# Does \_split actually splits data or just copies it across shards

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-split-actually-splits-data-or-just-copies-it-across-shards/315164
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [September 26, 2022, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-split-actually-splits-data-or-just-copies-it-across-shards/315164 "2022-09-26T11:26:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 6

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### Author: ![carly.richmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carly.richmond/32/104935_2.png) [@carly.richmond](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/carly.richmond)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-split-actually-splits-data-or-just-copies-it-across-shards/315164/6 "2022-09-26T15:50:13Z")

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[Looking at this answer in another thread](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cloned-split-indexes-take-double-disk-space-when-increasing-shards/254342/4), which is referenced in the discussion posted by @Christian_Dahlqvist, the shards are cloned and then docs are deleted in a similar way to delete by query.

The thread referenced above does walk through an example which may help explain further.

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