Accidental deletion of anki decks due to syncing

Hi!

I got the message that my ankiweb and desktop was not syncing due to being too different. I’m obviously not the most technically skilled person, so I chose upload to web on all my devices (macbook, ipad, and iphone), and then downloaded. Now I’ve lost most of my cards, and I’m two weeks out from my exam;( When I click files to find the backup, it only gives me the option to create a backup. Is there a way for me to get my decks back?

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Try checking this: How to restore a Backup - Anki Manual

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I guess you didn’t understand the process. You need to start with the device that has the most up-to-date version of your collection, and Upload from it. That copies that up-to-date version into the cloud, essentially. Then on all your other devices, Download into them, so that they all get that up-to-date version.

Whenever there’s a forced one-way sync that requires choosing between Upload and Download, it’s always upload once from one device, and then download X number of times into all your other devices.

But you probably should have backups on all your devices.
For your MacBook: Backups - Anki Manual
For your iPhone and iPad: Preferences - AnkiMobile Manual

Choose your device that was most up to date, restore a backup from it, then follow the procedure described above to upload once and then download many times.

Screen Shot 2023-11-30 at 17.40.38

No I did not, thank you for explaining it to me! I really appreciate the help.

Where is the open backup option?

See Backups - Anki Manual , where it says:

  • Open Anki, and choose Switch Profile from the File menu.
  • Click on the “Open Backup” button.
  • Select the backup you wish to restore from.

I presume that your Mac was the device with the most recent version of your collection?

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It worked now, thank you so so much for your help! I really appreciate it

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