diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 4a7952374e44d..184282da38cba 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -175,8 +175,8 @@ tasks.register("verifyVersions") {
  * after the backport of the backcompat code is complete.
  */
 
-boolean bwc_tests_enabled = true
-final String bwc_tests_disabled_issue = "" /* place a PR link here when committing bwc changes */
+boolean bwc_tests_enabled = false
+final String bwc_tests_disabled_issue = "https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/pull/65927" /* place a PR link here when committing bwc changes */
 if (bwc_tests_enabled == false) {
   if (bwc_tests_disabled_issue.isEmpty()) {
     throw new GradleException("bwc_tests_disabled_issue must be set when bwc_tests_enabled == false")
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/ShardSearchRequest.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/ShardSearchRequest.java
index aece612ebc750..f03a28299e832 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/ShardSearchRequest.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/ShardSearchRequest.java
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ public ShardSearchRequest(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
         requestCache = in.readOptionalBoolean();
         clusterAlias = in.readOptionalString();
         allowPartialSearchResults = in.readBoolean();
-        if (in.getVersion().before(Version.V_8_0_0)) {
+        if (in.getVersion().before(Version.V_7_11_0)) {
             in.readStringArray();
             in.readOptionalString();
         }
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ protected final void innerWriteTo(StreamOutput out, boolean asKey) throws IOExce
         out.writeOptionalBoolean(requestCache);
         out.writeOptionalString(clusterAlias);
         out.writeBoolean(allowPartialSearchResults);
-        if (asKey == false && out.getVersion().before(Version.V_8_0_0)) {
+        if (asKey == false && out.getVersion().before(Version.V_7_11_0)) {
             out.writeStringArray(Strings.EMPTY_ARRAY);
             out.writeOptionalString(null);
         }