diff --git a/libretroshare/src/turtle/p3turtle.cc b/libretroshare/src/turtle/p3turtle.cc
index c14b46e6c..c422b2dc0 100644
--- a/libretroshare/src/turtle/p3turtle.cc
+++ b/libretroshare/src/turtle/p3turtle.cc
@@ -928,7 +928,6 @@ void p3turtle::handleSearchRequest(RsTurtleSearchRequestItem *item)
         for(auto it(search_results.begin());it!=search_results.end();++it)
         {
             (*it)->request_id = item->request_id ;
-            (*it)->depth = 0 ;
             (*it)->PeerId(item->PeerId()) ;
 
             sendItem(*it) ;
@@ -1174,7 +1173,6 @@ void p3turtle::handleSearchResult(RsTurtleSearchResultItem *item)
 			// of the files found can be further reached by a tunnel.
 
 			fwd_item->PeerId(it->second.origin) ;
-			fwd_item->depth = 0 ; // obfuscate the depth for non immediate friends. Result will always be 0. This effectively removes the information.
 
 			sendItem(fwd_item) ;
 		}
diff --git a/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.cc b/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.cc
index 3c51f7c29..38ab3bb23 100644
--- a/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.cc
+++ b/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.cc
@@ -193,13 +193,20 @@ RS_TYPE_SERIALIZER_FROM_JSON_NOT_IMPLEMENTED_DEF(RsRegularExpression::Linearized
 void RsTurtleFTSearchResultItem::serial_process(RsGenericSerializer::SerializeJob j,RsGenericSerializer::SerializeContext& ctx)
 {
     RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint32_t>(j,ctx,request_id,"request_id") ;
-    RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint16_t>(j,ctx,depth     ,"depth") ;
+
+	// This depth was previously a member of SearchResult parent class that was set to be always 0. It's removed, but we have to stay backward compatible.
+	uint16_t depth_retrocompat_unused_placeholder = 0 ;
+    RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint16_t>(j,ctx,depth_retrocompat_unused_placeholder,"depth") ;
+
     RsTypeSerializer::serial_process          (j,ctx,result    ,"result") ;
 }
 void RsTurtleGenericSearchResultItem::serial_process(RsGenericSerializer::SerializeJob j,RsGenericSerializer::SerializeContext& ctx)
 {
     RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint32_t>(j,ctx,request_id,"request_id") ;
-    RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint16_t>(j,ctx,depth     ,"depth") ;
+
+	// This depth was previously a member of SearchResult parent class that was set to be always 0. It's removed, but we have to stay backward compatible.
+	uint16_t depth_retrocompat_unused_placeholder = 0 ;
+    RsTypeSerializer::serial_process<uint16_t>(j,ctx,depth_retrocompat_unused_placeholder,"depth") ;
 
     RsTypeSerializer::TlvMemBlock_proxy prox(result_data,result_data_len) ;
     RsTypeSerializer::serial_process(j,ctx,prox,"search_data") ;
@@ -212,7 +219,6 @@ RsTurtleSearchResultItem *RsTurtleGenericSearchResultItem::duplicate() const
     memcpy(sr->result_data,result_data,result_data_len) ;
     sr->result_data_len = result_data_len ;
     sr->request_id = request_id ;
-    sr->depth = depth ;
     return sr ;
 }
 
diff --git a/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.h b/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.h
index 9643089b8..1f4893087 100644
--- a/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.h
+++ b/libretroshare/src/turtle/rsturtleitem.h
@@ -191,12 +191,9 @@ class RsTurtleGenericSearchRequestItem: public RsTurtleSearchRequestItem
 class RsTurtleSearchResultItem: public RsTurtleItem
 {
 	public:
-        RsTurtleSearchResultItem(uint8_t subtype) : RsTurtleItem(subtype), request_id(0), depth(0) { setPriorityLevel(QOS_PRIORITY_RS_TURTLE_SEARCH_RESULT) ;}
+        RsTurtleSearchResultItem(uint8_t subtype) : RsTurtleItem(subtype), request_id(0) { setPriorityLevel(QOS_PRIORITY_RS_TURTLE_SEARCH_RESULT) ;}
 
 		TurtleSearchRequestId request_id ;	// Randomly generated request id.
-		uint16_t depth ;					// The depth of a search result is obfuscated in this way:
-											// 	If the actual depth is 1, this field will be 1.
-											// 	If the actual depth is > 1, this field is a larger arbitrary integer.
 
         virtual uint32_t count() const =0;
         virtual void pop() =0;