Count mismatch

The counts are shown different by a good margin at a particular time
How is that possible?
The label count() shows less number compared to exists count()

neo4j> MATCH (n:User) where exists(n.user_id) RETURN count(*);
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
| 8340287  |
+----------+

1 row available after 1130 ms, consumed after another 0 ms
neo4j> MATCH (n:User) RETURN count(*);
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
| 8322843  |
+----------+

1 row available after 5 ms, consumed after another 0 ms

not sure if i see the issue here

the first MATCH statement says count the number of nodes with a label of :User and the node also has a property created name user_id.

the 2nd MATCH simply counts the number of nodes with a label of :User.

Presumably there are a number of :User nodes with no property named user_id and these should be visitble via

match (n:User) where NOT exists(n.user_id) return n;

if you will see, then the counts of number of nodes for label user is less then compared to label user where exists user_id

please stop Neo4j
remove graph.db/neostore.count.db*
restart Neo4j

this should rebuild the internal counts. let me know if this addresses the issue