# Delete obsolete indexes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 23, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-obsolete-indexes/108889 "2017-11-23T12:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elastic\_paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@elastic\_paul](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_paul)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-obsolete-indexes/108889/1 "2017-11-23T12:48:15Z")
I have upgraded my test ES cluster from 2.3 to 5.6 (on my way to 6.0) and got myself into a pickle I have now found some very old indexes from 1.5 that can not be upgraded, and this is fine because I don't want them anyway. However I can not see how to delete them and because the new 5.6 cluster won't start I am in a bit of a catch 22. I really don' t want to downgrade it all just to delete the old indexes - it has taken me a long time to sort out my yml file for 5.6! Any ideas on how to just remove the old obsolete indexes without re-installing? ---
**Author:** ![elastic\_paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@elastic\_paul](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_paul)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-obsolete-indexes/108889/2 "2017-11-23T13:36:51Z")
Its ok, I fixed manually. Used the cli to manually delete the failing indexes. Pain in the butt but it worked ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 1:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-obsolete-indexes/108889/3 "2017-12-21T13:46:51Z")
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