# Modify index after creation **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/modify-index-after-creation/16057 "2014-02-27T19:45:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Giovanni\_Colapinto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/giovanni_colapinto/32/1703_2.png) [@Giovanni\_Colapinto](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Giovanni_Colapinto)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/modify-index-after-creation/16057/1 "2014-02-27T19:45:08Z")
Hello. A simple question, only to be secure of what I found on the web: is it possible to modify an index after creation? If true, what kind of modification is supported? Thank you Giovanni -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/315c2c6f-985a-4226-940c-95a5e7f4fd1b%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/315c2c6f-985a-4226-940c-95a5e7f4fd1b%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![brian\_yoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f1d935/32.png) [@brian\_yoder](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brian_yoder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/modify-index-after-creation/16057/2 "2014-02-27T20:32:00Z")
Giovanni, This list isn't exhaustive, but... the most useful index-level settings that can be modified for an existing index are refresh interval and number of replicas. You may add character filters, tokenizers, and analyzers to an existing index. You may add new fields but in general cannot change an existing field's mappings. However, I suspect you may be able to add new mappings to an existing field within its "fields":{} object. I have never actually tried this; I may soon since I'm now using 1.0.0. You may add new types with new fields. What I've actually done is to create a set of incompatible but useful mappings for different indices that I use in testing my understanding of Elasticsearch and to explore its nooks and crannies without affecting a production index. I then have a command-line tool that lets me create an index with a specified set of mappings, and then to update an existing index with a (superset, usually) of mappings. And for the update, I let Elsticsearch verify that the mappings are compatible; it will complain if it thinks something isn't right. For example, it won't let you change the "foo" field from a "long" to a "string". And this doesn't require a lot of data (or indeed, any data at all), so it's really easy to run this test on some locally created index in a test installation and verify the effects on production. Brian -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0074b2da-3975-4c12-a2cd-b0eac6cd6c05%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0074b2da-3975-4c12-a2cd-b0eac6cd6c05%40googlegroups.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![Giovanni\_Colapinto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/giovanni_colapinto/32/1703_2.png) [@Giovanni\_Colapinto](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Giovanni_Colapinto)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/modify-index-after-creation/16057/3 "2014-02-28T03:45:36Z")
Thank you Brian 🙂 On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 9:32 PM, InquiringMind [brian.from.fl@gmail.com](mailto:brian.from.fl@gmail.com)wrote: > Giovanni, > > This list isn't exhaustive, but... the most useful index-level settings > that can be modified for an existing index are refresh interval and number > of replicas. > > You may add character filters, tokenizers, and analyzers to an existing > index. > > You may add new fields but in general cannot change an existing field's > mappings. However, I suspect you may be able to add new mappings to an > existing field within its "fields":{} object. I have never actually tried > this; I may soon since I'm now using 1.0.0. > > You may add new types with new fields. > > What I've actually done is to create a set of incompatible but useful > mappings for different indices that I use in testing my understanding of > Elasticsearch and to explore its nooks and crannies without affecting a > production index. I then have a command-line tool that lets me create an > index with a specified set of mappings, and then to update an existing > index with a (superset, usually) of mappings. And for the update, I let > Elsticsearch verify that the mappings are compatible; it will complain if > it thinks something isn't right. For example, it won't let you change the > "foo" field from a "long" to a "string". And this doesn't require a lot of > data (or indeed, any data at all), so it's really easy to run this test on > some locally created index in a test installation and verify the effects on > production. > > Brian > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/h-ooLwLlHes/unsubscribe](https://groups.google.com/d/topic/elasticsearch/h-ooLwLlHes/unsubscribe). > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > To view this discussion on the web visit > [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0074b2da-3975-4c12-a2cd-b0eac6cd6c05%40googlegroups.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/0074b2da-3975-4c12-a2cd-b0eac6cd6c05%40googlegroups.com) > . > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). -- [www.syshell.net](http://www.syshell.net) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elasticsearch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:elasticsearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). To view this discussion on the web visit [https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAK%3D2fj%2BBtehS105e20H-\_MkMRhWDnmFngowuxsJOMdObb%2BHmUQ%40mail.gmail.com](https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elasticsearch/CAK%3D2fj%2BBtehS105e20H-_MkMRhWDnmFngowuxsJOMdObb%2BHmUQ%40mail.gmail.com). For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**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, 1:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/modify-index-after-creation/16057/4 "2017-07-06T01:46:41Z")