Hello,
My AnkiWeb collection was deleted after my account was inactive for more than 6 months.
I received the inactivity warning email but unfortunately didn’t realize that my collection would actually be deleted.
I had a large and important collection with many cards and audio files that I created over a long period of time.
Could you please check whether any server-side backup of my collection is still available and whether it can be restored to my AnkiWeb account?
Account email: felipedev86@gmail.com
Thank you!
The data was removed from this account in June 2026, after it had been inactive for at least 6 months (which is exactly what that email notified you would happen). We delete the data from accounts in our system that aren’t being used for syncing or studying, so AnkiWeb isn’t suitable for long-term storage of your inactive collection – AnkiWeb account removal - Anki FAQs .
However that policy only affects the data on our servers. If you still have a local copy of your collection on any devices where you used Anki / AnkiMobile / AnkiDroid, you can upload your collection to AnkiWeb and resume syncing. You should check all of your devices, because your collection should still be on any mobile device where you still have the app installed – and on any desktop device, even if you uninstalled the app.
Generally when data is removed from an account, that includes the server-side backups. However there is one that was retained in your account – from October 2025. [Just like a local automatic backup, that does not include any media attached to your collection.] I expect that version of your collection is older than whatever you have on your device(s), but if you want me to restore it to your AnkiWeb account, please confirm.
Other things you can do right now –
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Make sure the email address you’re using for your AnkiWeb account is one that you have permanent access to. If you lose touch with that email, you won’t get important emails from us – like notification that your data is pending deletion. And if you can’t re-verify your email address annually, you might not be able to access AnkiWeb at all.
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If you know you’re going to take a long break from studying, you can create your own COLPKG backup of your collection and store that in a separate place (e.g., another device, a cloud storage account).
Yes, please restore the October 2025 backup to my AnkiWeb account. I believe this may be from around the time I stopped studying Japanese, so it could contain most of my collection.
Thank you very much for checking and helping me recover it!
I’ve restored that to your account. On your next sync, select download from AnkiWeb – which will overwrite any collection you currently have on that device.