diff --git a/src/public/app/widgets/search_options/debug.js b/src/public/app/widgets/search_options/debug.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ddc722ca6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/public/app/widgets/search_options/debug.js
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import AbstractSearchOption from "./abstract_search_option.js";
+
+const TPL = `
+<tr data-search-option-conf="debug">
+    <td colSpan="2">
+        <span class="bx bx-bug"></span>
+
+        Debug
+    </td>
+    <td class="button-column">
+        <div class="dropdown help-dropdown">
+            <span class="bx bx-help-circle icon-action" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"></span>
+            <div class="dropdown-menu dropdown-menu-right p-4">
+                <p>Debug will print extra debugging information into the console to aid in debugging complex queries.</p>
+                
+                <p>To access the debug information, execute query and click on "Show backend log" in top left corner.</p> 
+            </div>
+        </div>
+    
+        <span class="bx bx-x icon-action search-option-del"></span>
+    </td>
+</tr>`;
+
+export default class Debug extends AbstractSearchOption {
+    static get optionName() { return "debug" };
+    static get attributeType() { return "label" };
+
+    static async create(noteId) {
+        await AbstractSearchOption.setAttribute(noteId,'label', 'debug');
+    }
+
+    doRender() {
+        return $(TPL);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/public/app/widgets/type_property_widgets/search_definition.js b/src/public/app/widgets/type_property_widgets/search_definition.js
index 4b32be49d..d294c901b 100644
--- a/src/public/app/widgets/type_property_widgets/search_definition.js
+++ b/src/public/app/widgets/type_property_widgets/search_definition.js
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import OrderBy from "../search_options/order_by.js";
 import SearchScript from "../search_options/search_script.js";
 import Limit from "../search_options/limit.js";
 import DeleteNoteRevisionsSearchAction from "../search_actions/delete_note_revisions.js";
+import Debug from "../search_options/debug.js";
 
 const TPL = `
 <div class="search-definition-widget">
@@ -113,6 +114,11 @@ const TPL = `
                         limit
                     </button>
                     
+                    <button type="button" class="btn btn-sm" data-search-option-add="debug" title="Debug will print extra debugging information into the console to aid in debugging complex queries">
+                        <span class="bx bx-bug"></span>
+                        debug
+                    </button>
+                    
                     <div class="dropdown" style="display: inline-block;">
                       <button class="btn btn-sm dropdown-toggle action-add-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenuButton" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false">
                         <span class="bx bxs-zap"></span>
@@ -173,7 +179,8 @@ const OPTION_CLASSES = [
     FastSearch,
     IncludeArchivedNotes,
     OrderBy,
-    Limit
+    Limit,
+    Debug
 ];
 
 const ACTION_CLASSES = {};
diff --git a/src/routes/api/search.js b/src/routes/api/search.js
index b15e13ee8..1f6afb2ed 100644
--- a/src/routes/api/search.js
+++ b/src/routes/api/search.js
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ async function search(note) {
             orderBy: note.getLabelValue('orderBy'),
             orderDirection: note.getLabelValue('orderDirection'),
             limit: note.getLabelValue('limit'),
+            debug: note.hasLabel('debug'),
             fuzzyAttributeSearch: false
         });
 
diff --git a/src/services/search/expressions/ancestor.js b/src/services/search/expressions/ancestor.js
index 086da4833..b41e60507 100644
--- a/src/services/search/expressions/ancestor.js
+++ b/src/services/search/expressions/ancestor.js
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ class AncestorExp extends Expression {
         super();
 
         this.ancestorNoteId = ancestorNoteId;
+        this.ancestorDepth = ancestorDepth; // for DEBUG mode
         this.ancestorDepthComparator = this.getComparator(ancestorDepth);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/services/search/expressions/expression.js b/src/services/search/expressions/expression.js
index 12837ccb6..1b7d00e3f 100644
--- a/src/services/search/expressions/expression.js
+++ b/src/services/search/expressions/expression.js
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 "use strict";
 
 class Expression {
+    constructor() {
+        this.name = this.constructor.name; // for DEBUG mode to have expression name as part of dumped JSON
+    }
+
     /**
      * @param {NoteSet} inputNoteSet
      * @param {object} executionContext
diff --git a/src/services/search/expressions/property_comparison.js b/src/services/search/expressions/property_comparison.js
index 722480626..b12140f5a 100644
--- a/src/services/search/expressions/property_comparison.js
+++ b/src/services/search/expressions/property_comparison.js
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 const Expression = require('./expression');
 const NoteSet = require('../note_set');
+const buildComparator = require("../services/build_comparator.js");
 
