# Backlog Logs without a Day parameter **URL:** \ **Category:** Logstash\ **Created:** [June 18, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929 "2015-06-18T15:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michaellizhou](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/michaellizhou/32/4143_2.png) [@michaellizhou](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michaellizhou)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/1 "2015-06-18T15:34:59Z")
So I am trying to backlog some older logs which do not have a MM:dd:YYY. My question is what should I do then? The timestamp will just be over written with the one of which logstash parsed the data. Thanks. Mike ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/2 "2015-06-19T00:37:33Z")
There's no timestamp in the file name or path? ---
**Author:** ![michaellizhou](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/michaellizhou/32/4143_2.png) [@michaellizhou](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michaellizhou)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 12:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/3 "2015-06-19T12:24:42Z")
Nope none of that. But There are logs in there that do have the mm:dd:YYYY stamps, its just a mess of logs. And after doing some experimenting logstash will actually throw a time stamp of year 1970 on it automatically when I use the date filter. So for example I have a log with only time 20:20:10,123 and I use a date filter that will match its parameters, it will append to that time a date also of 01-01-1970 (making up the month and day but the year is a 1970 default logstash appends). So a better question might be how would I change the default date that logstash appends the 01-01-1970 after a date filter. Thanks. Mike ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/4 "2015-06-20T01:20:52Z")
Change it to what though? This is the problem, you have no indicator as to what LS should be setting the date to, so it just does it's best. ---
**Author:** ![michaellizhou](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/michaellizhou/32/4143_2.png) [@michaellizhou](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michaellizhou)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/5 "2015-06-22T13:58:59Z")
I understand, my idea is that maybe I should at least change the date to something more recent then 01-01-1970 because its a pain to go looking for it in kibana. So say that I know it cannot be after 05-05-2015 because there are logs dating this after the file. But should at least be a few days maybe even months old. So for example here are some dates I found: 20:34:59,110 blah blah 20:35:00,073 blah blah 20:35:00,229 blah blah (then suddenly dates magically appear) 26-05-2015 blah blah So I would like the date to be say the day before maybe 24-05-2015. How would I go about that? ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/6 "2015-06-23T02:41:29Z")
You could do a conditional that if the date is missing, just use a default one, but that's pretty messy. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/backlog-logs-without-a-day-parameter/23929/7 "2017-07-06T05:36:50Z")
Closed on July 6, 2017, 5:36am UTC