diff --git a/wagtail/tests/settings.py b/wagtail/tests/settings.py
index c5e06592a..88f7eb235 100644
--- a/wagtail/tests/settings.py
+++ b/wagtail/tests/settings.py
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ try:
         'BACKEND': 'wagtail.wagtailsearch.backends.elasticsearch.ElasticSearch',
         'TIMEOUT': 10,
         'max_retries': 1,
+        'AUTO_UPDATE': False,
     }
 
     if 'ELASTICSEARCH_URL' in os.environ: