Why isn’t there a “Check for updates” button in Anki? It would be more convenient than having to go to https://apps.ankiweb.net/ every time I want to download a new version.
It’s a standard feature in many apps, so I wonder if there is a specific reason why Anki doesn’t have it.
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Anki has a built-in update check, but it’s only activated for major updates, and usually only after the release has been in a wild for some time. 23.06 would make sense, once it’s landed in the mobile clients
Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that there is no use for a “Check for updates” button. It would be useful for people who want to stay up-to-date at all times.
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Package managers (for example pacman, apt) automatically update all packages installed in the system when you do a system upgrade. There’s no need to check for updates in the app itself.
But not all people use Linux.
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If you want to be notified about every release, you can achieve that by subscribing to GitHub notifications. I don’t believe increasing the notification frequency would be particularly useful while downloading/upgrade needs to be manually done by the user outside Anki anyway.
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But it doesn’t gave to be this way.
AFAIK, that works with winget in Windows as well (link).
(I’m only giving an alternative. I’m not against the post’s request)
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Well, in that sense, it also works with Homebrew on MacOS.
$ brew install --cask anki
To update all installed casks:
$ brew upgrade --cask
But, most people on Windows and MacOS don’t use package managers.
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The existence of an update button in About page could help folks who had dismissed the update pop up*
*Never seen the pop-up before, so idk what it looks like currently
Although there could be a message when using check updates for add-ons
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Yeah, I fairly regularly get notifications about add-on updates and I feel like that could definitely include updating the whole app.
Anyways, I’m in support of a “check for updates” button at least. Or, even better, some setting to check every time you boot up and notify on bug-fixes, minor updates, or major updates. And maybe even an option to skip the notification and just update automatically. Also, that all for the add-on updates. Frankly, I trust the devs enough for me to want to just always have the app up to date.
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For reference: This is the Check for updates popup
From How to disable update check on Windows
For context: the user was on 23.10, if he pressed yes, would they receive 23.12.1 or 24.06.3 (current latest)?
Is there a way to disable this build-in check for updates?
Responded to you in your own thread.
If you want to be notified about every release, you can achieve that by subscribing to GitHub notifications.
Thank you. Next time a complete newbie who probably thinks that 2FA has something to do with nuclear codes and Python is a snake asks me, “Why doesn’t Anki automatically download updates?” I’ll tell him to just subscribe to GitHub notifications.
In all seriousness though, why not make Anki update automatically?
I don’t think it’s useful, because it could compromise the functioning of many addons.
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I like the idea of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” because often times I don’t feel updating at all because it will not change anything either way.
My old netbook is still on Anki 21 and that’s the only version that works ((Arch Linux) Illegal instruction (core dumped) in 24.04). But as long as FSRS (which I really like) is in, then I may use it for more than 5 years.
All of the versions of Anki are just small fixes for addons or bugs. If you actually need it, then you can update it from there (from there, GitHub)
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The typical user doesn’t want or need to update to every single Anki version, and pushing out updates immediately causes problems for add-on authors. Because of these things, the in-app notifications are infrequent. So a more helpful answer to them is “relax and wait for Anki to suggest you upgrade after a new major release”.
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I wrote a reddit post about Anki 24.11 and all the changes, and these are some of the comments. So if anyone asks, “Why do we need automatic updating?” or “Why do we need a ‘Check for updates’ button?”, here’s why.
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Found this thread because my AnkiDroid updated, I got all the new FSRS version and the new stats, but for whatever reason I suppose its not considered a major enough version for the desktop app to notify me, so I had to uninstall/install from the website.
I’m not really sure I understand how a check for notifications button would confuse users. If the argument is normal users don’t want to even think about updates or notifications, then why would they click on the check for updates button? And I think users with heavy add-on use would know things could break. Perhaps there could even be a short warning message about add-on support before installation.
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