I originally clicked “download” when I originally wanted to sync my decks for anki to other devices. How do I change this so my computer uploads decks to anki web so I can get them on other devices?
I think you don’t really understand how Anki synchronizes your collection. It’s not directional, Anki will try to make everyone have the latest version possible of your collection (and review history) even if, say, you have reviewed on two different devices. That is to say, Anki will make everything Just Work as you would expect (when you press “Sync”, what you have done will get propagated, and if someone else has done something, it will get merged properly).
However, there are some exceptions: some actions modify your collection in a way that makes it impossible to merge. To solve this, Anki will force a one-way sync: if two collections can’t be merge, Anki will simply ask you which one to keep, and overwrite the other. Note that this is a one time procedure: once you have done your one-way sync, the two collections can be merged peacefully again (until you make another non-mergeable action). This is what Anki meant when it asked you whether you wanted to download or upload the collection: the former choice erases the local collection, while the latter erases the remote collection.
If you accidentally overwrote your cards, you may be able to recover them from a backup: Restoring an Automatic Backup (Recovering from Data Loss) - Frequently Asked Questions
After you’ve uploaded from the device with your data, and downloaded on any other devices, syncs after that should work normally. Please check out the intro video for more: Cloud Sync - AnkiMobile Manual
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