# Disable field index **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 25, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950 "2018-10-25T08:43:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hitesh-inbetween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@hitesh-inbetween](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hitesh-inbetween)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/1 "2018-10-25T08:43:07Z")
Is it possible to toggle searchable field. My index contains around 3000 fields and 1200k documents, at times I see memory issues. On further analysis, I found that due to large number of fields, not all fields are available in the heap. I think, for my usecase, the probable solution will be to disable searching/indexing on fields that are marked as not searchable in my application. How ever, my application provides functionality to toggle the "Searchable" switch. This would mean that a field not searchable at a particular point of time, can become searchable at another point of time. Is it possible though? ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/2 "2018-10-25T09:48:03Z")
It's not dynamic, no. You could setup a multi-field, where one is indexed and the other is not. Then your app could query one or the other based on the switch. ---
**Author:** ![hitesh-inbetween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@hitesh-inbetween](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hitesh-inbetween)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 12:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/3 "2018-10-25T12:22:47Z")
Hi Mark, The idea is to reduce the load on memory. And I already have multi field for numeric, date and text field to handle different usecase where user can change the type of data a field will hold. Any idea if this is possible? What I found online was to create a new index with the required field disabled and then reindex the data to the new index ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/4 "2018-10-25T21:35:46Z")
That is another option. ---
**Author:** ![hitesh-inbetween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@hitesh-inbetween](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hitesh-inbetween)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 9:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/5 "2018-10-30T09:28:29Z")
Hi @warkolm , Any chance toggling fielddata on fields might do the trick?The doc [here](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/fielddata.html) happens to say something similar. I am still trying this out. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/6 "2018-10-30T20:56:01Z")
Depends what version you are on, newer versions use less fielddata to reduce overall heap pressure. How much of a problem is this though? ---
**Author:** ![hitesh-inbetween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@hitesh-inbetween](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hitesh-inbetween)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/7 "2018-11-06T09:53:39Z")
I am using 6.3. And from the docs, I can presume that this might work. Didn't get a chance to dig deeper into the implementation. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/disable-field-index/153950/8 "2018-12-04T09:53:48Z")
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