# Error starting watcher

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/error-starting-watcher/330143>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 17, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/error-starting-watcher/330143 "2023-04-17T14:53:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![6igwig](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/6igwig/32/88971_2.png) [@6igwig](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/6igwig)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/error-starting-watcher/330143/1 "2023-04-17T14:53:13Z")

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We upgraded to 8.7.0 yesterday, since then none of our watchers have executed. We just keep getting this message in the elastic logs: `error starting watcher`

I tried deleting the extra `.watcher-history-*` indices via updating the ILM like is post recommended: [Watcher can fail to restart in early version of 8.x · Issue #85508 · elastic/elasticsearch · GitHub](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/85508) but that did not do anything.

I also tried to put the watcher logs in debug mode with this command:

```auto
PUT _cluster/settings
{
  "persistent": {
    "logger.org.elasticsearch.xpack.watcher": "debug"
  }
}

```

but our cluster still is not generating any debug logs. What else can I try?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![6igwig](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/6igwig/32/88971_2.png) [@6igwig](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/6igwig)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/error-starting-watcher/330143/2 "2023-04-17T18:34:28Z")

</div>

I ended up deleting the .watches and .triggered\_watches indices and recreating them and watcher started executing again.

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<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:** [May 15, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/error-starting-watcher/330143/3 "2023-05-15T18:35:19Z")

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