diff --git a/.changeset/quiet-folders-search.md b/.changeset/quiet-folders-search.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fe88cd217e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/quiet-folders-search.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"emdash": patch
+---
+
+Fixes media folder searches failing on Cloudflare D1 when long, Unicode, or punctuation-heavy search terms exceed its pattern limit. Searches match the complete term without truncation.
diff --git a/packages/core/src/database/repositories/media-folders.ts b/packages/core/src/database/repositories/media-folders.ts
index 3b72439c05..f20206e111 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/database/repositories/media-folders.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/database/repositories/media-folders.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { sql, type Kysely } from "kysely";
 import { ulid } from "ulidx";
 
+import { isPostgres } from "../dialect-helpers.js";
 import type { Database } from "../types.js";
 import { decodeCursor, EmDashValidationError, encodeCursor, type FindManyResult } from "./types.js";
 
@@ -15,10 +16,6 @@ export interface FindManyMediaFoldersOptions {
 	q?: string;
 }
 
-function escapeLike(value: string): string {
-	return value.replaceAll("\\", "\\\\").replaceAll("%", "\\%").replaceAll("_", "\\_");
-}
-
 function normalizeFolderSearch(value: string): string {
 	return value.trim().normalize("NFKC").toLowerCase();
 }
@@ -48,8 +45,11 @@ export class MediaFolderRepository {
 
 		const term = normalizeFolderSearch(options.q ?? "");
 		if (term) {
-			const pattern = `%${escapeLike(term)}%`;
-			query = query.where("name_key", "like", sql<string>`${pattern} escape '\\'`);
+			// D1 limits LIKE patterns to 50 bytes, including escapes and wildcards.
+			const position = isPostgres(this.db)
+				? sql<number>`strpos(name_key, ${term})`
+				: sql<number>`instr(name_key, ${term})`;
+			query = query.where(position, ">", 0);
 		}
 
 		if (options.cursor !== undefined) {
diff --git a/packages/core/tests/workerd/media-folder-search-d1.test.ts b/packages/core/tests/workerd/media-folder-search-d1.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cd1a14f73e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core/tests/workerd/media-folder-search-d1.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+import { env } from "cloudflare:test";
+import { Kysely } from "kysely";
+import { expect, it } from "vitest";
+
+import { RawBindingD1Dialect } from "../../../cloudflare/src/db/d1-dialect.js";
+import { runMigrations } from "../../src/database/migrations/runner.js";
+import { MediaFolderRepository } from "../../src/database/repositories/media-folders.js";
+import type { Database } from "../../src/database/types.js";
+import { resetD1Schema } from "./d1-schema.js";
+
+declare module "cloudflare:test" {
+	interface ProvidedEnv {
+		DB: D1Database;
+	}
+}
+
+it("searches the complete 49-character folder substring on D1", async () => {
+	const db = new Kysely<Database>({ dialect: new RawBindingD1Dialect({ database: env.DB }) });
+	try {
+		await resetD1Schema(db);
+		await runMigrations(db);
+		const folders = new MediaFolderRepository(db);
+		const term = `${"a".repeat(48)}b`;
+		const match = await folders.create(`prefix ${term} suffix`);
+		await folders.create(`prefix ${term.slice(0, -1)}c suffix`);
+
+		expect(await folders.findMany({ q: term })).toEqual({
+			items: [match],
+			nextCursor: undefined,
+		});
+	} finally {
+		await db.destroy();
+	}
+});