# Unable to delete documents from index when using logstash output plugin
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [June 29, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303 "2017-06-29T14:56:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@truesecure](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/truesecure)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303/1 "2017-06-29T14:56:08Z")
My logstash plugin isn't deleting the docs in the index. It appears to be ignoring the document\_id it is being passed, and instead just uses the variable name (as opposed to the value).
I have the following configuration in my logstash config:
output {
elasticsearch {
hosts =\> "10.10.10.128:9200"
index =\> "my\_index"
document\_type =\> "my\_doc"
document\_id =\> "%{my\_id}"
action =\> "delete"
}
}
And I see this in the logs:
[2017-06-29T09:19:37,727][DEBUG][logstash.pipeline] output received {"message"=\>"{"my\_id":"1:4656476"}"}}
and then ...
[2017-06-29T09:19:37,734][DEBUG][org.apache.http.wire] http-outgoing-0 \>\> "{"delete":{"\_id":"%{my\_id}","\_index":"my\_index","\_type":"my\_doc","\_routing":null}}"
Notice this (from above):
"\_id":"%{my\_id}"
I would have expected it to have used the actual value and read something like:
"\_id":"1:4656476"
Because it doesn't use the actual value, it doesn't delete anything from the index.
What am I doing wrong?
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303/2 "2017-06-29T18:16:47Z")
> [2017-06-29T09:19:37,727][DEBUG][logstash.pipeline] output received {"message"=\>"{"my\_id":"1:4656476"}"}}
This suggests that your events don't have a `my_id` field but that the `message` field contains `{"my_id":"1:4656476"}`, indicating that you need a json filter or a `codec => json` or `codec => json_lines` setting in your input plugin in order to deserialize the JSON payload.
---
### Author:  [@truesecure](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/truesecure)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2017, 2:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303/3 "2017-06-30T02:33:40Z")
That was it! Thanks for your help.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-delete-documents-from-index-when-using-logstash-output-plugin/91303/4 "2017-07-28T02:34:31Z")
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