# Update without index

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 25, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749 "2017-06-25T12:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alex\_Davidovich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Davidovich](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alex_Davidovich)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/1 "2017-06-25T12:12:45Z")

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Is it possible to update a document without knowing it's index?  
I have the document id and it's unique between all indexes.

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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:** [June 25, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/2 "2017-06-25T13:25:24Z")

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May be update by query API but it's less efficient than knowing the coordinates.

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**Author:** ![Alex\_Davidovich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Davidovich](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alex_Davidovich)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/3 "2017-06-25T14:56:28Z")

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I wrote this:

```
        UpdateByQueryRequestBuilder builder = UpdateByQueryAction.INSTANCE.newRequestBuilder(client());
        builder.script(new Script("ctx._source" + EventsConstants.REMAINING_TRIGGERS_STRING + "=" + event.getRemainingTriggersString()));
        builder.source().setQuery(QueryBuilders.termQuery(EventsConstants.ID, event.getId().toString()));

        if (builder.get() != null) {

```

and got failed to find action [org.elasticsearch.index.reindex.UpdateByQueryAction@5d096ed] to execute.

Can you please tell me what is wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alex\_Davidovich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Davidovich](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alex_Davidovich)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/4 "2017-06-26T14:14:35Z")

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anybody?

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 2:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/5 "2017-06-26T14:24:25Z")

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Why not simply first search for the document in order to get the index and then use that to perform the update? Invoking update-by-query for a single document seems like overkill...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alex\_Davidovich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Alex\_Davidovich](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Alex_Davidovich)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/6 "2017-06-26T14:39:17Z")

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Thought about that also.Didn't know what is better performance wise. Will search before the update. 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 24, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/update-without-index/90749/7 "2017-07-24T14:39:37Z")

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