Anki won't start on Mac - just bobs up and down

Anki Help
1

Hi I desperately need help because I’m a med student and I really really need my anki cards… when I try to open it, the app icon just bobs up and down and never actually opens. I also can’t figure out how to download a different older version of it because I can’t open the app in the first place. I’ve been trying to open Anki Apple Intel 25.02.7 & my computer is MacOs Version 12.7.6

I’ve tried
Shift + command
Opening with Terminal
Restarting computer
Deleting the app and redownloading it
Making sure software update is up to date

PLEASE HELP

2

You should be fine with the current release.

  • Is the Intel version the right one for your system?

  • Did you follow the rest of the install steps? Install & Upgrade - Anki Manual

  • Did you just upgrade to 25.02.7, or had you been using it for a while before this started happening?

3

You said you tried opening Anki via the Terminal. What’s the output when you try doing that? If it crashes or gets stuck on something, that output might help to determine the cause. (I guess you tried starting it with /Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/anki right?)

(Just an unrelated side note: macOS Monterey is a bit on the older side by now, but shouldn’t be too old for running current Anki yet. Do note however that Apple normally only releases any security updates for the latest three macOS major releases, so if your hardware allows for it it might be time to update to at least Ventura just as general precaution, not related to Anki. Of course no dice if you have a mid 2010s Air for example…)

4

Yeah I tried /Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOs/anki and it doesn’t come up with anything. It doesn’t say that it’s trying to run it or that there’s an error or anything.

I just tried updating to Ventura and it said my computer is not compatible :frowning:

5

I updated Anki a few weeks ago and it did the same thing, but then I was able to open it using the Terminal. Then I restarted my computer today and it started doing it again, and now the Terminal is not working to open it.

Intel is the right one for my system and I did follow the install steps.

6

Mh weird the folder inside the application bundle should be called MacOS not MacOs. Did you just type that manually and made a typo or why is it spelled like that?

When you say there’s no output in the Terminal does that mean the executable closes immediately and throws you back to an input prompt or does it hang indefinitely without any output?

Another thing you could try is using a release from last year for testing to see if it makes any difference: https://github.com/ankitects/anki/releases/download/24.11/anki-24.11-mac-intel-qt6.dmg (This link is for Anki 24.11 for Intel macOS)

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