# Watches not writing to wacher history

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [March 9, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364 "2023-03-09T13:28:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sagi\_Bensimon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sagi_bensimon/32/98588_2.png) [@Sagi\_Bensimon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sagi_Bensimon)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364/1 "2023-03-09T13:28:57Z")

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.watcher-history indices aren't being created and are also missing.  
There aren't any errors and `action.auto_create_index` isn't set anywhere.

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**Author:** ![Keith\_Massey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/keith_massey/32/83666_2.png) [@Keith\_Massey](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Keith_Massey)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364/2 "2023-03-09T14:41:13Z")

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You have watches that are working as expected, but `.watcher-history` is not being populated? What version are you on?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sagi\_Bensimon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/sagi_bensimon/32/98588_2.png) [@Sagi\_Bensimon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sagi_Bensimon)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364/3 "2023-03-09T16:57:11Z")

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We're on 8.6.  
Yes, the watches are working properly.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keith\_Massey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/keith_massey/32/83666_2.png) [@Keith\_Massey](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Keith_Massey)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 5:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364/4 "2023-03-09T17:38:23Z")

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How are querying for the existence of `.watcher-history`? Hidden indices like that don't show up in APIs like `_cat/indices`. And as of 8.0 (I think) watcher history is a datastream. But if you have a user with permissions to see the index, you can still do a query like: `GET /.watcher-history-*/_search`. Or are you saying that even that kind of query returns nothing?

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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:** [April 6, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/watches-not-writing-to-wacher-history/327364/5 "2023-04-06T17:39:03Z")

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