Anking Repeating Cards That I’ve Already Answered

[florig]

Hi,

I am re-posting this issue from my original AnkiHub post. I have removed the AI generated replies, but retained the comments from others on the site (who recommended I post the issue I am having here, because it does not seem to be an AnkiHub-specific issue.

Thanks in advance for any advice! Please let me know if any additional information would be helpful!

Start of Original Thread
florig
So I thought something might be up with my cards… sometimes I thought I may have been encountering “new cards” that I know I have seen/reviewed before on at least one of my devices (laptop, iPhone or iPad) or seeing a card card twice on the same day(that I know had a longer review interval than >1 day).

I was finally able to catch the latter issue in the act (see attached screen shots).

I have no clue how to fix this and it is becoming kind of frustrating! I’ve tried deleting decks (de-linking on Ankihub) and re-adding. Re-installing Anki (and add-ons). Has anybody else had this problem? Any recommendations for how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance!

I reviewed the following card at 8:03a today and then got the same card again just a few minutes ago (there is only one Cloze for this card, so that wasn’t the issue).

I had literally just completed a sync on each of my devices before I started either of these review sessions (e.g. syncing before the 8a and the 10a). I had also done a 1-way sync on my computer before the 10a review (on my laptop). This issue is also happening for reviews that are on the same device (I just don’t have a particular example). I also have a similar issue with cards I am certain I have reviewed (that only have one Cloze, showing up as a “New” card more than once).

Here is another example that of the same issue with a different card:

Current Anki Version:

Add-Ons:

I have also already checked my database, forced one-way syncing on all of my devices.

Brian_BH AnKing Deck Maintainer

Hello,

I would be happy to help.

A couple of things:

• Can you show me a screenshot of your main Anki screen, with all decks and subdecks visible?

• Can you show me a screenshot of a card that’s doing this, but from the review screen? I’d like to take a look at the intervals from that screen.

• Are you using any custom-filtered decks?

florig

Thanks for the quick reply!

I am not currently using any filtered decks (I did create one to capture the screenshots you asked for, but deleted it right after I capture the images).

Here is a screenshot from my main screen (happy to expand my EKG deck, but it’s multiple sub-decks and takes up more than the screen):

Here are two of the cards (the ones that I have posted about this). I took these screenshots using a filtered deck to search for the two CIDs (let me know if you need some other way, I just couldn’t think of one, and I will get it to you):

CID: 1758681343881

(image 1 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

CID: 1726530312699

(image 2 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

florig

Does this line item need to be checked? Is this possibly causing the issue?

Updating this line item to be checked did not change anything.

Brian_BH AnKing Deck Maintainer

A few things, just to cross some bases:

If you are using filtered decks, that can be a cause of cards coming up for review sooner than they are scheduled. It depends a bit on what string/s you use to create your filtered deck, but just as a reference point if you are using them that can be a reason for cards to come up for review unexpectedly early.

If that’s not the case, and you’re not using custom-filtered decks at all, we can eliminate that from consideration though.

From there, do you know if both your AnKing, and AnKing:Review decks are on the same preset? And, either way, can you share a screenshot of the deck settings for those two?

@florig

Does this line item need to be checked? Is this possibly causing the issue?

Unfortunately, if you have add-ons installed that have the capacity to reschedule cards I’m afraid it can be a lot harder to get to the bottom of things. Many add-ons are written by third parties and have functionalities and weird conflicts that are well beyond what I’m likely to be able to be familiar with

That should also add that potentially having more than one, or multiple, source of rescheduling, can also wreak havoc in multiple ways. Since AnkiHub doesn’t really affect scheduling in any way, if you’re using add-ons or other functionalities that may be well outside of my expertise, I’m sorry to say

@florig

I am not currently using any filtered decks (I did create one to capture the screenshots you asked for, but deleted it right after I capture the images).

Just so I’m on the same page: is that to say that the second review on 04-01 here was from a custom-filtered deck? Want to make sure I’m not getting turned around here

(imaged 3 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

florig

Sorry if I miscommunicated. I do use a sub-deck within the Anking deck, where I manually move cards, based on a given tag, into the sub-deck (this is not a “Filtered Deck” per using a given query). Does this make sense? These (and all of my decks) use the same presets (screenshots attached below):

(imaged 4 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 5 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 6 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 7 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

Regarding Add-Ons, I am 100% okay with removing any Add-Ons that may be contributing to this issue. In a post above, I included all of my current add-on in a screen out, are there any here you recommend I delete to see if that can resolve this issue?

Thanks

Brian_BH AnKing Deck Maintainer

@florig

I do use a sub-deck within the Anking deck, where I manually move cards, based on a given tag, into the sub-deck (this is not a “Filtered Deck” per using a given query). Does this make sense? These (and all of my decks) use the same presets (screenshots attached below):

Gotcha, yeah subdecks should be fine. Custom-filtered decks are a bit different, but if you’re not using them then it’s not likely to be a source issue here so I think we can safely ignore that

To be honest, I’m sorry to say that I’m a bit stumped. I’ve seen a lot of things, over the years, and this is not something I recall having come across in recent memory, at least

Looking here:

(imaged 8 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

I see that the card came up for review this morning at 8:01, you hit ‘good’, and it had an interval of 13 days. Which, obviously, means it should show up again on 04/14 or thereabouts. I can’t think of any good reason/s why it would then come back up for review 2.5 hours later

