diff --git a/test/functional/apps/discover/group1/_sidebar.ts b/test/functional/apps/discover/group1/_sidebar.ts
index 09190a0a39702..84e3841b66ea7 100644
--- a/test/functional/apps/discover/group1/_sidebar.ts
+++ b/test/functional/apps/discover/group1/_sidebar.ts
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ export default function ({ getService, getPageObjects }: FtrProviderContext) {
       await kibanaServer.importExport.unload('test/functional/fixtures/kbn_archiver/discover');
       await kibanaServer.savedObjects.cleanStandardList();
       await kibanaServer.uiSettings.replace({});
+      await PageObjects.discover.cleanSidebarLocalStorage();
     });
 
     describe('field filtering', function () {
diff --git a/test/functional/page_objects/discover_page.ts b/test/functional/page_objects/discover_page.ts
index b9be3c673448d..7db95f8063c12 100644
--- a/test/functional/page_objects/discover_page.ts
+++ b/test/functional/page_objects/discover_page.ts
@@ -463,6 +463,10 @@ export class DiscoverPageObject extends FtrService {
     ).getAttribute('innerText');
   }
 
+  public async cleanSidebarLocalStorage(): Promise<void> {
+    await this.browser.setLocalStorageItem('discover.unifiedFieldList.initiallyOpenSections', '{}');
+  }
+
   public async waitUntilSidebarHasLoaded() {
     await this.retry.waitFor('sidebar is loaded', async () => {
       return (await this.getSidebarAriaDescription()).length > 0;