diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/FieldSortBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/FieldSortBuilder.java
index c415fd5a70b..4f082b057da 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/FieldSortBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/FieldSortBuilder.java
@@ -35,8 +35,6 @@ public class FieldSortBuilder extends SortBuilder {
 
     private Object missing;
 
-    private Boolean ignoreUnmapped;
-
     private String unmappedType;
 
     private String sortMode;
@@ -76,17 +74,6 @@ public class FieldSortBuilder extends SortBuilder {
         return this;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Sets if the field does not exists in the index, it should be ignored and not sorted by or not. Defaults
-     * to <tt>false</tt> (not ignoring).
-     * @deprecated Use {@link #unmappedType(String)} instead.
-     */
-    @Deprecated
-    public FieldSortBuilder ignoreUnmapped(boolean ignoreUnmapped) {
-        this.ignoreUnmapped = ignoreUnmapped;
-        return this;
-    }
-
     /**
      * Set the type to use in case the current field is not mapped in an index.
      * Specifying a type tells Elasticsearch what type the sort values should have, which is important
@@ -138,9 +125,6 @@ public class FieldSortBuilder extends SortBuilder {
         if (missing != null) {
             builder.field("missing", missing);
         }
-        if (ignoreUnmapped != null) {
-            builder.field(SortParseElement.IGNORE_UNMAPPED.getPreferredName(), ignoreUnmapped);
-        }
         if (unmappedType != null) {
             builder.field(SortParseElement.UNMAPPED_TYPE.getPreferredName(), unmappedType);
         }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/SortParseElement.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/SortParseElement.java
index a99158787d3..5349d6fc0d6 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/SortParseElement.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/sort/SortParseElement.java
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexFieldData;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.fielddata.IndexFieldData.XFieldComparatorSource.Nested;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MappedFieldType;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.core.LongFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.support.NestedInnerQueryParseSupport;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.MultiValueMode;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.SearchParseElement;
@@ -55,7 +54,6 @@ public class SortParseElement implements SearchParseElement {
     private static final SortField SORT_DOC = new SortField(null, SortField.Type.DOC);
     private static final SortField SORT_DOC_REVERSE = new SortField(null, SortField.Type.DOC, true);
 
-    public static final ParseField IGNORE_UNMAPPED = new ParseField("ignore_unmapped");
     public static final ParseField UNMAPPED_TYPE = new ParseField("unmapped_type");
 
     public static final String SCORE_FIELD_NAME = "_score";
@@ -156,12 +154,6 @@ public class SortParseElement implements SearchParseElement {
                                     }
                                 } else if ("missing".equals(innerJsonName)) {
                                     missing = parser.textOrNull();
-                                } else if (context.parseFieldMatcher().match(innerJsonName, IGNORE_UNMAPPED)) {
-                                    // backward compatibility: ignore_unmapped has been replaced with unmapped_type
-                                    if (unmappedType == null // don't override if unmapped_type has been provided too
-                                            && parser.booleanValue()) {
-                                        unmappedType = LongFieldMapper.CONTENT_TYPE;
-                                    }
                                 } else if (context.parseFieldMatcher().match(innerJsonName, UNMAPPED_TYPE)) {
                                     unmappedType = parser.textOrNull();
                                 } else if ("mode".equals(innerJsonName)) {