diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/blockloader/TextFieldBlockLoaderTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/blockloader/TextFieldBlockLoaderTests.java
index 77c42740451ee..afbdb8382a15c 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/blockloader/TextFieldBlockLoaderTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/blockloader/TextFieldBlockLoaderTests.java
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ public TextFieldBlockLoaderTests(Params params) {
 
     @Override
     protected Object expected(Map<String, Object> fieldMapping, Object value, TestContext testContext) {
+        logger.info("field mapping={}", fieldMapping);
+        logger.info("value={}", value);
         return expectedValue(fieldMapping, value, params, testContext);
     }
 
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@ public static Object expectedValue(Map<String, Object> fieldMapping, Object valu
                     .map(BytesRef::new)
                     .collect(Collectors.toList());
 
-                if (store == false) {
+                if (store == false && ignoreAbove.equals(Integer.MAX_VALUE)) {
                     // using doc_values for synthetic source
                     indexed = new ArrayList<>(new HashSet<>(indexed));
                     indexed.sort(BytesRef::compareTo);
diff --git a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/BlockLoaderTestRunner.java b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/BlockLoaderTestRunner.java
index eb5bbea9e6bba..79ef5f9e0dcc7 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/BlockLoaderTestRunner.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/BlockLoaderTestRunner.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.LeafReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.tests.index.RandomIndexWriter;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fieldvisitor.StoredFieldLoader;
@@ -24,6 +25,8 @@
 import org.junit.Assert;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
 
@@ -44,9 +47,30 @@ public void runTest(MapperService mapperService, Map<String, Object> document, O
         var documentXContent = XContentBuilder.builder(XContentType.JSON.xContent()).map(document);
 
         Object blockLoaderResult = setupAndInvokeBlockLoader(mapperService, documentXContent, blockLoaderFieldName);
+        expected = attemptMakeReadable(expected);
+        blockLoaderResult = attemptMakeReadable(blockLoaderResult);
         Assert.assertEquals(expected, blockLoaderResult);
     }
 
+    // Attempt to make assertions readable:
+    private static Object attemptMakeReadable(Object expected) {
+        try {
+            if (expected instanceof BytesRef bytesRef) {
+                expected = bytesRef.utf8ToString();
+            } else if (expected instanceof List<?> list && list.getFirst() instanceof BytesRef) {
+                List<String> expectedList = new ArrayList<>(list.size());
+                for (Object e : list) {
+                    expectedList.add(((BytesRef) e).utf8ToString());
+                }
+                expected = expectedList;
+            }
+            return expected;
+        } catch (Exception | AssertionError e) {
+            // ip/geo fields can't be converted to strings:
+            return expected;
+        }
+    }
+
     private Object setupAndInvokeBlockLoader(MapperService mapperService, XContentBuilder document, String fieldName) throws IOException {
         try (Directory directory = newDirectory()) {
             RandomIndexWriter iw = new RandomIndexWriter(random(), directory);