I create a filtered deck and move a certain set of cards there so I can focus on the type of reviews that I can do during a certain time of the day. After some hours, I want to integrate the filtered cards back and have them all jumbled together. However, bringing back the previous cards always puts those cards at the start of the queue, even after going to options and changing the review sort order to something specific and then back to random – it’s not random at all; the previously moved cards are always at the start, and I always see the very same card at the start too as I change between orders. Anything that’s not very strict in its ordering gives the same result. Only things like “Ascending intervals” can mix cards up, but then they’re sorted in a way that I don’t like them. I just want them to be random. Before moving to a filtered deck, the cards were properly mixed.
I see this as a bug (random is not random, and is always the same thing), but something tells me there will be a “Well, see…” incoming due to some obscure feature I’ve never heard about. So I categorize this as help. Please don’t tell me I need another add-on.
What do you mean when you say that you “move a certain set of cards” and then “bringing back”?
Are you actually moving the cards from a deck by dragging them or by choosing to Change Deck from the Browse window?
If you are, you might like to read the article in the Anki manual on Filtered Decks, which includes Custom Study. Using this method, your cards visit the Custom Deck and then return to their home decks automatically, when the custom learning is complete.
Yes, it’s a filtered deck. By moving them back I mean emptying the filtered deck. After doing this, they are stuck at the front of the queue in almost all review orders.
There is no obscure feature affecting the orders. I’m actually not sure what this is but I’m getting a déjà vu here. I’ll try to see if I can find any other posts like this.
I think the problem is only with the “random” order. The other orders don’t necessarily have to mix up your filtered deck cards.
Can you also update your Anki to see if it’s resolved in the latest?
It seems like there are some missing pieces to this puzzle –
What was the criteria (search filter) for the cards that you pulled into the Filtered deck?
Did you have enable reschedule-based-on, so the cards returned to their home deck with new review history and scheduling?
Did you finish studying the cards in the Filtered deck – and they returned to their home deck on their own – or were you still in the midst of studying them – and you emptied the Filtered deck to return them?
Are the cards that are “stuck at the front of the queue” Review (or New) cards or are they Learn/Relearn cards?
What Review sort orders are you trying to use? Are these cards actually being sorted incorrectly based on that criteria or do they belong at the front of the queue?
I emptied the deck manually after having studied some of the cards in it.
Not 100% sure on terminology here. I call them “green” cards, based on the color scheme at the bottom where you see three numbers (blue, red, green). These are cards that were scheduled for review that day, that I still haven’t gotten through while working through the filtered deck. They are not cards I’ve made a mistake on the same day. I don’t have inter-day learning intervals (it’s 3m 20m 20m for new and 10m 20m for relearn).
For most of them, yes. “Random” definitely doesn’t work properly, and the cards that were returned from the filtered deck are getting put to the front. But I’ve recently noticed that it’s not all of them. Eyeballing it, it feels like 90% of the card:3 cards that return are pushed to the front when choosing either “Random” or “Due date, then random”, and then the final 10% do get properly mixed in with the rest of the cards.
On a completely separate note, I’ve noticed that the “New/review order” is also not working. It’s set to “Mix with reviews”. I have ~400-500 review cards per day and 10 new cards. Irrespective of whether I actually use the filtered deck, return cards from there manually, etc. or not, I still start seeing the 10 new cards only once I reach only 10 cards in the review queue itself (and then it’s one review, one new, one review, one new). This does not happen on AnkiDroid in the same deck, even when I switch between Anki Desktop and AnkiDroid during the same day – I properly get these 10 cards spaced out throughout the review queue in equal intervals (i.e. every 45 cards review cards or so, I get to see a new card).
The issue with returning cards from a filtered deck back into the original one is also present in AnkiDroid, though.
I’m mentioning this because maybe it’s somehow related and makes the symptom of the problem easier to understand.
a. What was the “order” you selected by in the Filtered Deck?
b. Was it all of the card3’s that are due, or did you limit it to a certain number?
Yes, “green” cards are Review cards.
I’m struggling with several things [and it’s time to just switch to numbering them!] –
How are you seeing what order the cards are in? Is it just by studying your way through the deck? Or are you looking somewhere else and seeing something that looks like a study-session queue?
How do you know this order isn’t the order the cards were in/would have been in before you built/emptied the filtered deck?
What share of your remaining due cards were card3’s? Were they disproportionately over- or under-represented in the cards that were left?
You seem to be equating “random” with “mixed.” A random ordering of cards might appear well mixed, with cards proportionally dispersed among each other, but it also might not – because it’s random. I’m not sure how you’re determining that the cards are not in random order, because that isn’t a set order.
The reason I asked about other sort orders is you can see clearly when cards are in/out of order if they are supposed be sorted based on a certain criteria. I don’t feel like you answered about what other sort orders you’ve been able to verify aren’t working. You mentioned “Due date, then random” – but that is only distinct if the cards have different due dates. Otherwise, it’s just the same randomization.
.6. Getting “one review, one new, one review, one new” is very unusual. Are you still only considering “green” cards as Review cards when you say that? Or are you starting out your study day with leftover “red” Learn/Relearn cards from yesterday? What Review sort order are you using? [Note: The only one that matters is in the preset for the deck you are clicking to study – not any parent- or subdecks.]
.7. Getting your New cards equally spaced “every 45 cards review cards or so” would also be unusual. Are you expressing it that way because it feels evenly mixed to you, or do the cards really appear to be coming at a spacing that regular?
.8. Do you have any add-ons that rebuild the study queue while you are studying? For instance, some of the FSRS Helper features do that – there may be others, I don’t know. Think about any functionality that is trying to keep certain cards apart or adding-removing cards in the queue.
.9. Have you run Tools > Check Database lately? If something is stuck in your database, that’s the best way to get it unstuck.