New to Anki. I created an account, downloaded the desktop app (Windows), and renamed the default deck to “Tachelhit” (as per “leananki” tutorial).
But then, because I wasn’t sure how to best create cards, I imported decks from “xefjord” (which didn’t feature Latin, Aramean, and Tachelhit/Tamazight decks, so I went with “Breton” instead). As soon as the first deck was imported, I lost view of my “Tachelhit” deck. I only had one deck visible (which was “Breton”).
I synced the data and went to the web version of Anki, but my Tachelhit deck was still not visible.
I tried to create a new “Tachelhit” deck (using both Windows and web versions), but after entering the name, nothing happened (no deck, and no error either).
I tried creating a new “Blah blah” deck, which worked, and then tried to rename it to “Tachelhit”, but it got instead renamed to “Tachelhit+”.
How can I retrieve my “default” deck (which I renamed to “Tachelhit”), so that I have a clean deck name (that doesn’t end with “+”)?
From the manual, this is what the problem is about —
Anki starts with a deck called “default”; any cards which have somehow become separated from other decks will go here. Anki will hide the default deck if it contains no cards and you have added other decks. Alternatively, you may rename this deck and use it for other cards.
Default deck stays hidden when no cards are in that deck and you have other decks in Anki.
A Google search initially did not yield any result on my end (only things about cards missing, even when using exact-term search), that’s why I ended up posting here.
I will delete the decks I have imported, which should make the default deck visible again, and then import again after renaming the default deck to something like “__default”, which should prevent any name collision in the future.
I still think it is an obvious bug that should be addressed (e.g. auto-rename the default deck to “__default” when hiding it, or even not hide it in the first place and let the user decide what to do with it, because why not let the user use this deck to add cards related to a topic other than the one that was imported?).
PS: the answer in the link you gave does not work, at least for me: I don’t see the default deck in the “browse” screen sidebar. It does not appear either when I try the “move to deck…” action.
Once you get the Default deck to appear again, I’d suggest renaming it to “Default” – that will free-up “Tachelhit” to be used as a deck name again. The Default deck will always have this special “disappearing” characteristic – but it is important that it exist as a fall-back, because cards have to be in a deck.
Another option is to start over with a new profile, but I think if you are deleting all of your imported notes/cards/decks anyway, you’ll get to the same place.
Is this a bug though? I’m not sure opening an issue in github is necessary.
The main Anki developers are here in these forums regularly, and if they have wiser counsel or think there was a reasonable remedy for what you saw – I believe we’ll see them speaking up here.
For example – from the lead developer on a recent post about another Default-deck-related mystery:
Then hide it from the very beginning (and give it an internal name, like “__internal__”)
Whatever the reason is:
It is poor UX (since several people got baffled by this bug)
It should be easily fixed (I have been a lead web dev for like 18 years), e.g. hide it from the start and display a big “create deck” button
Anki seems to strongly excel in LTM training (I’m no expert in the domain, but it seems to be universally praised for that), and I’m aware that volunteers are doing a super great job with this free app, however I think it could be acceptable to say that there are a few UX issues in the webapp / desktop client that might benefit from just a bit of polishing (a few examples that comes to mind after a couple of hours of use: it makes no sense to separate the card-type “fields” and “cards” as they should be strongly linked, why limit to a single input field (for “type-in”), the menu is sometimes weird, when creating a custom study it should reset the filters when creating a new one (doesn’t seem to be the case, plus it should display how many tags are selected above the multiselect lists), things like that – and there is also the “default deck” thing, which should be called something like “hidden fallback deck”)
Known bugs can be documented too
Well in any case I wouldn’t want to hold forth on this, I just thought it could be improved, but if people are reluctant, and considering I am a total newcomer here, I will bow down and excuse myself (sincerely) gladly
(and give it an internal name, like “__internal__”)
(I’m no expert in the domain, but it seems to be universally praised for that), and I’m aware that volunteers are doing a super great job with this free app, however I think it could be acceptable to say that there are a few UX issues in the webapp / desktop client that might benefit from just a bit of polishing 
(a few examples that comes to mind after a couple of hours of use: it makes no sense to separate the card-type “fields” and “cards” as they should be strongly linked, why limit to a single input field (for “type-in”), the menu is sometimes weird, when creating a custom study it should reset the filters when creating a new one (doesn’t seem to be the case, plus it should display how many tags are selected above the multiselect lists), things like that – and there is also the “default deck” thing, which should be called something like “hidden fallback deck”)