---
title: "Deleting a document"
slug: "deleting-a-document"
abstract: "Describes how to use the Ingestion API for Sitecore Search to delete an index document."
---
# Deleting a document

Use the `DELETE` method on the base URL of the Ingestion API to delete an index document. Use this method when you need to delete content quickly.

> [!important]
> When an administrator recrawls a pull source, either [manually](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/users/search-user-guide/en/manually-trigger-a-recrawl-or-reindex.html) or through [scheduled crawls](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/users/search-user-guide/en/configure-a-crawler-schedule.html), Search updates all index documents with the latest data from your original content. This action overwrites any updates you made through the Ingestion API if they aren't also applied to the original content. To prevent this, we recommend that you always update the original content with changes made through the Ingestion API. This synchronization ensures that your modifications are maintained in future crawls.

To use the Ingestion API to delete a document, make a `DELETE` call to the [Delete Document](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/developers/search-developer-guide/using-the-ingestion-api-to-add-content-to-an-index/using-the-ingestion-api-to-add-content-to-an-index.html#UUID-1c8015c3-4068-9441-f0bd-bdea5b1d7821_section-idm1823354355957710 "Using the Ingestion API") endpoint.

For the data model of this method and a description of objects and keys, see the [Ingestion API reference](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/developers/ingestion-api/index.html). You can [view your base URL](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/developers/search-developer-guide/the-sitecore-search-interface/the-api-access-tab.html "The API Access tab") in the **Developer Resources** section of Search.

You can partially update or delete documents in one, some, or all locales. To update or delete documents in more than one locale, in the request URL, pass the locales separated by an ampersand (`&`). For example, to partially update or delete documents in the English (US) and Japanese (Japan) locales, use `locale=en_us&locale=ja_jp`. To partially update or delete all locales, pass `locale=all`.

You can partially update or delete more than one locale at a time because index documents for multiple locales share the same index document ID. This is so that users don't see duplicate results and only see content that is relevant to their locale. You configure this when you set up the crawler source or create documents with the Ingestion API.

For example, you want to delete an index document for all locales.

Here is a sample `DELETE` cURL call:

```Shell
curl -X DELETE --location 'https://<base-url/domains/<domainID>/sources/<sourceID>/entities/<entity>/documents/<documentID>?locale=all' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: <api-key>' \
```