# Upgrading from 8.x to 9.x with \_source disabled **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [March 4, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388 "2025-03-04T17:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kpachar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kpachar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kpachar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/1 "2025-03-04T17:24:41Z")
Hello, I am exploring disabling \_source for some of my indices. The documentation has warnings about doing that. > **[\_source field | Elasticsearch Guide \[8.17\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/mapping-source-field.html)** One specific line in the warnings is not very clear to me: "The ability to reindex from one Elasticsearch index to another, either to change mappings or analysis, or to upgrade an index to a new major version." Does it mean that if I have \_source disabled on an index in my ES 8.x cluster, I will not have the ability to upgrade to ES 9.x? Will I have to delete the index before upgrading to ES 9.x? Thank you ---
**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:** [March 4, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/2 "2025-03-04T17:34:13Z")
Elasticsearch can read indices created in the previous major version so if the index was created in Elsticsearch 8.x you should be able to use this in Elasticsearch 9.x. The issue comes when you in the future move to Elasticsearch 10.x, as this likely will not be able to work with indices created in version 8.x. ---
**Author:** ![kpachar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kpachar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kpachar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/4 "2025-03-04T17:45:33Z")
Thank you. I still don't get the implication of this phrase though, "or to upgrade an index to a new major version." ---
**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:** [March 4, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/5 "2025-03-04T17:51:49Z")
If you want to upgrade a cluster with indices created in 8.x to 10.x, you will need to reindex these, which is not possible if source is disabled. Also note that disabling source also can affect how you can use these indices in Kibana. ---
**Author:** ![Mehar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mehar/32/141795_2.png) [@Mehar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mehar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 7:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/6 "2025-03-04T19:31:55Z")
Thanks for the clarification, it will help others if you can update the document to reflect this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![xeraa](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/xeraa/32/48181_2.png) [@xeraa](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/xeraa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/upgrading-from-8-x-to-9-x-with-source-disabled/375388/7 "2025-03-05T03:23:28Z")
There might be a bit more leniency coming there 🙂 > > > This change allows indices created in version 7.x to be opened as read-only indi…ces in a 9.0 cluster. It requires the corresponding change in 8.18 (#120105). To be opened as read-only, indices must have be regular, searchable snapshot or legacy indices created in a N-2 version. They must also have the \`index.blocks.write\` setting and regular indices require the additional \`index.verified\_read\_only\`. > > This pull request contains changes in the \`build-tools\` and \`build-tools-internal\` folders that force testing with the #120105 change. They can be ignored for reviews and those changes will be reverted before merging. > > Relates 10320