diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/building.py b/evennia/commands/default/building.py
index 159f253883..ca8800b3d8 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/building.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/building.py
@@ -2375,9 +2375,10 @@ class CmdExamine(ObjManipCommand):
             value (any): Attribute value.
         Returns:
         """
+        if attr is None: 
+            return "No such attribute was found."
+        value = utils.to_str(value)
         if crop:
-            if not isinstance(value, str):
-                value = utils.to_str(value)
             value = utils.crop(value)
         value = inlinefunc_raw(ansi_raw(value))
         if category:
@@ -2391,19 +2392,24 @@ class CmdExamine(ObjManipCommand):
         non-persistent data stored on object
 
         """
-
         if attrname:
-            db_attr = [(attrname, obj.attributes.get(attrname), None)]
+            if obj.attributes.has(attrname):
+                db_attr = [(attrname, obj.attributes.get(attrname), None)]
+            else:
+                db_attr = None
             try:
                 ndb_attr = [(attrname, object.__getattribute__(obj.ndb, attrname))]
             except Exception:
                 ndb_attr = None
+            if not (db_attr or ndb_attr):
+                return {"Attribue(s)": f"\n  No Attribute '{attrname}' found on {obj.name}"}
         else:
             db_attr = [(attr.key, attr.value, attr.category) for attr in obj.db_attributes.all()]
             try:
                 ndb_attr = obj.nattributes.all(return_tuples=True)
             except Exception:
-                ndb_attr = None
+                ndb_attr = (None, None, None)
+
         output = {}
         if db_attr and db_attr[0]:
             output["Persistent attribute(s)"] = "\n  " + "\n  ".join(
diff --git a/evennia/objects/manager.py b/evennia/objects/manager.py
index 3e609991ff..a3db831149 100644
--- a/evennia/objects/manager.py
+++ b/evennia/objects/manager.py
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ class ObjectDBManager(TypedObjectManager):
 
         Args:
             attribute_name (str): Attribute key to search for.
-            attribute_value (str):  Attribute value to search for.
+            attribute_value (any):  Attribute value to search for. This can also be database objects.
             candidates (list, optional): Candidate objects to limit search to.
             typeclasses (list, optional): Python pats to restrict matches with.
 
@@ -175,31 +175,16 @@ class ObjectDBManager(TypedObjectManager):
         )
         type_restriction = typeclasses and Q(db_typeclass_path__in=make_iter(typeclasses)) or Q()
 
-        # This doesn't work if attribute_value is an object. Workaround below
-
-        if isinstance(attribute_value, (str, int, float, bool)):
-            return self.filter(
+        results = (
+            self
+            .filter(
                 cand_restriction
                 & type_restriction
-                & Q(db_attributes__db_key=attribute_name, db_attributes__db_value=attribute_value)
-            ).order_by("id")
-        else:
-            # We must loop for safety since the referenced lookup gives deepcopy error if attribute value is an object.
-            global _ATTR
-            if not _ATTR:
-                from evennia.typeclasses.models import Attribute as _ATTR
-            cands = list(
-                self.filter(
-                    cand_restriction & type_restriction & Q(db_attributes__db_key=attribute_name)
-                )
-            )
-            results = [
-                attr.objectdb_set.all()
-                for attr in _ATTR.objects.filter(
-                    objectdb__in=cands, db_value=attribute_value
-                ).order_by("id")
-            ]
-            return chain(*results)
+                & Q(db_attributes__db_key=attribute_name)
+                & Q(db_attributes__db_value=attribute_value))
+            .order_by("id")
+        )
+        return results
 
     def get_objs_with_db_property(self, property_name, candidates=None):
         """
diff --git a/evennia/utils/picklefield.py b/evennia/utils/picklefield.py
index a86f0099ca..e76825086c 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/picklefield.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/picklefield.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ Modified for Evennia by Griatch and the Evennia community.
 from ast import literal_eval
 from datetime import datetime
 
-from copy import deepcopy
+from copy import deepcopy, Error as CopyError
 from base64 import b64encode, b64decode
 from zlib import compress, decompress
 
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ from django.forms.widgets import Textarea
 
 from pickle import loads, dumps
 from django.utils.encoding import force_str
+from evennia.utils.dbserialize import pack_dbobj
 
 
 DEFAULT_PROTOCOL = 4
@@ -92,7 +93,16 @@ def dbsafe_encode(value, compress_object=False, pickle_protocol=DEFAULT_PROTOCOL
     # The reason this is important is because we do all of our lookups as
     # simple string matches, thus the character streams must be the same
     # for the lookups to work properly. See tests.py for more information.
-    value = dumps(deepcopy(value), protocol=pickle_protocol)
+    try:
+        value = deepcopy(value)
+    except CopyError:
+        # this can happen on a manager query where the search query string is a
+        # database model.
+        value = pack_dbobj(value)
+
+    value = dumps(value, protocol=pickle_protocol)
+
+
     if compress_object:
         value = compress(value)
     value = b64encode(value).decode()  # decode bytes to str