Ammo deleted my cards

I created an account with anki after finishing my flash cards so that I can sync it up with my iPad. When creating it Anki gave me options to get my cards back because apparently the cards have to be deleted before syncing. So I pressed download to anki assuming that it was going into a public database for me to get it back. After doing so, all my cards were wiped and I cannot find them on my computer. I have also searched it on the shared deck area but my deck hasn’t shown up. I have also checked my database and media on anki, nothing shows up except for files of the images I used. I am very distressed as I have an important exam coming up soon. Can someone please help me!!!

Please consult the AnkiMobile manual’s section on backup to see how to restore your collection (assuming a backup is present).

I’m not too sure how you reached that conclusion but no, the cards must absolutely not be deleted before syncing, otherwise you’ll just throw away your collection and your syncing collection.

Download will replace the collection on your phone with the one on AnkiWeb, whereas Upload will replace the one on AnkiWeb with the one on your phone. You’ll see this choice only when Anki doesn’t know how to merge the two collections. Thus, if you just created an AnkiWeb account, the collection on AnkiWeb should have been empty, which is why by clicking on Download you deleted your collection.

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Hi black bean,

Is there any way to get those cards back??

Follow the instructions on the manual. If that doesn’t help, I’m afraid your cards are lost.