Over the past two weeks, I’ve noticed that the Anki card count has been consistently inaccurate, showing 15-25% fewer cards than I actually reviewed each day. I first observed this issue after clearing all due cards and learning some new ones, only to find that the card count was lower than the number of due cards. To confirm this, I used the Distinct Card add-on, which corroborated my findings. I was wondering if this is a bug with the new version or I got some settings messed up.
Is that this one – https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2133933791 – that hasn’t been updated in 5 years? Use caution with that!
Let’s talk about what that number actually is. The “Today” number is counting how many card-study actions you’ve done – seeing a card front, card back, and grading – because it is mostly a measure of the time and effort you’ve spent studying. It will only match the actual number of distinct cards if you studied each of them only once.
For you, your number of distinct cards should be less than 64, so I don’t know how that add-on is getting to 78. Are they looking at the same pool of cards – deck? collection?
You don’t need an add-on to answer this question though, you can just search rated:1 in the Browse window, and it will return each of the cards you studied today. The number of cards will be in the top title bar of the window.
And if I have reviewed it twice or more in the same day, does it increase the studied count?
I have marked down the number of review cards due for the day and it is different than the card count I got after clearing all of them by the end of the day (The addon count was accurate though). For instance, I have 278 cards due yesterday and after studying all of them the stats told me I only did 218 cards. I set the stats to “collection” and the issue only started around two weeks ago. And this issue only happens when I am doing cards on my laptop. I also use the set due date function for some of the cards, would that throw off the count? Are there any other possibilities?
Yes, every “card-study action” is counted in that figure.
I test the card counting function and it indeed is because of the setting due date. Everytime I do set due date instead of clicking on the easy, good, hard or again buttons, the card does not get counted. Is there a setting I could toggle to make it count? I am quite certain it did not do that previously?
What are your card-burying settings? Did you manually bury any cards?
Changing a card with Set Due Date (SDD) doesn’t count as a “card-study action” – so those cards would not be included in a “rated” search at the end of the day.
I don’t think this behavior has changed, at least not recently.
I have never buried cards
Yeah that explains everything. Thanks by the way! Just to confirm, there isn’t anything I could do to set a due date and make it count as studied?
I have never buried cards, so that is probably not an issue.
There isn’t. Set Due Date isn’t a studying action. It’s the opposite of that – changing when a card is scheduled without studying it and without using the algorithm.
If you want to explain more about why you’re using SDD so much, maybe there’s a better way to get what you want. Otherwise you’ll have to suffice with a count of the cards you actually studied.
I see. It is just my exam is in a month and the intervals are way too long - I was hoping to review the cards at least once more before it.
Yeah, there’s a better way. Study your cards as they are normally scheduled, actually grade them, and then use Filtered decks for more focused study on whatever cards or subjects you’re worried about. Pretty much anything you can search for, you can build a Filtered deck for, so if that’s cards that have longer intervals, or cards that you haven’t studied in the past 30 days – you can do it that way.
If you’re concerned overall about the length of your intervals because you’re not reaching your retention goals – and you’re using FSRS – you can adjust your Desired Retention to shorten your intervals. But if you are reaching your retention goals, that’s a good sign that your cards are already being scheduled correctly.
Hey thanks for the fix. Appreciate it!
