diff --git a/packages/server/src/api/routes/tests/search.spec.ts b/packages/server/src/api/routes/tests/search.spec.ts
index 589f129f31..5b98347953 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/api/routes/tests/search.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/api/routes/tests/search.spec.ts
@@ -1938,6 +1938,17 @@ describe.each([
         ])
       })
 
+      it("successfully finds a row searching with a string", async () => {
+        await expectQuery({
+          // @ts-expect-error this test specifically goes against the type to
+          // test that we coerce the string to an array.
+          contains: { "1:users": user1._id },
+        }).toContainExactly([
+          { users: [{ _id: user1._id }] },
+          { users: [{ _id: user1._id }, { _id: user2._id }] },
+        ])
+      })
+
       it("fails to find nonexistent row", async () => {
         await expectQuery({ contains: { users: ["us_none"] } }).toFindNothing()
       })
diff --git a/packages/server/src/sdk/app/rows/search.ts b/packages/server/src/sdk/app/rows/search.ts
index 1dc0e37a0c..286a88054c 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/sdk/app/rows/search.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/sdk/app/rows/search.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import {
   EmptyFilterOption,
   Row,
   RowSearchParams,
+  SearchFilterOperator,
   SearchFilters,
   SearchResponse,
   SortOrder,
@@ -65,11 +66,37 @@ export function removeEmptyFilters(filters: SearchFilters) {
   return filters
 }
 
+// The frontend can send single values for array fields sometimes, so to handle
+// this we convert them to arrays at the controller level so that nothing below
+// this has to worry about the non-array values.
+function fixupFilterArrays(filters: SearchFilters) {
+  const arrayFields = [
+    SearchFilterOperator.ONE_OF,
+    SearchFilterOperator.CONTAINS,
+    SearchFilterOperator.NOT_CONTAINS,
+    SearchFilterOperator.CONTAINS_ANY,
+  ]
+  for (const searchField of arrayFields) {
+    const field = filters[searchField]
+    if (field == null) {
+      continue
+    }
+
+    for (const key of Object.keys(field)) {
+      if (!Array.isArray(field[key])) {
+        field[key] = [field[key]]
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return filters
+}
+
 export async function search(
   options: RowSearchParams
 ): Promise<SearchResponse<Row>> {
   const isExternalTable = isExternalTableID(options.tableId)
   options.query = removeEmptyFilters(options.query || {})
+  options.query = fixupFilterArrays(options.query)
   if (
     !dataFilters.hasFilters(options.query) &&
     options.query.onEmptyFilter === EmptyFilterOption.RETURN_NONE