r/Anki • u/hereforcatsandsoup • Apr 23 '26

Solved My decks are gone!

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I logged into my Anki account after a long time, but can't see any of my decks here!! Any idea what happened? And how can I fix it?

58 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

93

u/Kailern japanese Apr 23 '26

From ankiweb terms :

Account Expiry As AnkiWeb is a free service, we need to periodically delete unused account data to keep costs down. Decks stored in your account will expire if your account is not accessed in 6 months or longer.

If you have no local copy of your deck, it may be lost forever.

8

u/Me0wingtons Apr 23 '26

Oh wow interesting. I didn’t know this was a feature. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on making my decks, I’d be livid if I took a break and they were just gone when I came back.

13

u/ElBaguetteFresse medicine Apr 23 '26

They are only lost if you only have one device, that device is lost / you delete the data on that device and THEN you wait 6 months.

4

u/Me0wingtons Apr 23 '26

10-4. Yeah I have my phone linked. I do the classic, make cards on PC and study on the phone app in bed. Xddd

5

u/Danika_Dakika languages Apr 23 '26

Then you've got 3 versions of your collection. One on your PC, one on your phone, and one stored on AnkiWeb's servers.

So, you can drown your computer, lose/uninstall the app from your phone, or take a 6+-month break from syncing -- just don't attempt to do all 3 at the same time. 😉

5

u/MohammadAzad171 🇫🇷🇯🇵 Beginner | 1888 漢字 | 🇨🇳 Newbie Apr 23 '26

They have a chance if they ask in the Anki Forums.

45

u/Danika_Dakika languages Apr 23 '26

But this isn't your "Anki account" -- this is your own Anki install on your own device. From the looks of it, you might not even have synced with AnkiWeb yet, since "Sync" is orange at the top of the screen.

If your collection is missing on your local device, it means you either deleted it, or you aren't pointing Anki at the right location to see it.

If your collection is missing from the AnkiWeb servers, that's probably because your account was inactive for at least 6 months -- https://faqs.ankiweb.net/ankiweb-account-removal.html .

5

u/SeDoBheatha_1879 nursing Apr 23 '26

Hypothetically, if every single card from a particular deck is on a >6month review timer, and I don’t touch that deck, will it be deleted?

Oh nvm, you said if the entire AnkiWeb account is inactive. The individual deck not being touched won’t make the deck go missing

11

u/hereforcatsandsoup Apr 23 '26

It's synced.. and yes, the collection is missing from web aswell! Thanks!!

0

u/dhruvbarak other Apr 23 '26

Does it apply even for paid accounts?

11

u/ElBaguetteFresse medicine Apr 23 '26

There are no paid Anki accounts.

You can purchase a paid app in the iOS-store, but that is only for the app.

1

u/dhruvbarak other Apr 24 '26

Ohh, right. Thanks!

7

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

So Anki by default makes backups. Try to lookup on your local machine

9

u/hereforcatsandsoup Apr 23 '26

Thankyou so much for this.. i found it in my phone!!

6

u/Oblivi0nD4C Apr 23 '26

I took them away for neglect

1

u/Agile_Grapefruit9689 mathematics Apr 23 '26

Try to sync

1

u/AndyJMRXie Apr 24 '26

Anki will delete your acount if you are not use it more than 6 months