diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/common/compress/CompressorFactory.java b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/common/compress/CompressorFactory.java
index 1d8f2dcec709a..23a8cac349bd2 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/common/compress/CompressorFactory.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/common/compress/CompressorFactory.java
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@
 import org.opensearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.opensearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.opensearch.common.xcontent.XContentHelper;
-import org.opensearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Objects;
@@ -73,22 +72,13 @@ public static Compressor compressor(BytesReference bytes) {
             return ZSTD_COMPRESSOR;
         }
 
-        XContentType contentType = XContentHelper.xContentType(bytes);
-        if (contentType == null) {
-            if (isAncient(bytes)) {
-                throw new IllegalStateException("unsupported compression: index was created before v2.0.0.beta1 and wasn't upgraded?");
-            }
+        if (XContentHelper.xContentType(bytes) == null) {
             throw new NotXContentException("Compressor detection can only be called on some xcontent bytes or compressed xcontent bytes");
         }
 
         return null;
     }
 
-    /** true if the bytes were compressed with LZF*/
-    private static boolean isAncient(BytesReference bytes) {
-        return bytes.length() >= 3 && bytes.get(0) == 'Z' && bytes.get(1) == 'V' && (bytes.get(2) == 0 || bytes.get(2) == 1);
-    }
-
     /**
      * Uncompress the provided data, data can be detected as compressed using {@link #isCompressed(BytesReference)}.
      */