When I make a new option and it says “(used by 1 deck)” and I enable FSRS, why does it enable it for all decks? Other options like “New cards/day” etc. don’t apply to all decks, but only to the decks in the particular option group.
I get this issue in Anki 26.08.1.
It’s not a bug. Enabling FSRS is a global setting. Deck Options - Anki Manual
Because Anki is designed to work with a single scheduling algorithm.
FSRS is superior to SM-2, so no one needs to use them both, and there was no reason for them to be implemented to work in tandem within a single collection or study session.
A bit offtop, but that thing was always confusing to me as well.
Why FSRS toggle is located in individual deck options in the first place when other global scheduler settings are in Preferences → Scheduler? Those are synced with the collection too, so that shouldn’t be the problem.
That has been discussed a bit. There are a handful of global settings related to scheduling that are in the Options screen. They used to be marked with 
, but there was some amount of fuss about that a few years ago, so it was changed to 
.[1] I can’t quote chapter and verse for each of them as to why they are there and not in Preferences.
But I think FSRS is unique among them because everything else related to the algorithm settings is in that screen, just as it was for SM-2. Other than the toggle to enable FSRS, the rest of the FSRS settings are preset-specific, so I, for one, would hate to be giving users directions to go one place to enable FSRS, and then go a different place to adjust it.
The Reviewer/Scheduler settings that remain in Preferences are really more of the set-it-and-forget-it type of things that users don’t need to be overloaded with every time they want to adjust something in deck Options.
[Threads about that switch – here or in GitHub – are probably the most recent reference point, so look for those if you want more specifics.] ↩︎
Arguably the toggle has as much relation to SM-2 as it does to FSRS, since it basically selects between the two. Would make even more sense to make it a global dropdown menu, rather than a toggle, with “Custom scheduling” added as the third option it practically is. (And in case more alternative schedulers are added in the future, as is discussed from time to time, they would naturally fit in the list too)
Isn’t the FSRS toggle exactly that kind of a setting? I doubt anyone needs to switch it back and forth often when adjusting the parameters.
If it is, why isn’t it enabled by default?
And how is it superior?
I understand now. Toggling FSRS is global, but the FSRS parameters can be different (and optimized) for each individual preset.
I agree. I’m sure that’s also part of the reason why it’s in Options, with all of the algorithm settings.
I’m not sure that making the setting more complicated would serve beginning users – and I don’t think this is a place we need to cater more to advanced users.
It is still fairly new in the grand scheme of things – having been integrated into Anki less than 3 years ago – but it will be the default algorithm. That changeover competes with other development priorities.
Generally – it uses much more advanced formulas and customizes scheduling to each user.
Specifically – see: GitHub - open-spaced-repetition/srs-benchmark: A benchmark for spaced repetition schedulers/algorithms · GitHub .
Correct. That’s at the link I gave you in my first response.
I don’t see how leaving less options to sweat over makes it more complicated for beginners. In general, selecting schedulers is not something they should be concerned about at all. The specific case you are describing where everyone have to start from enabling FSRS before attempting to adjust anything is much better handled by the discussed change of the default.