Index: src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTable.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTable.java	(revision 1673415)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTable.java	(working copy)
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@
         int index = first;
         boolean shouldRefresh = false;
 
+        int size = references.size();
+        double max = size * 0.75;
+
         WeakReference<SegmentId> reference = references.get(index);
         while (reference != null) {
             SegmentId id = reference.get();
@@ -77,14 +80,22 @@
             }
             shouldRefresh = shouldRefresh || id == null;
             index = (index + 1) % references.size();
+            max--;
+
+            if (max < 0) {
+                // traversed > .75 of the list
+                shouldRefresh = true;
+                index = size;
+                break;
+            }
             reference = references.get(index);
         }
 
-        SegmentId id = new SegmentId(tracker, msb, lsb);
-        references.set(index, new WeakReference<SegmentId>(id));
         if (shouldRefresh) {
-            refresh();
+            refreshAndResize();
         }
+        SegmentId id = new SegmentId(tracker, msb, lsb);
+        references.set(index, new WeakReference<SegmentId>(id));
         return id;
     }
 
@@ -94,10 +105,10 @@
      * @return referenced segment identifiers
      */
     void collectReferencedIds(Collection<SegmentId> ids) {
-        ids.addAll(refresh());
+        ids.addAll(refreshAndResize());
     }
 
-    private synchronized Collection<SegmentId> refresh() {
+    private synchronized Collection<SegmentId> refreshAndResize() {
         int size = references.size();
         Map<SegmentId, WeakReference<SegmentId>> ids =
                 newHashMapWithExpectedSize(size);
@@ -118,7 +129,7 @@
             }
         }
 
-        while (2 * ids.size() > size) {
+        while (ids.size() > size * 0.75) {
             size *= 2;
         }
 
@@ -164,7 +175,7 @@
             }
         }
         if (dirty) {
-            refresh();
+            refreshAndResize();
         }
     }
 }
Index: src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTableTestIT.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTableTestIT.java	(revision 0)
+++ src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/segment/SegmentIdTableTestIT.java	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.plugins.segment;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.Future;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+import junit.framework.Assert;
+
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.plugins.segment.memory.MemoryStore;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class SegmentIdTableTestIT {
+
+    /**
+     * OAK-2752
+     */
+    @Test
+    public void endlessSearchLoop() {
+        SegmentTracker tracker = new MemoryStore().getTracker();
+        final SegmentIdTable tbl = new SegmentIdTable(tracker);
+
+        List<SegmentId> refs = new ArrayList<SegmentId>();
+        for (int i = 0; i < 1024; i++) {
+            refs.add(tbl.getSegmentId(i, i % 64));
+        }
+
+        Callable<SegmentId> c = new Callable<SegmentId>() {
+
+            @Override
+            public SegmentId call() throws Exception {
+                // (2,1) doesn't exist
+                return tbl.getSegmentId(2, 1);
+            }
+        };
+        Future<SegmentId> f = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor().submit(c);
+        SegmentId s = null;
+        try {
+            s = f.get(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
+        }
+        Assert.assertNotNull(s);
+        Assert.assertEquals(2, s.getMostSignificantBits());
+        Assert.assertEquals(1, s.getLeastSignificantBits());
+    }
+}