Short of an add-on conflict, or filtered-decks, or some other voodoo I’m sorry to say I really don’t know. The only things I can think of are some add-on issue

There are a couple of things that stand out to me in your user settings, mostly the absence of learning steps and re-learning steps, but neither should be impacting a review card in either case (only new cards and lapses, neither of which apply to this card). But the rest of your settings look normal to my eyes, and I can’t see anything that would explain this behavior

Of your add-ons, the FSRS Helper add-on is the likeliest to be causing some issue. But, I also use that add-on and have never had any problems with it, so I can’t be sure. From there, the ‘Special Fields’ add-on has no scheduling functionality at all, though it is quite outdated and no longer recommended for use, and it is known to have a number of oddball conflict issues with random functionalities. I have no reason to think it should be affecting your scheduling, but I also can’t think of any reason to have the add-on anymore (it used to be used alongside AnkiHub, but is now defunct and no longer necessary)

I’m sorry to say whatever it is may be out of my depth. At the very least, it doesn’t appear to be AnkiHub-related. My best guess is a scheduling conflict of some kind, though I’m just hazarding a guess there

If I were in your shoes, I’d head over to the official Anki forums:

That’s about the most expert advice you can find, there, and likelier than not they’ll be in the best position to tease apart what may be going on under the hood. A lot of developers hang out there, as well as add-on authors, and you’re not likely to find more expert advice anywhere than there

Sadly, I am not a developer myself and my expertise doesn’t really extend to all the nuances of various third-party add-ons. I can’t see anything in the screenshots you’e shared that would seem to indicate why those cards are behaving that way, and as much as it bugs me to admit I’m not sure I have any answers, sadly. Maybe it’s something terribly obvious, but nothing is standing out to me
End of Original Thread

[florig]

@florig

(imaged 3 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

Image 3:

[florig]

@florig

(imaged 4 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 5 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 6 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

(imaged 7 removed b/c I am a “new user” and cannot include > 5 images in my post)

Image 4:

Image 5:

Image 6:

Image 7:

[Danika_Dakika]

[Thanks for posting so thoroughly! It took me time to go through, but I had everything I needed!]

I looked through your other thread, and I think the bot got pretty close right here.

@AnkiHub_AI_bot

That pattern almost always points to a sync timing issue between devices, not a scheduling bug or AnkiHub.

It just framed it a bit too narrowly in the explanation after that. Anking Repeating Cards That I’ve Already Answered - #6 by AnkiHub_AI_bot - 🙋 Support - AnkiHub Community

---

This looks like a sync conflict to me too. The biggest red flag is the differences between the summary/memory state at the top of the Card Info and the review log below that.

Comparing the first screenshot you posted over there with the first one you posted above – both of the same card, but taken at different times – you can see a little more. It looks like Left is before you graded the card the 2nd time [Current Card (Study)], and Right is after you graded the card the 2nd time [Current Card (Browse), partially cut off in my janky split screen].

First, note that in both screenshots, the number of Reviews doesn’t match the number of reps in the revlog (under by 1). On the left, you see in the revlog that you’d already studied this card today, and it came out of that with a 10d interval, but in the top section, the card still has the state it had after the review on 27 March – the due date is still today, the interval is still 5d, D doesn’t match, R is not 100%.

Then you can see on the right, after you studied the card for the 2nd time today, the interval, due date, and D at the top correctly match the outcome of the most recent review log, and R is 100% (since the card was studied just now). The number of Reviews has incremented, but still doesn’t match.

So, sometime after 1 April at 8:03, something happened on a device that didn’t have that review log yet (your laptop, it sounds like), and it updated the card modification date/timestamp of this card. Even though you then synced that review log, the card still has the state from before it. That’s because during the sync, there were updates to the card’s state found on both devices, and Anki kept the one that was most recent.

The key with good syncing – sync when you open the app on a device, and when you close/leave the app on that device, every time – is that you aren’t making changes to the collection on both devices at the same time. But you can’t allow anything else to be making those changes either.

Add-ons are likely sources of this (as Brian_BH mentioned), especially any that have actions running in the background, on-sync, or after-sync. Looking at your list, I’m not familiar with all of those, but focus on ones that do things for you, without you touching anything. For instance – FSRS Helper could, but it doesn’t look like you’re using any of the “auto” features. [And no, you don’t need to use “auto reschedule after sync” unless you study on devices with old versions that didn’t yet support FSRS.]

And yes, this can happen even if both studies are on the same device, because there might be syncs in between that updated the card state incorrectly.

---

To this What to do now? list of steps, I’ll add another for you –

• Figure out what add-ons might be involved and/or close desktop Anki when you’re not using it.

[florig]

Thank you so much for taking the time to review this (and my other) post and for putting together such a thorough response to help explain what is going on! I had no idea that this sort of issue could occur. After I posted this thread, I did some additional reading of a few other threads on Ankiweb forums. These other threads described very similar issues, but without the images to so clearly be able to identify the issue from included screenshots! Your reply confirms what I was picking up on, I did indeed likely caused this through a sync conflict.

I will make sure to always close Anki on my laptop (or other devices) before I start a review session. I will also go ahead and review my add-ons and remove anything that I am not using regularly.

Thanks again for all the help!