# Reindexing : what happens to old index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 23, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851 "2015-10-23T12:37:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![adisajohnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@adisajohnson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/adisajohnson)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851/1 "2015-10-23T12:37:03Z")

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Started learning about elastic search today.

I am currently on the reindexing section of the guide: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/reindex.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/current/reindex.html)

and my questions are, after you are done reindexing the oldindex to the new index, what happens to the old index? I didnt quite get this part from reading the guide. Am guessing theres another step where you make a call to an api to delete the old index? or does the oldindex become some sort of an orphaned index in elasticsearch?

regards

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**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:** [October 23, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851/2 "2015-10-23T13:07:53Z")

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The old index will still there until you remove it.

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**Author:** ![adisajohnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@adisajohnson](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/adisajohnson)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 12:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851/3 "2015-10-27T12:11:46Z")

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thanks.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/reindexing-what-happens-to-old-index/32851/4 "2017-07-05T23:42:27Z")

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