diff --git a/src/encoded/static/libs/__tests__/query_string-test.js b/src/encoded/static/libs/__tests__/query_string-test.js
index e7520877c60..db7e4bd8b30 100644
--- a/src/encoded/static/libs/__tests__/query_string-test.js
+++ b/src/encoded/static/libs/__tests__/query_string-test.js
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ import QueryString from '../query_string';
 
 describe('QueryString Class', () => {
     it('Returns given query string unmodified', () => {
-        let query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
-        query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
+        let query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&type=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&type=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
+        query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&type!=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&type!=ReferenceEpigenome&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&assay_title=Histone+ChIP-seq');
     });
 
     it('Finds all values matching a key', () => {
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ describe('QueryString Class', () => {
         query.addKeyValue('assay_term_id', 'OBI:0000716');
         expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
         query.addKeyValue('type', 'Annotation', true);
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&type!=Annotation&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
     });
 
     it('Deletes all keys of a value', () => {
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ describe('QueryString Class', () => {
 
         query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Annotation');
         query.deleteKeyValue('type', 'Experiment');
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Annotation');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Annotation&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
 
         query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
         query.deleteKeyValue('type');
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ describe('QueryString Class', () => {
     it('Replaces all keys with a new value', () => {
         let query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Annotation');
         query.replaceKeyValue('type', 'Biosample');
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Biosample');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Biosample&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
 
         query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Annotation');
         query.replaceKeyValue('assay_term_id', 'OBI:0001919');
@@ -58,19 +58,19 @@ describe('QueryString Class', () => {
 
         query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
         query.replaceKeyValue('type', 'Biosample');
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type=Biosample');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Biosample&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
 
         query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
         query.replaceKeyValue('type', 'Biosample', true);
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Biosample');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type!=Biosample&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
     });
 
     it('Creates an independent clone', () => {
         const query = new QueryString('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
         const queryCopy = query.clone();
         queryCopy.addKeyValue('assay_title', 'Histone ChIP-seq', true);
-        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation');
-        expect(queryCopy.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&type!=Annotation&assay_title!=Histone+ChIP-seq');
+        expect(query.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&type!=Annotation&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716');
+        expect(queryCopy.format()).toEqual('type=Experiment&type!=Annotation&assay_term_id=OBI:0000716&assay_title!=Histone+ChIP-seq');
     });
 
     it('Counts the number of query keys', () => {
diff --git a/src/encoded/static/libs/query_string.js b/src/encoded/static/libs/query_string.js
index a4576bd6f45..98ffb2f68de 100644
--- a/src/encoded/static/libs/query_string.js
+++ b/src/encoded/static/libs/query_string.js
@@ -210,13 +210,25 @@ class QueryString {
     /**
      * Get the query string corresponding to the query this object holds. If you have made no
      * modifications to the query this object holds, you get back the same query string that
-     * initialized this object.
+     * initialized this object. `type=` elements get sorted to the front to avoid requests getting
+     * blocked.
      *
      * @return {string} Equivalent query string.
      */
     format() {
-        return this._parsedQuery.map((queryElement) => {
-            const key = Object.keys(queryElement)[0];
+        // If any of the query strings has a key of `type` move all those to the front of the query
+        // string. The `reduce()` accumulator is a two-element array. The first element is an array
+        // of `type=` elements, and the second element is an array of all other query elements.
+        const [typeQueries, otherQueries] = this._parsedQuery.reduce(
+            ([types, others], queryElement) => 
+                queryElement.type ? [types.concat(queryElement), others] : [types, others.concat(queryElement)],
+            [[], []]
+        );
+        const sortedQueries = [...typeQueries, ...otherQueries];
+
+        // Convert sorted queries to the formatted query string.
+        return sortedQueries.map((queryElement) => {
+            const key = QueryString._getQueryElementKey(queryElement);
             return `${key}${queryElement.negative ? '!=' : '='}${queryEncoding.encodedURIComponent(queryElement[key])}`;
         }).join('&');
     }