# Remove deleted docs

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [April 16, 2017, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497 "2017-04-16T09:22:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![henrilabarre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/henrilabarre/32/16909_2.png) [@henrilabarre](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/henrilabarre)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497/1 "2017-04-16T09:22:29Z")

</div>

Hi how can I remove those deleted docs from elasticsearch ?

```
curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/_stats/docs?&pretty'
{
  "_shards" : {
    "total" : 10,
    "successful" : 5,
    "failed" : 0
  },
  "_all" : {
    "primaries" : {
      "docs" : {
        "count" : 10710236,
        "deleted" : 2414335
      }
    },
    "total" : {
      "docs" : {
        "count" : 10710236,
        "deleted" : 2414335
      }
    }
  },
  "indices" : {
    "sirene" : {
      "primaries" : {
        "docs" : {
          "count" : 10710236,
          "deleted" : 2414335
        }
      },
      "total" : {
        "docs" : {
          "count" : 10710236,
          "deleted" : 2414335
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

```

Thanks for your inputs!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [April 16, 2017, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497/2 "2017-04-16T10:17:01Z")

</div>

They are removed when a merge is happening.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![henrilabarre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/henrilabarre/32/16909_2.png) [@henrilabarre](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/henrilabarre)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497/3 "2017-04-16T11:06:43Z")

</div>

Thanks

I try `'http://localhost:9200/sirene/_forcemerge?only_expunge_deletes=true'`

and it seems to be the solution!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/remove-deleted-docs/82497/4 "2017-05-14T11:13:01Z")

</div>

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