diff --git a/backend/danswer/document_index/vespa/index.py b/backend/danswer/document_index/vespa/index.py
index ecf7df7b7..2da76f34d 100644
--- a/backend/danswer/document_index/vespa/index.py
+++ b/backend/danswer/document_index/vespa/index.py
@@ -605,7 +605,7 @@ def _vespa_hit_to_inference_chunk(
         section_continuation=fields[SECTION_CONTINUATION],
         document_id=fields[DOCUMENT_ID],
         source_type=fields[SOURCE_TYPE],
-        title=fields[TITLE],
+        title=fields.get(TITLE),
         semantic_identifier=fields[SEMANTIC_IDENTIFIER],
         boost=fields.get(BOOST, 1),
         recency_bias=fields.get("matchfeatures", {}).get(RECENCY_BIAS, 1.0),
@@ -614,7 +614,7 @@ def _vespa_hit_to_inference_chunk(
         primary_owners=fields.get(PRIMARY_OWNERS),
         secondary_owners=fields.get(SECONDARY_OWNERS),
         metadata=metadata,
-        metadata_suffix=fields.get(METADATA_SUFFIX) or "",
+        metadata_suffix=fields.get(METADATA_SUFFIX),
         match_highlights=match_highlights,
         updated_at=updated_at,
     )
diff --git a/backend/danswer/search/models.py b/backend/danswer/search/models.py
index 53f98fa66..a94b9f63d 100644
--- a/backend/danswer/search/models.py
+++ b/backend/danswer/search/models.py
@@ -190,11 +190,12 @@ class InferenceChunk(BaseChunk):
 
 
 class InferenceChunkUncleaned(InferenceChunk):
-    title: str  # Separate from Semantic Identifier though often same
-    metadata_suffix: str
+    title: str | None  # Separate from Semantic Identifier though often same
+    metadata_suffix: str | None
 
     def to_inference_chunk(self) -> InferenceChunk:
         # Create a dict of all fields except 'title' and 'metadata_suffix'
+        # Assumes the cleaning has already been applied and just needs to translate to the right type
         inference_chunk_data = {
             k: v
             for k, v in self.dict().items()