# When deleting by query api all my documents get deleted
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 12, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341 "2018-01-12T17:08:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Martin\_Rioux](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Martin_Rioux)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341/1 "2018-01-12T17:08:06Z")
Hi, I performed the same operation for 6 months to delete document older than 6 months with the delete by query api.
"query": {
"range": {
"created": {
"lte": "now-150d/d"
}
}
}
I don't know why but today all my documents get deleted with this request. I have a staging server with the same data and everything is OK. I don\
### Author:  [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341/2 "2018-01-12T18:09:07Z")
It often happens in such case that the user sent a bad request where the body is totally ignored so the query is "match\_all"...
Can you see in your history exactly what you did?
Best thing to do is to use time based indices. It's much more efficient IMO.
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### Author:  [@Martin\_Rioux](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Martin_Rioux)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341/3 "2018-01-12T18:25:48Z")
> [@dadoonet](#):
>
> IMO
Thanks for your answer. This request is called in a cronjob and never done manually. I can't use time base indices because some documents will live forever in ES. (new developments ). I just one to find a more secure way to delete documents.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/when-deleting-by-query-api-all-my-documents-get-deleted/115341/4 "2018-02-09T18:26:57Z")
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