# Reindex causes mapper\_parsing\_exception **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 31, 2020, 8:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328 "2020-01-31T08:59:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Hardy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gavin_hardy/32/46713_2.png) [@Gavin\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gavin_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/1 "2020-01-31T08:59:19Z")
Hello, We are currently using Functionbeat to create our templates, and yesterday we started seeing errors. Looking at the index's that were affected, it appears someone had create a custom template, which caused the errors. So I put the index back to using the original template, and now when I go to reindex the old index, to use the updated template, it is complaining about the following error. ```auto { "source": { "index": "is-prod-fb-2020.01.29-000235" }, "dest": { "index": "is-prod-fb-2020.01.29-000235-tmp" } } ``` ```auto { "index": "is-fb-2020.01.29-000235-tmp", "type": "_doc", "id": "cTiX8W8BNtz7_4jyhWdW", "cause": { "type": "mapper_parsing_exception", "reason": "object mapping for [error] tried to parse field [error] as object, but found a concrete value" }, "status": 400 } ] ``` I understand the data inside the index, is of type string, and not object. Which is why it wont index, but my question is, how can I make it index, or change the data to be Object, without losing the index? Any help is much appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Hardy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gavin_hardy/32/46713_2.png) [@Gavin\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gavin_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/2 "2020-01-31T09:04:56Z")
Just to add a note, all new shards use the updated template are working as expected, its just 4 shards that are still causing issues due to using the old template. ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/3 "2020-01-31T09:09:14Z")
See quick solution is to use [ignore\_malformed](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/ignore-malformed.html) in the mapping so a document gets indexed. However if you are reindexing into a new index, what prevents you from fixing the mapping in that index. I might be missing something there... also if the initial structure is wrong, you can use a script to fix the document structure and move that string based error field somewhere else and then you would end up with clean, searchable data. ---
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Hardy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gavin_hardy/32/46713_2.png) [@Gavin\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gavin_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/4 "2020-01-31T09:21:53Z")
So, when I try to fix the mapping in those index, I get this error ```auto { "properties": { "error": { "type": "object" } } } ``` Which throws this error ```auto "error": { "root_cause": [ { "type": "remote_transport_exception", "reason": "[instance-0000000021][172.17.0.32:19849][indices:admin/mapping/put]" } ], "type": "illegal_argument_exception", "reason": "mapper [error] of different type, current_type [text], merged_type [ObjectMapper]" }, "status": 400 } ``` ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/5 "2020-01-31T09:33:19Z")
you cannot change the mapping field type of an existing index, you need to reindex. ---
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Hardy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gavin_hardy/32/46713_2.png) [@Gavin\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gavin_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/6 "2020-01-31T09:36:32Z")
Then I just get the error above when trying to reindex. Lost at what to do ☹ ---
**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/7 "2020-01-31T09:48:00Z")
have you created the destination index with your new mapping first and verified that the mapping is what you expect it to be? ---
**Author:** ![Gavin\_Hardy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gavin_hardy/32/46713_2.png) [@Gavin\_Hardy](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Gavin_Hardy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/8 "2020-01-31T09:50:05Z")
Hey, how do I create a destination index with the new mapping? When I updated the index to use the new template, I forced the index to roll\_over, and confirmed all new shards worked as expected, I just have these 4 shards, that are still using the old template, that are not working. ```auto POST /is-prod-fb/_rollover { "conditions": { "max_age": "1d", "max_size": "1gb" } } ``` ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindex-causes-mapper-parsing-exception/217328/9 "2020-02-28T10:00:36Z")
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