# Using \_\_missing\_\_ on a field that can not exists, causes shards to fail

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using---missing---on-a-field-that-can-not-exists-causes-shards-to-fail/36304>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [December 3, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using---missing---on-a-field-that-can-not-exists-causes-shards-to-fail/36304 "2015-12-03T16:15:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lotti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/lotti/32/6327_2.png) [@Lotti](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Lotti)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using---missing---on-a-field-that-can-not-exists-causes-shards-to-fail/36304/1 "2015-12-03T16:15:30Z")

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Hello guys! Elasticsearch super newbie here!

I found that querying on Kibana with \_\_missing\_\_ keyword on a field that can not exists (some documents have that field, others don't), make my shards fail (e.g.: only 10 on 73 shards successful). It reports to me this error for each shard which failed.

```
{
  "index": "logstash-15a5dae8-d225-43b3-80ef-d5f8690d562c-2015.12.03",
  "shard": 0,
  "status": 400,
  "reason": "RemoteTransportException[[jun27-prod-elasticsearch-data-flznpfcu][inet[/172.17.0.1:9300]][indices:data/read/search[phase/query]]]; nested: SearchParseException[[logstash-15a5dae8-d225-43b3-80ef-d5f8690d562c-2015.12.03][0]: from[-1],size[-1]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [{\"facets\":{\"0\":{\"date_histogram\":{\"field\":\"@timestamp\",\"interval\":\"30s\"},\"global\":true,\"facet_filter\":{\"fquery\":{\"query\":{\"filtered\":{\"query\":{\"query_string\":{\"query\":\"NOT __missing__ :method\"}},\"filter\":{\"bool\":{\"must\":[{\"range\":{\"@timestamp\":{\"from\":1449155039942,\"to\":1449158639943}}}]}}}}}}}},\"size\":0}]]]; nested: FacetPhaseExecutionException[Facet [0]: (key) field [@timestamp] not found]; "
}

```

Do you know any solution about it? It is a normal behavior?

I've also found that using \_\_missing\_\_ on a field with is never missing, doesn't make shards fail.

Thank you for your help.

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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, 11:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using---missing---on-a-field-that-can-not-exists-causes-shards-to-fail/36304/2 "2017-07-05T23:33:49Z")

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