# Failed to find metadata for existing index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 1, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190 "2019-05-01T10:23:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sinoohe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sinoohe/32/45365_2.png) [@sinoohe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sinoohe)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190/1 "2019-05-01T10:23:44Z")

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I'm having problem on starting elasticsearch  
I removed a folder by mistake in elasticsearch data folder(/usr/share/elasticsearch/data/nodes/0) and unfortunately it does not start again!!  
it throws exception. How can I solve this?

elasticsearch error log is as below:

````auto
"stacktrace": ["java.io.IOException: failed to find metadata for existing index microservice-2019.04.30 [location: 7bm7JXHSRlaSWDsS1Afm-g, generation: 62]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.MetaStateService.loadFullState(MetaStateService.java:99) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.upgradeMetaData(GatewayMetaState.java:148) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.<init>(GatewayMetaState.java:102) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:473) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:251) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap$5.<init>(Bootstrap.java:211) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:211) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:325) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:159) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:150) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124) [elasticsearch-cli-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) [elasticsearch-cli-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:115) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:92) [elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]"] }
{"type": "server", "timestamp": "2019-05-01T10:10:02,976+0000", "level": "WARN", "component": "o.e.b.ElasticsearchUncaughtExceptionHandler", "cluster.name": "docker-cluster", "node.name": "a3c13b205bd0", "message": "uncaught exception in thread [main]" , 
"stacktrace": ["org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.StartupException: ElasticsearchException[failed to bind service]; nested: IOException[failed to find metadata for existing index microservice-2019.04.30 [location: 7bm7JXHSRlaSWDsS1Afm-g, generation: 62]];",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:163) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.execute(Elasticsearch.java:150) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.EnvironmentAwareCommand.execute(EnvironmentAwareCommand.java:86) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.mainWithoutErrorHandling(Command.java:124) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.cli.Command.main(Command.java:90) ~[elasticsearch-cli-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:115) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:92) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"Caused by: org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException: failed to bind service",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:580) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:251) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap$5.<init>(Bootstrap.java:211) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:211) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:325) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:159) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"... 6 more",
"Caused by: java.io.IOException: failed to find metadata for existing index microservice-2019.04.30 [location: 7bm7JXHSRlaSWDsS1Afm-g, generation: 62]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.MetaStateService.loadFullState(MetaStateService.java:99) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.upgradeMetaData(GatewayMetaState.java:148) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.gateway.GatewayMetaState.<init>(GatewayMetaState.java:102) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:473) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.node.Node.<init>(Node.java:251) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap$5.<init>(Bootstrap.java:211) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:211) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.init(Bootstrap.java:325) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.init(Elasticsearch.java:159) ~[elasticsearch-7.0.0.jar:7.0.0]",
"... 6 more"] }```
````

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190/2 "2019-05-01T11:36:14Z")

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I can't think of an easy way to safely recover any of the data on this node. If you start a new node with an empty data path then Elasticsearch will rebuild any missing shard copies from the other nodes in the cluster.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sinoohe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sinoohe/32/45365_2.png) [@sinoohe](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/sinoohe)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190/3 "2019-05-02T06:57:42Z")

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> [@sinoohe](#):
>
> microservice-2019.04.30

Thanks for your reply David,  
I can't add new node, as my elasticsearch is failed on boot.  
Is there any way I could remove `microservice-2019.04.30` index from files?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DavidTurner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/davidturner/32/22453_2.png) [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190/4 "2019-05-02T07:52:08Z")

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> [@sinoohe](#):
>
> Is there any way I could remove `microservice-2019.04.30` index from files?

Sorry, not really, there will be references to this index in other metadata files so if you remove the index then those cross-references will be broken and the node will still fail to start. Modifying the contents of the data directory by hand isn't really supported.

If you change the `path.data` directory to another, empty, directory then Elasticsearch will make a brand-new node and will then recover any missing shards from the redundant copies held on other nodes in the cluster.

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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 30, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/failed-to-find-metadata-for-existing-index/179190/5 "2019-05-30T07:52:21Z")

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