This error always comes up when you are trying to import a wallet with old pruned data meaning it can't find any transactions from the current blockchain data.
This is my own solution that works to me but I do not know if it will work for you.
Try to disable the pruning mode first and close the Bitcoin core> Go to the blockchain data folder and delete all data and then open Bitcoin core again and enable prune mode again and let it sync.
Update here if it didn't work.
I think OP does not want to do the whole sync process from the beginning but I don't think OP has any choice because the re-index will probably restart a new sync process which OP is trying to avoid
if your blockchain is pruned, it'll have to redownload the blockchain to rebuild the chainstate.
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