 /**
  * Search string is lower cased for case insensitive comparison. But when retrieving properties
@@ -33,11 +34,13 @@ class PropertyComparisonExp extends Expression {
         return name in PROP_MAPPING;
     }
 
-    constructor(searchContext, propertyName, comparator) {
+    constructor(searchContext, propertyName, operator, comparedValue) {
         super();
 
         this.propertyName = PROP_MAPPING[propertyName];
-        this.comparator = comparator;
+        this.operator = operator; // for DEBUG mode
+        this.comparedValue = comparedValue; // for DEBUG mode
+        this.comparator = buildComparator(operator, comparedValue);
 
         if (['contentsize', 'notesize', 'revisioncount'].includes(this.propertyName)) {
             searchContext.dbLoadNeeded = true;
diff --git a/src/services/search/search_context.js b/src/services/search/search_context.js
index 5d7a794dd..79d5afac1 100644
--- a/src/services/search/search_context.js
+++ b/src/services/search/search_context.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ class SearchContext {
         this.orderBy = params.orderBy;
         this.orderDirection = params.orderDirection;
         this.limit = params.limit;
+        this.debug = params.debug;
         this.fuzzyAttributeSearch = !!params.fuzzyAttributeSearch;
         this.highlightedTokens = [];
         this.originalQuery = "";
diff --git a/src/services/search/services/parse.js b/src/services/search/services/parse.js
index 80847a6a2..2371c318c 100644
--- a/src/services/search/services/parse.js
+++ b/src/services/search/services/parse.js
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ function getExpression(tokens, searchContext, level = 0) {
             i += 2;
 
             return new OrExp([
-                new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, 'title', buildComparator('*=*', tokens[i].token)),
+                new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, 'title', '*=*', tokens[i].token),
                 new NoteContentProtectedFulltextExp('*=*', [tokens[i].token]),
                 new NoteContentUnprotectedFulltextExp('*=*', [tokens[i].token])
             ]);
@@ -208,14 +208,7 @@ function getExpression(tokens, searchContext, level = 0) {
 
             const comparedValue = resolveConstantOperand();
 
-            const comparator = buildComparator(operator, comparedValue);
-
-            if (!comparator) {
-                searchContext.addError(`Can't find operator '${operator}' in ${context(i - 2)}`);
-                return;
-            }
-
-            return new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, propertyName, comparator);
+            return new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, propertyName, operator, comparedValue);
         }
 
         searchContext.addError(`Unrecognized note property "${tokens[i].token}" in ${context(i)}`);
@@ -411,8 +404,8 @@ function getExpression(tokens, searchContext, level = 0) {
 
 function parse({fulltextTokens, expressionTokens, searchContext}) {
     let exp = AndExp.of([
-        searchContext.includeArchivedNotes ? null : new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, "isarchived", buildComparator("=", "false")),
-        searchContext.ancestorNoteId ? new AncestorExp(searchContext.ancestorNoteId, searchContext.ancestorDepth) : null,
+        searchContext.includeArchivedNotes ? null : new PropertyComparisonExp(searchContext, "isarchived", "=", "false"),
+        (searchContext.ancestorNoteId && searchContext.ancestorNoteId !== 'root') ? new AncestorExp(searchContext.ancestorNoteId, searchContext.ancestorDepth) : null,
         getFulltext(fulltextTokens, searchContext),
         getExpression(expressionTokens, searchContext)
     ]);
diff --git a/src/services/search/services/search.js b/src/services/search/services/search.js
index f1da13ebe..7bcc67fc9 100644
--- a/src/services/search/services/search.js
+++ b/src/services/search/services/search.js
@@ -127,6 +127,12 @@ function parseQueryToExpression(query, searchContext) {
         originalQuery: query
     });
 
+    if (searchContext.debug) {
+        log.info(`Fulltext tokens: ` + JSON.stringify(fulltextTokens));
+        log.info(`Expression tokens: ` + JSON.stringify(structuredExpressionTokens, null, 4));
+        log.info("Expression tree: " + JSON.stringify(expression, null, 4));
+    }
+
     return expression;
 }