# Templates added but reindexing existing data doesn't use them **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 14, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/templates-added-but-reindexing-existing-data-doesnt-use-them/9718 "2012-11-14T17:40:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brian\_yoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f1d935/32.png) [@brian\_yoder](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brian_yoder)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/templates-added-but-reindexing-existing-data-doesnt-use-them/9718/1 "2012-11-14T17:40:15Z")
I've finally gotten geo\_distance queries to function. Apparently, [http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/admin-indices-templates.htmlsays](http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide/reference/api/admin-indices-templates.htmlsays) that the config/templates subdirectory can be used to hold templates but that doesn't work on ES 19.10. So curl -XPUT works. But I do have two questions: 1. Should re-indexing existing data pick up the mappings in a newly added template, or is that done only when the index is initially created? I completely erased my current test data, and then reloaded it without storing the geo\_point mappings template. As expected, my geo\_distance queries failed with exceptions. So then I -XPUT the template and the mappings are seen. And as expected, the geo\_distance queries against the current data still fail. But when I re-indexed all of the data (scan + index each and every document), the geo\_distance queries still failed the same way. It was only when I deleted the index and then reloaded the data that the geo\_distance queries worked. 1. Does changing the indexing configuration automatically reindex existing data? Earlier, I was working to get the default analyzer to disable stopwords and add the snowball stemming. Really cool. Especially with one of Shay's posts that showed how to put this into my elasticsearch.yml file and have it enabled for all indices. So then I tried some migration test cases. I first stopped ES and rm -rf the data directory. I then restarted ES, bulk-loaded my data, and confirmed that indeed I could not find org=and because the built-in default analyzer defines AND as a stopword. Then I stopped ES and updated the elasticsearch.yml configuration with the overrides. But when I restarted ES and queried the existing data, I could now find org=and successfully. I didn't need to reindex. I even found org=sunny to match "Sunny's Sunglasses" (one of my stemming test cases). It's as if ES detected the updated \_default analyzer configuration and re-indexed my data for me as it started up. Is this a correct assumption? -- ---
**Author:** ![Ivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/df788c/32.png) [@Ivan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Ivan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/templates-added-but-reindexing-existing-data-doesnt-use-them/9718/2 "2012-11-14T18:03:16Z")
Quick answers inline. On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 9:40 AM, InquiringMind [brian.from.fl@gmail.com](mailto:brian.from.fl@gmail.com)wrote: > 1. Should re-indexing existing data pick up the mappings in a newly added > template, or is that done only when the index is initially created? The template is only read when the index is created. 1. Does changing the indexing configuration automatically reindex existing > data? Changing any configuration will not reindex existing data. Cheers, Ivan -- ---
**Author:** ![brian\_yoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f1d935/32.png) [@brian\_yoder](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/brian_yoder)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/templates-added-but-reindexing-existing-data-doesnt-use-them/9718/3 "2012-11-15T02:48:15Z")
Thanks for the quick response! I found out that the config/mappings/\_default subdirectory can hold mapping files that are read when an index is first created. So now I can store the geo\_point mappings in the code repo, deploy them with the other configs, and no need to use curl or other client to add them. All nodes need ES deployed, so being part of the install package makes it easy to keep them all seeing the same mappings. It would be nice if ES would let me specify a type of \_all or \* as it does with an index. But for now, this works very well. -- ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/templates-added-but-reindexing-existing-data-doesnt-use-them/9718/4 "2017-07-06T03:04:11Z")