# Deleting series and measurements

**URL:** <https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782>\
**Category:** InfluxDB 1\
**Created:** [July 15, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782 "2021-07-15T19:04:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Wilkinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/mark_wilkinson/32/7856_2.png) [@Mark\_Wilkinson](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Mark_Wilkinson)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782/1 "2021-07-15T19:04:28Z")

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I am trying to remove some measurements that I no longer need. When I execute `DROP <measurement>` it runs for a few minutes and completes without error, but the measurement is still there. I have also tried deleting series and dropping series with the same result. The only thing I have noticed since I ran these commands is that I now have runaway disk usage on my influx instance. Whereas I usually see a few GB difference in free space from day-today, ever since I ran these commands I am seeing 2GB/minute.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/uploads/influxdata/original/2X/9/9ed79c3903faa0be0d8c6988f110497c2c4d6eb9.png)

I have a feeling it is preparing to delete data in the background, but can’t find any documentation around what might be happening, or how I might be able to monitor what’s happening. I also noticed that I see a ton of Cache Snapshot operations in the log but I do not see it compacting anything. I am not sure if this is related.

I am currently on InfluxDB 1.8.1

Thanks for any help you can provide!

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Wilkinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/mark_wilkinson/32/7856_2.png) [@Mark\_Wilkinson](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Mark_Wilkinson)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782/2 "2021-07-15T20:58:55Z")

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The space eventually recovered. It seems this might have been from the tombstone process. Though, once all was complete and things were compacting again, all the data i was trying to delete was still there. 🤔

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**Author:** ![Anaisdg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/anaisdg/32/6401_2.png) [@Anaisdg](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Anaisdg)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782/3 "2021-07-21T17:20:29Z")

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Hello @Mark_Wilkinson,  
So the drop wasn’t successful?  
That feels like a bug.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mark\_Wilkinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/mark_wilkinson/32/7856_2.png) [@Mark\_Wilkinson](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Mark_Wilkinson)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782/4 "2021-07-21T18:03:39Z")

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Correct. I’ve even attempted to just delete small ranges of data with no luck.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaisdg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/anaisdg/32/6401_2.png) [@Anaisdg](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Anaisdg)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/deleting-series-and-measurements/20782/5 "2021-07-22T19:12:00Z")

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@Mark_Wilkinson,  
Can you share how you’ve tried to delete small ranges?  
Would you be willing to file an issue please?

> **[Issues · influxdata/influxdb](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues)**
>
> Scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics - Issues · influxdata/influxdb

Either way I’ll forward this question to the InfluxDB team. Thank you.