# Watcher not working (status code : 500)

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-not-working-status-code-500/72572>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-alerting\
**Created:** [January 24, 2017, 6:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-not-working-status-code-500/72572 "2017-01-24T06:49:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rajasekaran\_Mari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Rajasekaran\_Mari](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rajasekaran_Mari)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 6:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-not-working-status-code-500/72572/1 "2017-01-24T06:49:11Z")

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Please suggest how can i create/start watcher index? i am getting below error:

i deleted watcher index to resolve an issue and its not working since then, i updated elasticsearch.yml for: watcher.index.rest.direct\_access: true

{  
"error": {  
"root\_cause": [  
{  
"type": "remote\_transport\_exception",  
"reason": "[es-master-node][1.1.1.1:9300][cluster:admin/watcher/watch/put]"  
}  
],  
"type": "illegal\_state\_exception",  
"reason": "not started"  
},  
"status": 500  
}

GET .watches/\_stats: (doesn't show any failure)

GET watcher/stats  
{  
"error": {  
"root\_cause": [  
{  
"type": "index\_not\_found\_exception",  
"reason": "no such index",  
"index": "\_watcher",  
"resource.type": "index\_or\_alias",  
"[resource.id](http://resource.id)": "\_watcher"  
}  
],  
"type": "index\_not\_found\_exception",  
"reason": "no such index",  
"index": "\_watcher",  
"resource.type": "index\_or\_alias",  
"[resource.id](http://resource.id)": "\_watcher"  
},  
"status": 404  
}

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 8:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-not-working-status-code-500/72572/2 "2017-01-24T08:19:29Z")

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Please stop duplicating posts, because you do not get an answer within 30 minutes. I will close this topic. Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![spinscale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/spinscale/32/25011_2.png) [@spinscale](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/spinscale)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 8:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watcher-not-working-status-code-500/72572/3 "2017-01-24T08:19:36Z")

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