# Benefits of force merging an append-only index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 28, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551 "2019-10-28T21:12:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bruce289](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@bruce289](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bruce289)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551/1 "2019-10-28T21:12:02Z")

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Hi,

It's not clear to me whether there are any benefits to force merging an index to which documents were only ever added (no updates or deletes), and if so, what these are?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551/2 "2019-10-29T06:56:03Z")

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Forcemerging indices that are no longer written to down to a single segment can improve query latencies and also reduce heap usage. For a discussion about the heap usage reduction, see [this webinar](https://www.elastic.co/webinars/optimizing-storage-efficiency-in-elasticsearch).

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**Author:** ![bruce289](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@bruce289](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bruce289)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551/3 "2019-10-29T18:58:28Z")

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That was really helpful. Thanks, Christian.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/benefits-of-force-merging-an-append-only-index/205551/4 "2019-11-26T18:58:38Z")

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