# How to enable the deletion of .watches index dynamically?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 13, 2017, 11:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374 "2017-11-13T11:22:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sarra\_Bouhenni](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sarra_Bouhenni)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2017, 11:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374/1 "2017-11-13T11:22:50Z")
Hello,
I'm having this index with a red status from yesterday and since I didn't create any watches yet, I found that deleting it would be the best solution but when trying to do so, I get the following error:
```auto
{
"error": "This endpoint is not supported for DELETE on .watches index.",
"status": 400
}
```
However, after some researches, I found this solution [[How to rebuild .watches](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-rebuild-watches/66762/3?u=sarra_bouhenni) ].
How can I apply this configuration dynamically without restarting the cluster please?
---
### Author:  [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374/2 "2017-11-13T13:55:31Z")
Hey,
this is just a safeguard to not accidentally delete the watches index, as this would divert with the in memory data structure. There is however a small workaround. **After** stopping watcher, you could just delete the index `.watche*` and this would work.
--Alex
---
### Author:  [@Sarra\_Bouhenni](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sarra_Bouhenni)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374/3 "2017-11-13T14:52:37Z")
Thank you @spinscale, you saved me a lot of time!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-enable-the-deletion-of-watches-index-dynamically/107374/4 "2017-12-11T14:52:44Z")
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