[role="xpack"]
[[managing-index-lifecycle-policies]]
=== Managing index lifecycle policies

Your configured policies appear on the *Index lifecycle policies* page. 
You can update an existing index lifecycle policy to fix errors or change 
strategies for newly created indices. To edit a policy, select its name. 

[role="screenshot"]
image::images/index_lifecycle_policies_options.png[][UI for viewing and editing an index lifecycle policy]

In addition, you can:

* *View indices linked to the policy.* This is important when editing a policy. 
Any changes you make affect all indices attached to the policy.  The settings 
for the current phase are cached, so the update doesn’t affect that phase. This 
prevents conflicts when you’re modifying a phase that is currently executing on 
an index. The changes takes effect when the next phase in the index lifecycle begins.  

* *Add the policy to an index template.*  When an index is automatically 
created using the index template, the policy is applied. If the index is rolled 
over, the policies for any matching index templates are applied to the newly 
created index. For more information, see {ref}/indices-templates.html[Index templates].   

* *Delete a policy.* You can’t delete a policy that is currently in use or 
recover a deleted index.


