I am having problems with FSRS. I recently optimized all presets for my decks. After that change it has significantly increased my workload of cards. I would like to reset my FSRS to the default 90% retention. Could I get some help figuring that out if possible/ why when I optimized did it decrease my threshold steps. With my old settings I had a retention rate of 93% so by optimizing I thought it would space out my cards more making my daily workload easier.
I’m sure we can help you figure this out, but we’ll definitely need more specifics.
First – to answer some of the questions it seems like you’re asking –
You can change your Desired Retention (DR) in your Options. You can also reset your parameters to the defaults there – but if you’ve optimized recently, and have a significant amount of review history, the parameters you have are much more likely to be accurate for you than the default parameters.
Does that mean learning/relearning steps? You should set those on your own, and not leave them blank for FSRS to choose them. FSRS doesn’t have a model for near-term memory – so blanking out your steps isn’t recommended for most users [and this still applies to FSRS-6].
Or if you mean something else, we’ll probably need more details to understand.
Common reasons for unexpected button intervals after optimization –
- Your preset doesn’t apply to all of the decks/subdecks you think it does – which would mean both that not all your review history is included in optimization, and those new parameters aren’t used for all of your cards. [Don’t just assume this is fine, but actually check. This is more common than you think. Consider using
Save to All Subdecksif you need to fix this.] - You don’t have enough review history to fully optimize yet. When you click
Optimize Current Preset, how many reviews does FSRS say it is counting? (If you don’t remember, click it again now to see, and then close without saving changes.) - You’ve limited your optimization limited in some way, like by changing the optimization filter, or adding an ignore-before date.
- You have a history of misusing Hard for answers you get wrong (when the only possible grade to give them is Again).
- The button intervals are fine and correct, just not what you’re expecting.
Think about which of those could be happening, and when you respond we’ll need to also see –
- Your optimized parameters as text and current Desired Retention (DR).
- A screenshot of the Card Info for a card this is happening to.
I pressed optimize all presets. When it went through the review history it was like 40,000 reviews. My learning steps meaning when I press good its how many days out I will see that card again. Since optimizing my new cards that I am unsuspending are clogging my reviews each day. Say I do 400 new cards, the next day I am seeing all 400 of those cards again plus all my scheduled reviews if that makes sense.
My current desired retention is 90%
optimized parameters are: 0.2120, 1.2931, 2.3065, 8.2956, 6.4133, 0.8334, 3.0194, 0.0010, 1.8722, 0.1666, 0.7960, 1.4835, 0.0614, 0.2629, 1.6483, 0.6014, 1.8729, 0.5425, 0.0912, 0.0658, 0.1542
This didn’t clarify very much. Did you check all of the things I suggested?
“Learning steps” are something specific – Deck Options - Anki Manual – and they only apply when cards are first introduced as New. I’m not sure if that’s really what you’re asking about (because the Card Info you posted definitely isn’t a New card), but if it is – what are your learning steps set to?
No, those are the default parameters.
Instead of estimating (“it was like …”), do what I suggested – click “Optimize Current” and it will report back to you exactly how many reviews it considered. Is that 40K?
The Card Info you posted is for a card that you’ve been studying for 6+ months, so obviously it’s not one of those New cards that is causing you problems.
You haven’t provided your actual parameters as text yet.
Also share some screenshots of the stats for the deck. Particularly, Reviews (choose the radio button that highlights your old and new workload), Retention, and Answer Buttons (choose 3 months).
I suspect that the issue is simply that you weren’t doing well enough for new cards with the old parameters so optimizing made the intervals shorter. The stats should hopefully tell.
That’s quite different from what you said initially!
Your retention is around 82% which is quite lower than 93% 90% (your desired retention) so my guess was right.
Do your decks have different desired retentions or what did you mean by 93%?
More things to note:
- Judging by the orange colors in the reviews graph, you’ve been introducing more new cards recently and so it’s natural to have more reviews.
- You use Easy quite a lot. Not sure if that’s a bad thing, but it’s unusual.
Understandable. I believe I was looking at my entire deck collection when I said 93% retention when looking at my stats. Is there any way to decrease my card load each day?
Decrease the desired retention to decrease the workload.