# Registry Error Upgrading Beats, Safe to Delete Registry File? **URL:** \ **Category:** Beats\ **Tags:** filebeat\ **Created:** [April 9, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/registry-error-upgrading-beats-safe-to-delete-registry-file/127394 "2018-04-09T22:06:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 2
**Author:** ![aidanhl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9e8a1a/32.png) [@aidanhl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/aidanhl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/registry-error-upgrading-beats-safe-to-delete-registry-file/127394/2 "2018-04-09T23:41:20Z")
There appears to be conflicting answers on the discussion board. One suggesting to delete the regfile to fix the issue, and one saying that deleting the regfile is not a safe procedure. > [@Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error loading state: Error decoding states: EOF](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exiting-could-not-start-registrar-error-loading-state-error-decoding-states-eof/74430): > > My environment: # cat /etc/redhat-release Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo) # rpm -q filebeat filebeat-5.2.0-1.x86\_64 # systemctl: # systemctl stop filebeat # systemctl start filebeat # echo $? 0 # systemctl status filebeat ● filebeat.service - filebeat Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/filebeat.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Wed 2017-02-08 15:32:17 EST; 8min ago Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/b… > [@Deleting Filebeat Registry File](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-filebeat-registry-file/46112/6): > > This issue should potentially solve this problem: [https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/1022](https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/1022) Please have a look and let me know if this would help. --- _[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/registry-error-upgrading-beats-safe-to-delete-registry-file/127394)._