diff --git a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RecentlyDeletedActions.tsx b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RecentlyDeletedActions.tsx
index 6e065e98220..0dddedf7c39 100644
--- a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RecentlyDeletedActions.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RecentlyDeletedActions.tsx
@@ -33,7 +33,13 @@ export function RecentlyDeletedActions() {
   if (searchState.result) {
     for (const selectedDashboard of selectedDashboards) {
       const index = searchState.result.view.fields.uid.values.findIndex((e) => e === selectedDashboard);
-      selectedDashboardOrigin.push(searchState.result.view.fields.location.values[index]);
+
+      // SQLSearcher changes the location from empty string to 'general' for items with no parent
+      // but the restore API doesn't work with 'general' folder UID, so we need to convert it back
+      // to an empty string
+      const location = searchState.result.view.fields.location.values[index];
+      const fixedLocation = location === GENERAL_FOLDER_UID ? '' : location;
+      selectedDashboardOrigin.push(fixedLocation);
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RestoreModal.tsx b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RestoreModal.tsx
index d0e05e0dde7..77561bdd24d 100644
--- a/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RestoreModal.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/browse-dashboards/components/RestoreModal.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
+import { useState } from 'react';
 
 import { reportInteraction } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { ConfirmModal, Space, Text } from '@grafana/ui';
@@ -23,19 +23,14 @@ export const RestoreModal = ({
   isLoading,
   ...props
 }: RestoreModalProps) => {
-  const [restoreTarget, setRestoreTarget] = useState<string>();
-  const numberOfDashboards = selectedDashboards.length;
-
-  useEffect(() => {
-    // restoreTarget is used by the folder picker to preselect a folder and therefore enable the confirm button
-    // if there is only one dashboard selected or all selected dashboards come from the same folder
-    if (
-      dashboardOrigin.length > 0 &&
+  const [restoreTarget, setRestoreTarget] = useState<string | undefined>(() => {
+    // Preselect the restore target and therefore enable the confirm button if all selected dashboards come from the same folder
+    return dashboardOrigin.length > 0 &&
       dashboardOrigin.every((originalLocation) => originalLocation === dashboardOrigin[0])
-    ) {
-      setRestoreTarget(dashboardOrigin[0]);
-    }
-  }, [dashboardOrigin, selectedDashboards]);
+      ? dashboardOrigin[0]
+      : undefined;
+  });
+  const numberOfDashboards = selectedDashboards.length;
 
   const onRestore = async () => {
     reportInteraction('grafana_restore_confirm_clicked', {
diff --git a/public/app/features/search/service/sql.ts b/public/app/features/search/service/sql.ts
index d3999434813..3a25678746e 100644
--- a/public/app/features/search/service/sql.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/search/service/sql.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import { TermCount } from 'app/core/components/TagFilter/TagFilter';
 import { backendSrv } from 'app/core/services/backend_srv';
 import { PermissionLevelString } from 'app/types';
 
-import { DEFAULT_MAX_VALUES, TYPE_KIND_MAP } from '../constants';
+import { DEFAULT_MAX_VALUES, GENERAL_FOLDER_UID, TYPE_KIND_MAP } from '../constants';
 import { DashboardSearchHit, DashboardSearchItemType } from '../types';
 
 import { LocationInfo } from './types';
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ export class SQLSearcher implements GrafanaSearcher {
 
       let v = hit.folderUid;
       if (!v && k === 'dashboard') {
-        v = 'general';
+        v = GENERAL_FOLDER_UID;
       }
       location.push(v!);