1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises: receiving a data request; issuing a read threshold number of read slice requests to storage units of a storage set, wherein the issuing includes: generating the read slice requests, selecting the storage units and sending the read slice requests to the selected storage units; receiving read slice responses from at least some of the storage units within a response timeframe; when the received read slice responses include less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices of a set of encoded data slices, generating at least one forced read slice request for an encoded data slice other than the received encoded data slices; sending the at least one forced read slice requests to at least one other storage unit of the storage set, wherein the sending includes sending to a storage unit outside of the selected storage units; and when receiving the decode threshold number of encoded data slices, dispersed storage error decoding the received decode threshold number of encoded data slices to reproduce a data segment of the recovered data.