# Deleting an index does not seem to delete external versioning

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-an-index-does-not-seem-to-delete-external-versioning/194091>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 6, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-an-index-does-not-seem-to-delete-external-versioning/194091 "2019-08-06T19:16:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 5:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-an-index-does-not-seem-to-delete-external-versioning/194091/6 "2019-08-07T05:54:55Z")

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Ok yes deleting an externally-versioned document from an index that does not exist will actually create the index in order to record the deletion:

```auto
GET /_cat/indices

# 200 OK

DELETE /i/_doc/someid?version=0&version_type=external

# 404 Not Found
# {
# "_type": "_doc",
# "_primary_term": 1,
# "_id": "someid",
# "_shards": {
# "successful": 1,
# "total": 2,
# "failed": 0
# },
# "_index": "i",
# "result": "not_found",
# "_version": 0,
# "_seq_no": 0
# }

GET /_cat/indices

# 200 OK
# yellow open i Pqo2tMyMRyOTOXvFAUk0Tw 5 1 0 0 1.1kb 1.1kb
#

```

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_[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-an-index-does-not-seem-to-delete-external-versioning/194091)._