# DeleteIndex doesn't delete the index folder from disk **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [July 12, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288 "2016-07-12T11:10:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/1 "2016-07-12T11:10:46Z")
I am trying to delete index from elastic search using below code snippet. DeleteIndexResponse returns true, but the folder still exists in the physical location. ```auto DeleteIndexResponse res= client.admin().indices().prepareDelete("dummyIndex").execute().actionGet(); System.out.println("Index deletion status : " + res.isAcknowledged()); ``` ES no longer identifies it as index when i search from REST end point - `error": "IndexMissingException[[dummyIndex] missing]"` But it is not deleted from disk. Is there something i missed here? ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/2 "2016-07-12T11:44:20Z")
How do you check it's deleted from disk or not? ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/3 "2016-07-12T12:05:58Z")
When i said disk, i meant the file system directory relative to given path.data value ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/4 "2016-07-12T12:17:56Z")
Can you run please: ```auto curl 127.0.0.1/_cat/indices?v tree path/to/data/dir ``` ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/5 "2016-07-12T12:33:06Z")
@dadoonet I ran the command and the listed indices doesn't include the deleted index ([dummyIndex] in my case) [http://hostname:9200/\_cat/indices?v?tree=G:\IndexDir](http://hostname:9200/_cat/indices?v?tree=G:%5CIndexDir) green index1 1 0 2914 0 3.3mb 3.3mb green index2 1 0 0 0 99b 99b green index3 1 0 175523 0 1.2gb 1.2gb green index4 1 0 644 24 614.8kb 614.8kb ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/6 "2016-07-12T12:38:22Z")
So you're on windows? I meant to run a `tree` command like: ```auto tree G:\IndexDir ``` ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/7 "2016-07-12T12:46:45Z")
yes its windows machine and i checked that the index still exists. ---
**Author:** ![nik9000](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nik9000/32/44947_2.png) [@nik9000](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nik9000)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/8 "2016-07-12T12:49:48Z")
Iirc removing the index from disk is asynchronous from the ack for the delete. Just that it is gone from the cluster state. Though I think that is changing a bit in 5.0 but I don't have a link handy. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/9 "2016-07-12T12:52:14Z")
> [@Swetha\_S](#): > > yes its windows machine and i checked that the index still exists. Can you please give the output of the command? ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/10 "2016-07-12T12:57:11Z")
![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/2X/6/6b2168734f716f149f6dfd5c9fb2f9dd12fbedd8.png) Highlighted workDummy is the index which is deleted ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/11 "2016-07-12T13:00:08Z")
Can you print what you have in the `workdummy\0\index` dir? There is no `_state` dir for this index. That looks strange. Please don't use screen shots but copy and paste the output as text. Which elasticsearch version are you using? ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/12 "2016-07-12T13:00:49Z")
@nik9000 Index is getting deleted from file system as well when i run curl XDelete command from Rest Client, but when deleted using DeleteIndex java API, it is not removed from disk. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/13 "2016-07-12T13:03:04Z")
> [@Swetha\_S](#): > > Index is getting deleted from file system as well when i run curl XDelete command from Rest Client, but when deleted using DeleteIndex java API, it is not removed from disk. This is super strange as the same code is called behind the scene. See [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/delete/RestDeleteIndexAction.java#L53-L53](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/rest/action/admin/indices/delete/RestDeleteIndexAction.java#L53-L53) ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/14 "2016-07-12T13:03:12Z")
@dadoonet this is the output after deleting the index using the java, do you need the file structure before index deletion? Elastic search version :1.0.2 ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/15 "2016-07-12T13:04:14Z")
I meant: do you have remaining files in `workdummy\0\index` dir? ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/16 "2016-07-12T13:04:37Z")
Nope that is the end of output ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/17 "2016-07-12T13:07:20Z")
I have hard time to follow. I'm not talking about the `tree` command here. I'm asking to go into the `workdummy\0\index`, run a `dir` command so we can see if there are some files left. BTW you are using a very old version of elasticsearch. Could you please run the same test on a new cleaned and fresh elasticsearch instance running latest 1.7? ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/18 "2016-07-12T13:21:20Z")
yes there is a file left \_0.cfs. > Directory of G:\IndexDir\59f92c3bcfadac7eaf599dad8eace0b3\nodes\0\indices\workdummy\0\index > 07/12/2016 06:42 PM . > 07/12/2016 06:42 PM .. > 07/12/2016 06:42 PM 4,820 \_0.cfs > 1 File(s) 4,820 bytes > 2 Dir(s) 26,477,842,432 bytes free Before deleting the index, do i have to call the closeIndex api- so as to remove references (if any) to the index? Because before deletion, i am searching with scroll api on this index. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/19 "2016-07-12T13:47:38Z")
Ha! That makes more sense now. You have to clear the scroll IMO before deleting the index. See [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.3/search-request-scroll.html#\_clear\_scroll\_api](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.3/search-request-scroll.html#_clear_scroll_api) You don't have to close the index. ---
**Author:** ![SwethaS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@SwethaS](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SwethaS)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 6:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288/20 "2016-07-13T06:14:16Z")
Thanks David, after clearing the scroll, delete index deleted the folder as well. [Next page](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleteindex-doesnt-delete-the-index-folder-from-disk/55288.md?page=2)