# Problem with Deleting old indices using curator
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 11, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635 "2018-07-11T19:13:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ELK\_developer99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ELK_developer99)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/1 "2018-07-11T19:13:45Z")
Trying to delete old indices using curator. I have indices in the following format:
{name}-{%m%d}. For example: "john-0709" or "jane-0702". Here is my action file:
actions:
1:
action: delete\_indices
```
filters:
# - filtertype: pattern
# kind: prefix
# value: .kibana
# exclude: True
- filtertype: pattern
kind: prefix
value: john
- filtertype: age
source: name
direction: older
timestring: '%m%d'
unit: days
unit_count: 10
exclude:
```
* * *
However, it ends up deleting all indices (--dry-run) irrespective of the date.
What am I missing?
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/2 "2018-07-11T19:29:20Z")
I suggest running with a DEBUG `loglevel` and run with `--dry-run` again. It will provide the UNIX epoch time stamps in the log files, and why it says index `x` is older than your set point.
---
### Author:  [@ELK\_developer99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ELK_developer99)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/3 "2018-07-11T19:42:54Z")
curator --debug loglevel --config ~curator.yml ~/tmp/del\_old\_indices.yml --dry-run
gives me an error. Is that the right usage?
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/4 "2018-07-11T20:58:09Z")
`loglevel` is set in the `curator.yml` file:
```auto
logging:
loglevel: DEBUG
```
---
### Author:  [@zqc0512](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zqc0512)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/5 "2018-07-12T03:01:30Z")
> [@ELK\_developer99](#):
>
> source: name
try
source: creation\_date
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/6 "2018-07-12T13:24:57Z")
`creation_date` _may_ help. If the indices were not created at the same time as the dates indicated in the index names, it will not, however. That's why I suggested debug logging first.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/problem-with-deleting-old-indices-using-curator/139635/7 "2018-08-09T13:25:09Z")
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