diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/time/DateFormatters.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/time/DateFormatters.java
index 68970cb599584..d6ec98bfab23c 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/time/DateFormatters.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/time/DateFormatters.java
@@ -1040,7 +1040,7 @@ public class DateFormatters {
     /////////////////////////////////////////
 
     private static final DateTimeFormatter DATE_FORMATTER = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
-        .appendValue(ChronoField.YEAR, 1, 5, SignStyle.NORMAL)
+        .appendValue(ChronoField.YEAR, 1, 9, SignStyle.NORMAL)
         .optionalStart()
         .appendLiteral('-')
         .appendValue(MONTH_OF_YEAR, 1, 2, SignStyle.NOT_NEGATIVE)
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/JavaJodaTimeDuellingTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/JavaJodaTimeDuellingTests.java
index 502713b9d83c0..9a778520e0363 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/JavaJodaTimeDuellingTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/JavaJodaTimeDuellingTests.java
@@ -215,6 +215,22 @@ public void testCustomLocales() {
         assertSamePrinterOutput("E, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z", javaTimeNow, dateTimeNow, LocaleUtils.parse("de"));
     }
 
+    public void testDateOptionalTimeYearsWithManyDigits() {
+        assertSameDateAs("2018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDateAs("12018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDateAs("122018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDateAs("1232018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyyyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDateAs("12342018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyyyyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDateAs("123452018-12-31T10:15:30", "yyyyyyyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", "date_optional_time");
+
+        assertSameDate("2018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDate("12018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDate("122018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDate("1232018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDate("12342018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+        assertSameDate("123452018-12-31T10:15:30", "date_optional_time");
+    }
+
     public void testDuellingFormatsValidParsing() {
         assertSameDate("1522332219", "epoch_second");
         assertSameDate("0", "epoch_second");