---
title: detach_tablespace() | Tiger Data Docs
description: Detach a tablespace from a hypertable
---

Since [0.7.0](https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/0.7.0)

Detach a tablespace from one or more hypertables. This *only* means that *new* chunks are not placed on the detached tablespace. This is useful, for instance, when a tablespace is running low on disk space and one would like to prevent new chunks from being created in the tablespace. The detached tablespace itself and any existing chunks with data on it remains unchanged and continue to work as before, including being available for queries. Note that newly inserted data rows may still be inserted into an existing chunk on the detached tablespace since existing data is not cleared from a detached tablespace. A detached tablespace can be reattached if desired to once again be considered for chunk placement.

## Samples

Detach the tablespace `disk1` from the hypertable `conditions`:

```
SELECT detach_tablespace('disk1', 'conditions');
SELECT detach_tablespace('disk2', 'conditions', if_attached => true);
```

Detach the tablespace `disk1` from all hypertables that the current user has permissions for:

```
SELECT detach_tablespace('disk1');
```

## Arguments

The syntax is:

```
SELECT detach_tablespace(
    tablespace = '<tablespace_name>',
    hypertable = '<hypertable_name>',
    if_attached = true | false
);
```

| Name          | Type     | Default | Required | Description                                                                                                              |
| ------------- | -------- | ------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `tablespace`  | TEXT     | -       | ✔        | Tablespace to detach.                                                                                                    |
| `hypertable`  | REGCLASS | -       | ✖        | Hypertable to detach the tablespace from.                                                                                |
| `if_attached` | BOOLEAN  | `FALSE` | ✖        | Set to true to avoid throwing an error if the tablespace is not attached to the given table. A notice is issued instead. |

When giving only the tablespace name as argument, the given tablespace is detached from all hypertables that the current role has the appropriate permissions for. Therefore, without proper permissions, the tablespace may still receive new chunks after this command is issued.

When specifying a specific hypertable, the tablespace is only detached from the given hypertable and thus may remain attached to other hypertables.

## Returns

| Name               | Type    | Description                                                       |
| ------------------ | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| detach\_tablespace | INTEGER | The number of hypertables from which the tablespace was detached. |

When called with both `tablespace` and `hypertable` arguments, returns 1 if the tablespace was successfully detached from the specified hypertable. When called with only the `tablespace` argument, returns the total number of hypertables from which the tablespace was detached.