diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/action/TransportFreezeIndexAction.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/action/TransportFreezeIndexAction.java
index 3031ec5b2a409..1efe5389d81b2 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/action/TransportFreezeIndexAction.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/action/TransportFreezeIndexAction.java
@@ -183,6 +183,7 @@ public ClusterState execute(ClusterState currentState) {
                         throw new IllegalStateException("index [" + index.getName() + "] is not closed");
                     }
                     final IndexMetaData.Builder imdBuilder = IndexMetaData.builder(meta);
+                    imdBuilder.settingsVersion(meta.getSettingsVersion() + 1);
                     final Settings.Builder settingsBuilder =
                         Settings.builder()
                             .put(currentState.metaData().index(index).getSettings())
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/FrozenIndexTests.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/FrozenIndexTests.java
index 884dafdcd395b..c0493b6efd1fe 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/FrozenIndexTests.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/FrozenIndexTests.java
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 import static org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE;
 import static org.elasticsearch.test.hamcrest.ElasticsearchAssertions.assertAcked;
 import static org.elasticsearch.test.hamcrest.ElasticsearchAssertions.assertHitCount;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 
 public class FrozenIndexTests extends ESSingleNodeTestCase {
 
@@ -324,4 +325,19 @@ public void testUnfreezeClosedIndex() throws ExecutionException, InterruptedExce
         assertEquals(IndexMetaData.State.OPEN,
             client().admin().cluster().prepareState().get().getState().metaData().index("idx").getState());
     }
+
+    public void testFreezeIndexIncreasesIndexSettingsVersion() throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException {
+        final String index = "test";
+        createIndex(index, Settings.builder().put("index.number_of_shards", 1).put("index.number_of_replicas", 0).build());
+        client().prepareIndex(index, "_doc").setSource("field", "value").execute().actionGet();
+
+        final long settingsVersion = client().admin().cluster().prepareState().get()
+            .getState().metaData().index(index).getSettingsVersion();
+
+        XPackClient xPackClient = new XPackClient(client());
+        assertAcked(xPackClient.freeze(new TransportFreezeIndexAction.FreezeRequest(index)));
+        assertIndexFrozen(index);
+        assertThat(client().admin().cluster().prepareState().get().getState().metaData().index(index).getSettingsVersion(),
+            equalTo(settingsVersion + 1));
+    }
 }