public static void concurrentlyApplyOps(List<Engine.Operation> ops, InternalEngi
         }
     }
 
+    public static void applyOperations(Engine engine, List<Engine.Operation> operations) throws IOException {
+        for (Engine.Operation operation : operations) {
+            applyOperation(engine, operation);
+            if (randomInt(100) < 10) {
+                engine.refresh("test");
+            }
+            if (rarely()) {
+                engine.flush();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static Engine.Result applyOperation(Engine engine, Engine.Operation operation) throws IOException {
+        final Engine.Result result;
+        switch (operation.operationType()) {
+            case INDEX:
+                result = engine.index((Engine.Index) operation);
+                break;
+            case DELETE:
+                result = engine.delete((Engine.Delete) operation);
+                break;
+            case NO_OP:
+                result = engine.noOp((Engine.NoOp) operation);
+                break;
+            default:
+                throw new IllegalStateException("No operation defined for [" + operation + "]");
+        }
+        return result;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Gets a collection of tuples of docId, sequence number, and primary term of all live documents in the provided engine.
      */