Anki MacOS Sync or Profile issue

TLDR; Anki appears to be opening the profile with earliest timestamp on a given date, though there is a more recent one

Yesterday I did a few hundred Anki reviews shut the app and took a break, when I went back my reviews hadn’t saved (was reverted to the number I had at the start of the day). So I opted to restore from the backup I had from syncing when I closed the app. Then I forced an upload to Anki Sync BUT when I closed and opened the app again it reverted back to the same profile backup. If I force download upon opening the Mac app it reverts back to the most recent sync BUT closing it then goes back to the earliest timestamped profile for the day. I noticed that this was the earliest time stamp for the date in question.

This same behaviour occurred today and persists so I decided to post on Reddit. Another user was kind enough to try and help, then requested I post here

Any/all help would be AMAZING!

Thanks for moving this here!


Original post: Reddit - Dive into anything

User already tried Shift-start and Check Database – no difference.

Anki 24.04.1 (ccd9ca1a) (ao)
Python 3.9.18 Qt 6.6.2 PyQt 6.6.1
Platform: macOS-14.4.1-arm64-arm-64bit
[see original post for active add-ons]


I ran out of ideas about how this could be happening. It’s not through an auto-sync – because it happens without auto-sync, and it’s not the same data that’s on AnkiWeb. It sounds like Anki is “self”-restoring a backup version? Is that possible?

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Some users in the past have been double-clicking on a .colpkg file to open Anki, resulting in their profile being reverted to the contents of the backup. Is it possible you’re doing that?

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Thanks for the reply! Nah, I click on the app icon to open Anki

I suggest you check the card info for a card that you think was reverted. Does its current due date match the most recently-shown entry in the review history?

SO… I was away for a few days and only did one card on my phone a day to keep my streak. Upon return I’m no longer running into the issue. Both FSRS Helper and AnkiHub add-ons had updates that I installed before beginning to work on cards when I returned.

Otherwise, I really don’t think I did anything differently! It’s been a few days since I returned and haven’t had any issues

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Something I just realized, I have recently begun clicking sync upon starting Anki.

Anki on MacOS isn’t syncing upon start up even though I have this clicked in settings. Maybe that’s what solved my issue? Notable, Anki is syncing automatically upon close

It should automatically sync on start if you have that preference enabled, are not holding down shift, and syncing is already set up. If it’s not doing that, it might be worth trying to disable add-ons to see if that makes a difference.

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