diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 146cb7ae654959b73932e588fe80a9a457ef19e7..144577ef12932712d17c8346f9523c94b6c7460d 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ stages:
 #    - chmod u+x $CI_PROJECT_DIR/sbin/tag_and_push_docker_image.sh
 # This suffers from only refs changes not working as expected:
 # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/55012
+# Therefore we have to add `only: refs: - merge_requests` to all jobs that are
+# only supposed to run on merge requests with file changes. However,
+# two pipelines will spawn instead of one of which one tagged with 'detached`.
 .base_docker_images_except:
   extends: .base_docker_images
   except:
@@ -63,6 +66,8 @@ docker_store_images_master_tag:
 docker_store_images_changes:
   extends: .base_docker_store_images
   only:
+    refs:
+      - merge_requests
     changes:
       - docker-compose/.env
   except:
diff --git a/docker-compose/elk/Dockerfile b/docker-compose/elk/Dockerfile
index e64841783857c45050e1650441b307eba79175c3..fda7ed40e1deafcb1ef144f63b6ba985f83430bf 100644
--- a/docker-compose/elk/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker-compose/elk/Dockerfile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 FROM sebp/elk
 
 # Give more time for ElasticSearch to startup on our poor dev laptops
-ENV ES_CONNECT_RETRY=90
+ENV ES_CONNECT_RETRY=60
 
 # Provide our logstash config
 ADD logstash /etc/logstash/