# It seems impossible to modify/delete an index after setting blocks.read\_only=true

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/it-seems-impossible-to-modify-delete-an-index-after-setting-blocks-read-only-true/23066>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 2, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/it-seems-impossible-to-modify-delete-an-index-after-setting-blocks-read-only-true/23066 "2015-04-02T14:14:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BradVido](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bradvido/32/741_2.png) [@BradVido](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BradVido)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/it-seems-impossible-to-modify-delete-an-index-after-setting-blocks-read-only-true/23066/1 "2015-04-02T14:14:25Z")

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I have an index, let's call it myindex, and I updated the settings to make  
it read-only like so:  
PUT myindex/\_settings {"blocks": { "read\_only": "true" }}  
This worked as expected, but now I am stuck! I need to delete this index,  
but I cannot modify this index because blocks.read\_only also disables  
meta-data updates.

I tried to do undo it like so, but it failed:

PUT myindex/\_settings {"blocks": { "read\_only": "false" }}

ClusterBlockException[blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/5/index read-only (api)];];

So I thought closing it first would help, but that failed too:

POST myindex/\_close

ClusterBlockException[blocked by: [FORBIDDEN/5/index read-only (api)];];

Deleting the index failed with the same exception.

Am I stuck with this index until then end of time!?!

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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:** [July 6, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/it-seems-impossible-to-modify-delete-an-index-after-setting-blocks-read-only-true/23066/2 "2017-07-06T00:22:03Z")

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