Deck list jumps to top every time I collapse/expand a deck

Anki Help
1

Whenever I click the +/- icon next to a deck to collapse or expand it, the deck list view immediately scrolls all the way back to the top. It happens on every deck, not just one specific one, and makes it hard to navigate a large deck hierarchy since I have to scroll back down every time after collapsing/expanding.

What I’ve tried:

  • Restarting Anki
  • Disabling add-ons
  • Checking database
  • Updating Anki

Anki version: 26.08.1
Operating system: Mac

Any idea what could be causing this or how to fix it?

2

I haven’t been able to reproduce this [tried with/out Preferences > Reduce Motion and Minimalist Mode], but I’m using a different OS and a different Anki version than you are. When it comes to QT/display issues, that can be a huge difference.

If anyone else wants to try to reproduce it, it would help if we have full details about your install. So, go to Anki > About – click Copy Debug Info – and paste that entire thing here.

You should also try the rest of the Troubleshooting Checklist – even the things that you don’t think are relevant.

3

I am able to reproduce the reported behavior. Anki 26.08.1, macOS 26.6.2.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. In the Decks screen, use the Create Deck function repeatedly to create many decks, enough to make vertical scrolling required to view the top and bottom decks. (You can also resize the window to be smaller, to make this easier.)
  2. Use Create Deck to create 2 decks named: “zzzzz” and “zzzzz::z”. This will create a “zzzzz” parent deck at the bottom of the list of decks.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of decks, so the top deck is hidden.
  4. Click on the “+” next to the “zzzzz” parent deck to expand it.
  5. Observe that the deck list has jumped to the top. The bottom-most “zzzzz” parent deck is now hidden. You have reproduced the behavior.
  6. Scroll back down to the bottom of the list of decks and click on the “-” next to the “zzzzz” parent deck to collapse it.
  7. Observe that the deck list has again jumped to the top, hiding the bottom-most “zzzzz” parent deck. You have reproduce the behavior again.
4

Can you try a couple other things –

  • Is the deck at the top of the list – where the display is jumping to – the “current” selected deck? Does it behave differently if a different deck is selected?

  • What do you have set for Preferences > Appearance > Reduce Motion and Minimalist Mode? Does it make any difference if you enable/disable those?

5

The jump-to-the-top behavior seems to occur regardless of whatever deck is selected. I experimented with the top-most deck, the bottom-most deck, the “zzzzz” parent deck, and the “zzzzz:z” subdeck selected.

I tested it, and the jump-to-the-top behavior occurs with both Reduce Motion and Minimalist Mode settings either enabled or disabled. Both were set to disabled (which I think is the default) during my initial testing.

However, I now see that there are times when intermittently, the jump-to-the-top behavior does not occur during the expand/collapse. At those times I instead see the window flash with the “Deck New Learn Due” briefly appearing (and the rest of the deck list appearing) as if it did jump to the top of the deck list before jumping back down to the starting position. Apart from the flashing, the behavior was as if the the deck list remained in the starting position.

The frequency of this new behavior was variable. At times, I could expand/collapse multiple times in a row before seeing the original jump-to-the-top behavior. At other times, I could not get the new behavior to occur and saw only the jump-to-the-top behavior.

During my testing, 3 times the Anki app unexpectedly quit/closed/crashed when I pressed the expand/collapse button. I started running Anki from the Terminal, and when the 2nd unexpected quit occurred, in the Terminal I saw:

Qt warning: Window position QRect(271,-29 750x710) outside any known screen, using primary screen 
Qt warning: Window position QRect(271,-29 750x710) outside any known screen, using primary screen

However, when the 3rd unexpected quit occurred, I did not see any unusual messages in the Terminal:

% /Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/Anki
2026-08-18 16:48:24.027 Anki[96001:1274323] No Python NSLog handler found. stdout/stderr will not be captured.
2026-08-18 16:48:24.028 Anki[96001:1274323] To capture stdout/stderr, add 'std-nslog' to your app dependencies.
Starting Anki 26.08.1...
2026-08-18 16:48:25,295:INFO:aqt.mediasrv: Serving on http://127.0.0.1:52536
Starting main loop...
%

(Unexpected quit occurred after Starting main loop....)

Edit: Added: I got the unexpected quit to occur a 4th time, again with no messages in the Terminal.

6

Thanks for digging into that a bit more!

@abdo Is this just Qt acting up? Or do you think there is something that could be fixed on our end?

7

The scroll issue looks like a quick fix. Logged here: Deck list jumps to top on collapsing/expanding decks · Issue #5377 · ankitects/anki · GitHub

The crash might be unrelated. @BenJamesBen are you using multiple monitors?

8

I also believe that the crash is unrelated.

I have only one physical monitor, but I have two (2) desktops/Spaces configured through the OS. I also sometimes use screen mirroring which creates an additional, 3rd Space. However, I reproduced the bug again just now without screen mirroring enabled, running Anki within a single Space and not switching to the other Space during testing.

Edit: Added:

I reproduced the crash again just now, intentionally using a different profile with only a few decks to avoid the Issue #5377 jump-to-the-top bug. This seems to be further evidence that the crash isn’t related to the bug.

I don’t have an entirely reliable way to reproduce the crash, but here are the steps I performed:

  1. In the Decks window where there is a parent deck.
  2. Repeatedly expand and collapse the parent deck by clicking on the “+”/“-” buttons.
  3. Frequently I would get tired of this, temporarily halt testing, and switch to another window to do something else. I would just leave Anki running, with the Decks window still on my screen in the background.
  4. Then, I would return to Anki and resume testing for another bit of time, repeatedly clicking on the “+”/“-” buttons.
  5. Sometimes the crash would occur immediately upon the first expand/collapse operation after resuming testing. Other times the crash would occur somewhere in the middle of testing.
  6. Because I was just clicking the buttons over and over again quickly and somewhat mindlessly, I did not notice which operation, expand or collapse, would result in the crash. So, if the crashes might be occurring exclusively during the expand action or the collapse action, I am unaware of the pattern.
9

Hi, this is happening to me too. What I’ve tried:

  • Restarting Anki
  • Disabling add-ons
  • Checking database
  • Updating Anki

Anki version: 26.08.1
Operating system: Mac

10

The fix has been pushed already:

It will be available in the next release.