# Why docCount differs on primary and replicas of the same shard
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-doccount-differs-on-primary-and-replicas-of-the-same-shard/150271
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [September 27, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-doccount-differs-on-primary-and-replicas-of-the-same-shard/150271 "2018-09-27T22:17:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@krlm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/krlm)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-doccount-differs-on-primary-and-replicas-of-the-same-shard/150271/1 "2018-09-27T22:17:58Z")
I'm trying to figure out why executing the same query multiple times gives different results when there's no background indexing involved. What I've found so far (using `"explain: true"`) is that `docCount` returns different values for primary and replicas of the same shard, where I'd expect that replica is a bit to bit copy of primary shard.
example: first search returns following data (just first
```auto
"_shard": "[unittypes][0]",
"_node": "-o4ti0RvSZePKozz5_cxqA",
...
{
"value": 11325,
"description": "docCount",
"details": []
}
```
second attempt returns results in slightly different score results (even for the same document)
```auto
"_shard": "[unittypes][0]",
"_node": "Hgn_AK63Th65mDr9S5-ReQ"
...
{
"value": 11317,
"description": "docCount",
"details": []
}
```
I've checked shards stats and it seems at least here doc counts are OK.
```auto
unittypes 1 p STARTED 233204 124.9mb 10.0.0.5 estest0
unittypes 1 r STARTED 233204 125.1mb 10.0.0.6 estest1
unittypes 2 r STARTED 92044 76.2mb 10.0.0.4 estest2
unittypes 2 p STARTED 92044 77.3mb 10.0.0.6 estest1
unittypes 4 r STARTED 0 261b 10.0.0.4 estest2
unittypes 4 p STARTED 0 261b 10.0.0.5 estest0
unittypes 3 p STARTED 0 261b 10.0.0.4 estest2
unittypes 3 r STARTED 0 261b 10.0.0.5 estest0
unittypes 0 p STARTED 232252 135.9mb 10.0.0.4 estest2
unittypes 0 r STARTED 232252 135.5mb 10.0.0.6 estest1
```
What can I do to have stable results for multiple queries?
Currently I'm setting search request preference [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-preference.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-request-preference.html) but as I'm expected to handle higher loads I'd like to be able to utilize all replicas.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-doccount-differs-on-primary-and-replicas-of-the-same-shard/150271/2 "2018-10-25T22:17:59Z")
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