diff --git a/dcicutils/_version.py b/dcicutils/_version.py
index 5fd75e6ee..df052d62f 100644
--- a/dcicutils/_version.py
+++ b/dcicutils/_version.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 """Version information."""
 
 # The following line *must* be the last in the module, exactly as formatted:
-__version__ = "0.3.3"
+__version__ = "0.3.4"
diff --git a/dcicutils/ff_utils.py b/dcicutils/ff_utils.py
index bb5db9993..12766da19 100644
--- a/dcicutils/ff_utils.py
+++ b/dcicutils/ff_utils.py
@@ -331,9 +331,9 @@ def delete_field(obj_id, del_field, key=None, ff_env=None):
     return get_response_json(response)
 
 
-def get_es_metadata(uuid, schema_name, es_client=None, key=None, ff_env=None):
+def get_es_metadata(uuid, es_client=None, key=None, ff_env=None):
     """
-    Given string item uuid and schema name (e.g. "file_fastq"), will return a
+    Given string item uuid, will return a
     dictionary response of the full ES ecord for that item (or an empty
     dictionary if the item doesn't exist/ is not indexed)
     You can pass in an Elasticsearch client (initialized by create_es_client)
@@ -347,11 +347,16 @@ def get_es_metadata(uuid, schema_name, es_client=None, key=None, ff_env=None):
         health_res = authorized_request(auth['server'] + '/health', auth=auth, verb='GET')
         es_url = get_response_json(health_res)['elasticsearch']
         es_client = es_utils.create_es_client(es_url, use_aws_auth=True)
-    try:
-        es_res = es_client.get(index=schema_name, doc_type=schema_name, id=uuid)
-    except TransportError:
+    es_res = es_client.search(index='_all', body={'query': {'term': {'_id': uuid}}})
+    es_hits = es_res['hits']['hits']
+    if not isinstance(es_hits, list):
+        raise Exception('ERROR malformed results found when searching for uuid %s' % uuid)
+    elif len(es_hits) > 1:
+        raise Exception('ERROR multiple results found when searching for uuid %s' % uuid)
+    elif len(es_hits) == 0:
         return {}
-    return es_res.get('_source', {})
+    # es_hits should only be length 1, so this is the result
+    return es_hits[0]
 
 
 #####################
diff --git a/test/test_ff_utils.py b/test/test_ff_utils.py
index 6feeb5e13..a9273601b 100644
--- a/test/test_ff_utils.py
+++ b/test/test_ff_utils.py
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ def test_get_es_metadata(integrated_ff):
     from dcicutils import es_utils
     # use this test biosource
     test_item = '331111bc-8535-4448-903e-854af460b254'
-    res = ff_utils.get_es_metadata(test_item, 'biosource', key=integrated_ff['ff_key'])
+    res = ff_utils.get_es_metadata(test_item, key=integrated_ff['ff_key'])
     assert res['uuid'] == test_item
     assert res['item_type'] == 'biosource'
     assert isinstance(res['embedded'], dict)
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ def test_get_es_metadata(integrated_ff):
                                              auth=integrated_ff['ff_key'])
     es_url = ff_utils.get_response_json(health_res)['elasticsearch']
     es_client = es_utils.create_es_client(es_url, use_aws_auth=True)
-    res2 = ff_utils.get_es_metadata(test_item, 'biosource', es_client=es_client,
+    res2 = ff_utils.get_es_metadata(test_item, es_client=es_client,
                                     key=integrated_ff['ff_key'])
     assert res2['uuid'] == res['uuid']