diff --git a/src/calibre/db/backend.py b/src/calibre/db/backend.py
index 72a25b4f78..610bae21f0 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/backend.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/backend.py
@@ -976,8 +976,8 @@ class DB:
     def queue_fts_job(self, book_id, fmt, path, fmt_size, fmt_hash):
         return self.fts.queue_job(book_id, fmt, path, fmt_size, fmt_hash)
 
-    def commit_fts_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text):
-        return self.fts.commit_result(book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text)
+    def commit_fts_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text, err_msg):
+        return self.fts.commit_result(book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text, err_msg)
 
     def shutdown_fts(self):
         if self.fts_enabled:
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/cache.py b/src/calibre/db/cache.py
index 96cbc9b736..821f4734c1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/cache.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/cache.py
@@ -469,8 +469,8 @@ class Cache:
                     break
 
     @write_api
-    def commit_fts_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text):
-        return self.backend.commit_fts_result(book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text)
+    def commit_fts_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text, err_msg):
+        return self.backend.commit_fts_result(book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text, err_msg)
 
     @api
     def set_fts_num_of_workers(self, num=None):
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/fts/connect.py b/src/calibre/db/fts/connect.py
index d56e2c0f8d..15d7c14990 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/fts/connect.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/fts/connect.py
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ class FTS:
             return book_id, fmt
         return None, None
 
-    def commit_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text):
+    def commit_result(self, book_id, fmt, fmt_size, fmt_hash, text, err_msg=''):
         conn = self.get_connection()
         text_hash = ''
         if text:
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/fts/pool.py b/src/calibre/db/fts/pool.py
index 305e75dbdf..7cf8458e9a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/fts/pool.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/fts/pool.py
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ class Worker(Thread):
 
     code_to_exec = 'from calibre.db.fts.text import main; main({!r})'
     max_duration = 30  # minutes
+    poll_interval = 0.1  # seconds
 
     def __init__(self, jobs_queue, supervise_queue):
         super().__init__(name='FTSWorker', daemon=True)
@@ -91,14 +92,14 @@ class Worker(Thread):
                 )
                 while self.keep_going and monotonic() <= time_limit:
                     with suppress(subprocess.TimeoutExpired):
-                        p.wait(0.1)
+                        p.wait(self.poll_interval)
                         break
                 if p.returncode is None:
                     p.kill()
-                    if monotonic() > time_limit:
-                        return Result(job, _('Extracting text from the {0} file of size {1} took too long').format(
-                            job.fmt, human_readable(job.fmt_size)))
-                    return
+                    if not self.keep_going:
+                        return
+                    return Result(job, _('Extracting text from the {0} file of size {1} took too long').format(
+                        job.fmt, human_readable(job.fmt_size)))
                 if os.path.exists(txtpath):
                     return Result(job)
             with open(errpath, 'rb') as f:
@@ -183,13 +184,15 @@ class Pool:
 
     def commit_result(self, result):
         text = result.text
+        err_msg = ''
         if not result.ok:
             print(f'Failed to get text from book_id: {result.book_id} format: {result.fmt}', file=sys.stderr)
             print(text, file=sys.stderr)
+            err_msg = text
             text = ''
         db = self.dbref()
         if db is not None:
-            db.commit_fts_result(result.book_id, result.fmt, result.fmt_size, result.fmt_hash, text)
+            db.commit_fts_result(result.book_id, result.fmt, result.fmt_size, result.fmt_hash, text, err_msg)
 
     def shutdown(self):
         if self.initialized: