# Object mapping \[categories\] can't be changed from nested to non-nested **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [May 14, 2020, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591 "2020-05-14T09:07:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrey1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@andrey1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrey1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/1 "2020-05-14T09:07:27Z")
Hi, I've got a legacy a project with old version of Elasticsearch and trying to get it working with ES 7.6.2. And encountered an error which I can't understand what is wrong. There is big index definition so I quote only parts which seem related with error. So definition of index is: ```auto PUT my_index { "mappings": { "properties": { "categories": { "type": "nested", "properties": { "cpath": { "type": "keyword" }, "data": { "properties": { "name": { "type": "object" } } }, "id": { "type": "integer" }, "level": { "type": "integer" }, "name": { "properties": { "de": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "german" }, "en": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "english" }, "fr": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "french" } } } } } } } } ``` And it's object which I'm trying to add into the index: ```auto POST my_index/product/_bulk {"index":{"_id":324767}} {"categories": [{"id": "16697","cpath": "16697","level": "0","name": {"en": "BlaBla","de": "BlaBla", "fr": "BlaBla"}, "data": {"name": {"en": "BlaBla", "de": "BlaBla", "fr": "BlaBla"}}}]} ``` ES returns error: illegal\_argument\_exception - object mapping [categories] can't be changed from nested to non-nested. What can be a reason of this error and how it can be fixed? Please help. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 10:03am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/2 "2020-05-14T10:03:34Z")
Welcome! Could you provide a full recreation script as described in [About the Elasticsearch category](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/about-the-elasticsearch-category/21). It will help to better understand what you are doing. Please, try to keep the example as simple as possible. A full reproduction script will help readers to understand, reproduce and if needed fix your problem. It will also most likely help to get a faster answer. ---
**Author:** ![andrey1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@andrey1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrey1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 11:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/3 "2020-05-14T11:48:04Z")
Hello, The full script is very big because it contains tens of fields, a lot of analyzers etc. So I kept only a quote related with this error. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 12:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/4 "2020-05-14T12:03:49Z")
As said: > [@dadoonet](#): > > Please, try to keep the example as simple as possible. Just remove the unneeded parts. ---
**Author:** ![andrey1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@andrey1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrey1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 12:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/5 "2020-05-14T12:16:21Z")
Then it's done. There is request which displays a current structure of mapping for "categories" field and request which tries to add document into the index. I think it's enough. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 12:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/6 "2020-05-14T12:30:50Z")
I can not just copy and paste your script to run it in Kibana dev console. As we wrote in the [About the Elasticsearch category](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/about-the-elasticsearch-category/21) guide, could you provide something like: ```auto DELETE index PUT index/_doc/1 { "foo": "bar" } GET index/_search { "query": { "match": { "foo": "bar" } } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![andrey1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@andrey1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrey1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/7 "2020-05-14T15:26:39Z")
Ok, I corrected my requests. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/8 "2020-05-14T16:40:50Z")
So this script works: ```auto DELETE my_index PUT my_index { "mappings": { "properties": { "categories": { "type": "nested", "properties": { "cpath": { "type": "keyword" }, "data": { "properties": { "name": { "type": "object" } } }, "id": { "type": "integer" }, "level": { "type": "integer" }, "name": { "properties": { "de": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "german" }, "en": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "english" }, "fr": { "type": "text", "analyzer": "french" } } } } } } } } POST my_index/_bulk {"index":{"_id":324767}} {"categories": [{"id": "16697","cpath": "16697","level": "0","name": {"en": "BlaBla","de": "BlaBla", "fr": "BlaBla"}, "data": {"name": {"en": "BlaBla", "de": "BlaBla", "fr": "BlaBla"}}}]} ``` Please note that I removed `product` from `POST my_index/product/_bulk` as you should not use it anymore. If you want to use it, you must use `_doc` instead as this is the default type name. So `POST my_index/_doc/_bulk`. ---
**Author:** ![andrey1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@andrey1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrey1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/9 "2020-05-14T19:55:00Z")
Unfortunately, this solution won't fit in my case. In my system there is indexing 4 different types of documents. Though they have the same type of fields, each document has own set of fields and, what more important, they can use the same IDs. So I need a dividing documents by types. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/10 "2020-05-14T21:02:08Z")
You must read this then: [https://www.elastic.co/blog/removal-of-mapping-types-elasticsearch](https://www.elastic.co/blog/removal-of-mapping-types-elasticsearch) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/object-mapping-categories-cant-be-changed-from-nested-to-non-nested/232591/11 "2020-06-11T21:02:10Z")
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