# Elasticsearch bulk index request failing with error “if \_id is specified it must not be empty”

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 12, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778 "2021-01-12T03:26:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![surenraju](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/surenraju/32/62606_2.png) [@surenraju](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/surenraju)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778/1 "2021-01-12T03:26:14Z")

</div>

I am trying to bulk insert records to index asset\_inventory\_dev index. Elastic search is returning error saying “if \_id is specified it must not be empty”.

Following is the request i tried from Kibana dev tools. I can see the \_id fields are having some valid values.

> Elasticstack version: v 7.10.1

```
POST /asset_inventory_dev/_bulk
    {"index":{"_index":"asset_inventory_dev","_id":"62"}}
    {"@timestamp":"2021-01-11T09:41:01.26+00:00","_id":"62","computer_id":"1065816795","computer_name":"PC123475367"}

```

Response:

> ```
> {
> "took" : 0,
> "ingest_took" : 0,
> "errors" : true,
> "items" : [
> {
> "index" : {
> "_index" : "asset_inventory_dev",
> "_type" : "_doc",
> "_id" : "",
> "status" : 400,
> "error" : {
> "type" : "illegal_argument_exception",
> "reason" : "if _id is specified it must not be empty"
> }
> }
> }
> ]
> }
> 
> ```

What is that i am missing in the above request?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [January 12, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778/2 "2021-01-12T03:36:12Z")

</div>

You have `_id` defined twice, I would remove the second one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![surenraju](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/surenraju/32/62606_2.png) [@surenraju](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/surenraju)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778/3 "2021-01-12T06:01:01Z")

</div>

I tried removing the second \_id field but error persists.

```
POST _bulk

```

{"index":{"\_index":"asset\_inventory\_dev","\_id":"62"}}  
{"@timestamp":"2021-01-11T09:41:01.26+00:00","computer\_id":"1065816795","computer\_name":"PC123475367"}

Response:

> ```
> {
> "took" : 0,
> "ingest_took" : 0,
> "errors" : true,
> "items" : [
> {
> "index" : {
> "_index" : "asset_inventory_dev",
> "_type" : "_doc",
> "_id" : "",
> "status" : 400,
> "error" : {
> "type" : "illegal_argument_exception",
> "reason" : "if _id is specified it must not be empty"
> }
> }
> }
> ]
> }
> 
> ```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [January 12, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778/4 "2021-01-12T06:29:47Z")

</div>

I just tried that exact same thing on a 7.10.1 cluster;

```auto
{
  "took" : 143,
  "errors" : false,
  "items" : [
    {
      "index" : {
        "_index" : "asset_inventory_dev",
        "_type" : "_doc",
        "_id" : "62",
        "_version" : 1,
        "result" : "created",
        "_shards" : {
          "total" : 2,
          "successful" : 1,
          "failed" : 0
        },
        "_seq_no" : 0,
        "_primary_term" : 1,
        "status" : 201
      }
    }
  ]
}

```

What version are you on?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 6:30am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-bulk-index-request-failing-with-error-if-id-is-specified-it-must-not-be-empty/260778/5 "2021-02-09T06:30:02Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.