I’m struggling with Anki’s learning steps and would appreciate your advice.
My Problem
When I get a card wrong, I press “Again” and it reappears after 15 minutes (my first learning step).
If I get it wrong again and press “Again” a second time, it still comes back after 15 minutes.
This short interval means I often recall the answer from short-term memory, not true retention. I want to be forced to recall it the next day for deeper learning.
What I Want
First “Again”: Card comes back after 15 minutes.
Second “Again”: Card comes back the next day (e.g., 23 hours later).
Why I Want to Use “Again” (Learning/Red State)
Cards in the “Again” (red/learning) state are easy to spot and prioritize.
They stay in learning mode, so I can track which cards I’m struggling with.
If I press “Good” or “Hard”, the card leaves learning mode, making it harder to monitor weak areas.
What I’ve Tried
Setting learning steps to 15m 23h doesn’t work—“Again” always repeats the 15-minute step, no matter how many times I fail.
I know pressing “Good” moves the card forward, but I only want that after I answer correctly.
My Question
Is there any way (settings, add-ons, or workflow) to make Anki show a card the next day after pressing “Again” twice, while keeping it in the learning (red) state?
Or, is there a best practice for this situation to avoid just memorizing cards in the short term?
Any advice or creative solutions would be much appreciated!
In Anki Desktop you can press “-” to bury the current card or “=” to bury all the cards of the current note. In AnkiDroid, you can use gestures or customize the “App bar buttons”.
To me, it seems like you’re not using the functionality as intended: Learning state != difficult cards. “Again” means that you can’t even recall the card right now, so it needs to be repeated immediately (shorter than before). Cards that you can recall will inevitably move to the next learning step, even difficult ones. You should not aim to change this core behavior. Note that “again” means you literally cannot recall the card, so you’re at 0. So it makes no sense to have it shown tomorrow, that’s what you would press “hard” or “good” for.
Instead, Anki has a measure of which cards are difficult. The “Ease” will decrease every time you struggle with a card, so that the card is shown to you more often in the future (which is exactly what you should want). You can sort your cards by the “Ease” column (which is hidden by default, I think). Then you’ll see which ones are most difficult for you. The cards do not need to stay in learning mode.
Let me know if this is clear and helps you with what you want to achieve.
That’s subjective. I personally study lapsed cards on the spot and then let FSRS decide when to show the card next, which is usually in 1 day. I don’t like short intervals and my approach has been working fine for me.
It makes no sense to show the card over and over again if the user can’t remember it in any way. There is a proven benefit from viewing cards that were reviewed after sleep. But there is no evidence for the benefits of multiple short intervals.
Thanks for the suggestions about add-ons.
Unfortunately, that’s not a viable solution for me, as I do almost all of my reviews on an iPad, where add-ons aren’t supported during review sessions.
The main reason I want these cards to appear the next day is to improve my workflow. I want to spend a single, concentrated block of time reviewing all my difficult learning cards at once, rather than having them pop up individually and interrupt my review flow throughout the day.
Given that I’m limited to standard iOS features, is there another method to achieve this kind of “next day” batch review for cards I’ve repeatedly failed?
The main reason I want these cards to appear the next day is to improve my workflow. I want to spend a single, concentrated block of time reviewing all my difficult learning cards at once, rather than having them pop up individually and interrupt my review flow throughout the day.