# Unexpected number of hits with scroll search

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [August 1, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934 "2016-08-01T21:43:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![csquire](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/csquire/32/11150_2.png) [@csquire](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/csquire)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934/1 "2016-08-01T21:43:56Z")

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When I specify a 'size' for a scroll search, based on the documentation I've seen, I expect to get back \* results, but what I'm seeing is just results. When I run the following query as a test, I only get 1 hit returned:

/\_search?scroll=1m&size=1

I am seeing the same results using the Java TransportClient, trying to get 50 results per shard (I only got a total of 50 back). Am I missing something?

This is a ES 2.3.1 cluster w/ around ~1900 primary shards across ~290 indexes.

Thanks!  
-Craig

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**Author:** ![1222kkk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/1222kkk/32/23635_2.png) [@1222kkk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/1222kkk)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934/2 "2016-08-02T07:16:06Z")

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size :The number of hits to return. Defaults to 10.

[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.3/search-uri-request.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/2.3/search-uri-request.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![csquire](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/csquire/32/11150_2.png) [@csquire](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/csquire)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934/3 "2016-08-02T11:56:59Z")

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Unfortunately, my understanding is that scroll is a special case. The documentation on using scrolls in the Java API contains a special note regarding size and I have seen this discussed in various GitHub issues as well.

[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/java-api/current/java-search-scrolling.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/java-api/current/java-search-scrolling.html)

> <https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/18253>

-Craig

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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:** [July 5, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-number-of-hits-with-scroll-search/56934/4 "2017-07-05T22:30:48Z")

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