diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 210e369c7a..c040a15ad5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ Imviz
 
 - Spatial subsets no longer show as having mixed visibility (in the legend and plot options tab) when aligned by WCS. [#3373]
 
+- Fixed Gaia catalog search sometimes failing with invalid ``SOURCE_ID`` look-up. [#3400]
+
 Mosviz
 ^^^^^^
 
diff --git a/jdaviz/configs/imviz/plugins/catalogs/catalogs.py b/jdaviz/configs/imviz/plugins/catalogs/catalogs.py
index ec9a9020ef..a9b393604b 100644
--- a/jdaviz/configs/imviz/plugins/catalogs/catalogs.py
+++ b/jdaviz/configs/imviz/plugins/catalogs/catalogs.py
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ def search(self, error_on_fail=False):
         if self.catalog_selected == "SDSS":
             from astroquery.sdss import SDSS
             r_max = 3 * u.arcmin
+            src_id_colname = "objid"
 
             # queries the region (based on the provided center point and radius)
             # finds all the sources in that region
@@ -195,6 +196,10 @@ def search(self, error_on_fail=False):
             sources = Gaia.query_object(skycoord_center, radius=zoom_radius,
                                         columns=('source_id', 'ra', 'dec')
                                         )
+            if "SOURCE_ID" in sources.colnames:  # Case could flip non-deterministically
+                src_id_colname = "SOURCE_ID"
+            else:
+                src_id_colname = "source_id"
             if len(sources) == self.max_sources:
                 max_sources_used = True
             self.app._catalog_source_table = sources
@@ -252,10 +257,7 @@ def search(self, error_on_fail=False):
 
             for row, x_coord, y_coord in zip(self.app._catalog_source_table,
                                              x_coordinates, y_coordinates):
-                if self.catalog_selected == "SDSS":
-                    row_id = row["objid"]
-                elif self.catalog_selected == "Gaia":
-                    row_id = row["SOURCE_ID"]
+                row_id = row[src_id_colname]
                 # Check if the row contains the required keys
                 row_info = {'Right Ascension (degrees)': row['ra'],
                             'Declination (degrees)': row['dec'],