Hi, I tried to update my deck with a newer version of the deck, and after realizing this version is messed up my created cards, I reverted to an older back. unfortunately, many media filed went missing. I have all my notes but the cards show a missing file icon within them. I have heard there is s…

Okay, I have restored the recently deleted media in your AnkiWeb account. When you sync, that will start downloading, but it was over 43,000 files, about 4.5 GB – so it is going to take several tries to get everything I’m sure. This is restore-media process can result in some short-term syncing irr…

I think @Danika_Dakika is the person to tag for that kind of issues

@Danika_Dakika Thanks for the reply! I hope this kind person would help. I probably messed up thing while trying, and lost a 1.5-2 years of screenshots, media files, mp3, mp4, etc.. Pretty devastating..

Unless you specifically deleted them (Check Media > Delete Unused Media), they are still in your collection.media folder. And unless the updated deck overwrote those files with other same-named files, they are still just as you left them. Even restoring an automatic backup of your collection wouldn’…

[image] Danika_Dakika: Check Media > Delete Unused Media Thank you for the reply! I think that The new update overwrote the media since in my stupidity i forgot to protect these fields. I notice first changes in other fields, and than I realized the media is missing as well Now that you me…

[image] mf5758: The new update overwrote the media since in my stupidity i forgot to protect these fields. Overwriting the contents of a field doesn’t delete the media from your collection. It just tells cards from that note to use a different media file. Restoring the contents of the fields …

[image] Danika_Dakika: So are you sure there are more files you need to recover? Even though I restored some of the files, and the syncing log has been completed (about 10 hours ago) - it still shows me that most of the cards media are missing (ie this small icon when there should be a card b…

[image] Danika_Dakika: Are any of the files that are still listed as “missing” the ones you’re concerned about? Yes. Most of the screenshots, which have been pasted by me are listed there.

THANK YOU!!! you have literally just saved me the last ~2 years of work (12hrs/day) Now I have only 3 missing files, which by quick scan through the browser i deemed them as not important. [image] Danika_Dakika: Once everything is settled, and all of your devices are in sync, you really need t…

[image] mf5758: [1] should i just delete unused or empty trash folder as well “Delete Unused” and sync will get that out of your collection and off the AnkiWeb servers. Once you’re satisfied you definitely don’t need those files anymore, “Empty Trash” will get it off your computer. [image…

[image] Danika_Dakika: If it’s still happening, and all of your other changes (review history, edits, updates, etc.) are syncing fine, try this – get your devices completely in sync, run Check Database on one of them, and force a one-way sync to uplodad to AnkiWeb. Sync your other devices to dow…

Accidently lost many media files from my cards

Anki Syncing & AnkiWeb

Danika_Dakika November 16, 2025, 1:57am 13

That means you weren’t fully in sync before deleting the files – but that might be because of the error you’re getting.

@dae – Can you take a look and this account? It might need this fix.

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Accidently lost many media files from my cards

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