# Detecting if an index is refreshing
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [May 23, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828 "2017-05-23T15:08:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mortenbock](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mortenbock)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/1 "2017-05-23T15:08:35Z")
While indexing our product catalog, we set the RefreshInterval to -1, as long as we are bulk updating the index.
When we are done, we set it back to 1 second.
After that, I would like to poll the index to see when it is done "refreshing" the index, so that I can safely swap the alias from the old index to the new index, without any issues.
Is there a way to do that?
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### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/2 "2017-05-23T15:22:57Z")
Why not calling actually `_refresh` endpoint?
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### Author:  [@mortenbock](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mortenbock)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/3 "2017-05-23T15:38:07Z")
Is that a synchronous call? So it will not return until refresh is completed?
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### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/4 "2017-05-23T15:39:19Z")
Yes it is.
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### Author:  [@mortenbock](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mortenbock)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/5 "2017-05-23T15:42:27Z")
My only concern would be, what if it takes a long time to complete the refresh? The call might time out, and then I'd have to trigger a new refresh, which might just make it worse?
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### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/6 "2017-05-23T16:09:09Z")
Did you give it a try? Should not take that long IMHO.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/detecting-if-an-index-is-refreshing/86828/7 "2017-06-20T16:09:10Z")
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