# Delete by query returns version\_conflict\_engine\_exception

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-by-query-returns-version-conflict-engine-exception/257338>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 2, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-by-query-returns-version-conflict-engine-exception/257338 "2020-12-02T10:26:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Norman\_Khine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/norman_khine/32/3342_2.png) [@Norman\_Khine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Norman_Khine)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-by-query-returns-version-conflict-engine-exception/257338/1 "2020-12-02T10:26:26Z")

</div>

Hello,  
I am trying to delete some old documents which are no longer needed using the [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-delete-by-query.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/docs-delete-by-query.html)

```auto
POST /aws-elb-2019.01/_delete_by_query?requests_per_second=50&wait_for_completion=false
{
  "query": {
    "terms": {
      "user_agent": ["node", "axios"],
      "boost": 1.0
    }
  }
}

```

but then in the output, i get:

```auto
{
  "completed" : true,
  "task" : {
    "node" : "clqjAxlMSwCIzENfCZKFRA",
    "id" : 653241034,
    "type" : "transport",
    "action" : "indices:data/write/delete/byquery",
    "status" : {
      "total" : 202028,
      "updated" : 0,
      "created" : 0,
      "deleted" : 23000,
      "batches" : 24,
      "version_conflicts" : 1000,
      "noops" : 0,
      "retries" : {
        "bulk" : 0,
        "search" : 0
      },
      "throttled_millis" : 2299999,
      "requests_per_second" : 10.0,
      "throttled_until_millis" : 0
    },
    "description" : "delete-by-query [aws-elb-2019.01]",
    "start_time_in_millis" : 1606845764653,
    "running_time_in_nanos" : 2305359063559,
    "cancellable" : true,
    "headers" : { }
  },
  "response" : {
    "took" : 2305298,
    "timed_out" : false,
    "total" : 202028,
    "updated" : 0,
    "created" : 0,
    "deleted" : 23000,
    "batches" : 24,
    "version_conflicts" : 1000,
    "noops" : 0,
    "retries" : {
      "bulk" : 0,
      "search" : 0
    },
    "throttled" : "38.3m",
    "throttled_millis" : 2299999,
    "requests_per_second" : 10.0,
    "throttled_until" : "0s",
    "throttled_until_millis" : 0,
    "failures" : [ {
      "index" : "aws-elb-2019.01",
      "type" : "_doc",
      "id" : "8pZao2gBmpWJuEQDr_mg",
      "cause" : {
        "type" : "version_conflict_engine_exception",
        "reason" : "[8pZao2gBmpWJuEQDr_mg]: version conflict, required seqNo [252831], primary term [4]. but no document was found",
        "index_uuid" : "MFTNjbp2QDCALrklwWe96Q",
        "shard" : "4",
        "index" : "aws-elb-2019.01"
      },
      "status" : 409

```

we had migrated from ES 6.4 to 7.1 and are now on 7.7.

how can i correct this and delete these documents?

any advice is much appreciated

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-by-query-returns-version-conflict-engine-exception/257338/2 "2020-12-30T10:26:27Z")

</div>

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