3 Essential Steps to Drop Index in MongoDB: A Powerful Guide

In our previous article, we have learnt how to create index in MongoDB. Now, as a mongo DBA if you’re managing large collections, if somehow wrong index is created, knowing how to drop index in MongoDB can be crucial in that case and also for improving performance and reducing storage costs. This tutorial will walk you through the syntax , common errors, and best practices for safely cleaning up indexes in MongoDB.

Why Drop Indexes in MongoDB?

Indexes help queries run faster, but unused or redundant indexes can:

• Consume unnecessary disk space
• Decrease performance
• Causes unexpected slowness during index rebuilds

That’s why it’s important to understand how to manage and drop indexes in MongoDB for database optimization. If an index is wrongly created, we also have to drop it.

Syntax of Drop Index in MongoDB :

db.collection.dropIndex(index)

Here, index: Can be either the index key pattern or the index name.

Drop Index in MongoDB Example :

Check the Indexes First :

db.collection.getIndexes()

Drop by Index Name :

Now, drop the index that you want :

db.employee.dropIndex({ "email": 1 })

Drop by Index Key Pattern :

db.employee.dropIndex({ "email": 1 })

Drop all the Indexes :

db.employee.dropIndexes()

The index key pattern defines:

• Which fields are included in the index.
• The sort order of those fields:
  • 1 for ascending
  • -1 for descending

So, here are the simple steps to delete indexes in MonogDB. Hope this helps!! Also, you can get more information from the MongoDB Official Doc as well.

Related MongoDB Related Articles :

• How to Check MongoDB Size in GB: 4 Easy Steps
• Mongodump and Mongorestore: Easy Guide for MongoDB Backup & Recovery