Database Corrupt Error: database disk image is malformed

Anki Help
1

I found one forum topic that was discussing this, I tried everything possible on there and I used ChatGPT to help me with a “manual upload” that included these instructions I have copy and pasted below. It has been over an hour and a half and the file is still importing. I will be leaving it overnight to see if it is just taking a while. Please I need help step is in 4 days and I use anki religiously to review incorrect Uworld and to review topics but I am unable to access it all together. I have tried to delete the app, synch from another device and try to upload to anki web. I will try anything at this point.

Screenshot 2026-03-13 at 8.40.14 PM
Screenshot 2026-03-13 at 8.40.14 PM532×528 45.4 KB

Step 1: Force Quit Anki

On Mac:

  1. Press Command + Option + Esc

  2. Select Anki

  3. Click Force Quit

If that doesn’t work:

  1. Open Activity Monitor

  2. Search Anki

  3. Click it

  4. Press the X (Force Quit)

Step 2: Open your Anki data folder

  1. Open Finder

  2. Press Command + Shift + G

  3. Paste this:

~/Library/Application Support/Anki2
  1. Press Enter

Step 3: Open your profile folder

You will see something like:

User 1

Open it.

Step 4: Go to backups

Open the backups folder.

You will see files like:

collection-2026-03-13-xxxx.anki2
collection-2026-03-12-xxxx.anki2

Step 5: Restore a backup

  1. Copy the most recent backup.

  2. Go back to the User 1 folder.

  3. Rename the broken file:

collection.anki2 → collection_corrupt.anki2

  1. Paste the backup file.

  2. Rename it to:

collection.anki2

Step 6: Reopen Anki

Now open Anki again.
Your decks should load normally.

Very important after it opens

Immediately:

Sync → Upload to AnkiWeb

so the fixed database is saved.

2

On principle, I don’t proofread chatbot guesses about what to do.

These are the instructions you should follow to recover from database corruption – Managing Files - Anki Manual . It starts with running Check Database to see if it can be fixed. If it can’t, you can restore your last backup from before the corruption, or force a one-way sync from another device to overwrite the corrupt database. Only after that would you need to resort to very carefully trying to repair your database.

I’m not sure what you’re importing, but your collection isn’t that large, so it shouldn’t take that long to sync. You do have over 9 GB of media in your collection, which would be an issue for import/export, but not for a one-way sync.

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