# Index lifecycle policy not being applied on indices after updating **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [April 23, 2026, 9:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004 "2026-04-23T09:34:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YousefNein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yousefnein/32/145549_2.png) [@YousefNein](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/YousefNein)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/1 "2026-04-23T09:34:13Z")
As the title suggests, I have updated an index lifecycle policy, and the old indices are still stuck with the old settings. I have tried refreshing the index, clearing the cache, removing the ILM policy and adding it again, and forcing the next step through dev tools. Only the two last points worked, but they take too much time sometimes. Is there a better solution for this? Thank you. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/6/16f186aa2799fdb9b7edc48a113bfc76434fcd5f.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/7/e/7e0a82fa5cf7a689f426de9627a5b68709181073.png) ---
**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/2 "2026-04-23T13:08:19Z")
Can you provide more context of what exactly did you change? Your first screenshot shows an index using the `logs@lifecycle` policy, than you had a screenshot of the `metrics@lifecycle` policy. It is not clear what you had done. ---
**Author:** ![YousefNein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yousefnein/32/145549_2.png) [@YousefNein](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/YousefNein)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 1:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/3 "2026-04-23T13:12:49Z")
Apologies, meant to post that one ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/d/2/d2639263ea5a5a64a981bb6a5e5791ba9ed64cbf.png) What I changed was that I added a deletion phase to happen after 15 days. As you can see, the index has been created more than 15 days ago and it still doesn't want to got to the delete phase. ---
**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/4 "2026-04-23T13:44:21Z")
> [@YousefNein](#): > > What I changed was that I added a deletion phase to happen after 15 days. As you can see, the index has been created more than 15 days ago and it still doesn't want to got to the delete phase. And what were the previous setting? Can you share how your policy currently looks like? Did you change the policy to rollover when it reaches 15 days or 50 GB and then delete the data after 15 days? If yes, the delete will happen 15 days **after** rollover, the index you shared seems to be rolled over on 2026-04-20, so it has not passed 15 days yet, the delete considers the rollover date, not the creation date. If you want to delete as soon as it rolls over, change the delete to use 0 or 1 day. ---
**Author:** ![YousefNein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yousefnein/32/145549_2.png) [@YousefNein](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/YousefNein)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 2:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/5 "2026-04-23T14:27:04Z")
I changed the maximum index age to be 15 days from 30 (Default) and added the deletion to be also 15 days. Wait. The deletion time count starts after rolling over? That's new. Could you please share a reference? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![leandrojmp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/leandrojmp/32/107231_2.png) [@leandrojmp](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/leandrojmp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 3:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/index-lifecycle-policy-not-being-applied-on-indices-after-updating/386004/6 "2026-04-23T15:00:55Z")
> [@YousefNein](#): > > The deletion time count starts after rolling over? Yes, this is how ILM always worked, you can check it in this documentation [here](https://www.elastic.co/docs/manage-data/lifecycle/index-lifecycle-management/index-lifecycle#ilm-phase-transitions). There is this note: > If an index has been rolled over, then the min\_age value is **relative to the time the index was rolled over** , not the index creation time. If you have a rollover, all phases after hot in a policy will only start counting after that rollover. If you check the request of an ILM policy you will see that the `delete` phase uses `min_age`, so if you configure it to delete after 15 days, the `min_age` will be `15d`, counting from rollover date. On the rollover documentation you have also an [example in the end](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/elasticsearch/index-lifecycle-actions/ilm-rollover#_rollover_condition_blocks_phase_transition) mentioning this.