# Upgrading a field to multi-field doesn't work

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [October 6, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672 "2015-10-06T01:40:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dash](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dash)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672/1 "2015-10-06T01:40:24Z")

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Hi,

Need some help in figuring out how to upgrade a field to multi-field properly. I am using Elasticsearch-1.7.2 on linux.

Here is the put json

```
{
    "filelog": {
        "properties": {
            "signals": {
                "type": "multi_field",
                "fields": {
                    "signals": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "index": "analyzed"
                    },
                    "raw": {
                        "index": "not_analyzed",
                        "type": "string"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

```

But doing get, I get the following field-definition back

```
{
    .... `"signals": {
        "type": "string",
        "fields": {
            "raw": {
                "index": "not_analyzed",
                "type": "string"
            }
        }
    }
}

```

Note that the type has changed to "string" instead of multi-field, and there is no "signals" field in the "fields" section. When I query for signals.raw it doesn't work either.

What did I do wrong while updating the mapping?

Thanks,  
Dash.

---

<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:** [October 6, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672/2 "2015-10-06T03:25:54Z")

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The later is the right way to define multifield.  
Elasticsearch has just accepted the "old" form and adapted it to the new form.

Did you reindex your documents then?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dash](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dash)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672/3 "2015-10-06T15:53:31Z")

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Thanks David. The syntax makes sense now, I must have been looking at the old documentation all this while.

I didn't reindex - I was hoping that I didn't have to do it for only "upgrading" the mapping. That turns out to be a false assumption.

Thanks for the response.

---

<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, 11:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-a-field-to-multi-field-doesnt-work/31672/4 "2017-07-05T23:46:31Z")

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