Images missing from anki computer

Anki Help
1

Hi,

I have already searched online to see if there is any solution for this, but I cannot seem to find a clear easy one. I have downloaded one shared deck from someone I know as well as one deck from AnkiHub and they have both come up with missing media. I have already tried downloading them again with a different profile, same effect.

I have searched for the images in the missing media folder, and I did find them on there. Therefore, I do not understand what the issue is / how to fix this as especially with the offical anki hub decks, there shouldn’t be this kind of issue. I would really appreciate some help with this, thank you.

image
image678×520 19.5 KB

2

It might happen because anki doesn’t have access to the collection folder. You can try adding an image to a note to test it and see if it pops up in there

3

How do i do this please:) do you mean adding it from the missing media folder?

4

Any image will do, from desktop or any other folder. You can just drag and drop it to any field in a note. If there are no errors, and the image will show up in the collection folder, then you don’t have a permissions problem. And it can be broken media links in the deck. A proper link should look like this:

2026-04-10_15-44
2026-04-10_15-44681×359 42.6 KB

cloze_2: I didn’t have proper permissions and it threw an error.

audio_2: that’s how it’s supposed to look

5

Yes, I just tried this, i just dragged it from the media collection file into the anki. For some of them, it is most likely a broken media link but for others, the image came up. Is there a way for me to get all the working images into their relevant cards without having to do it one by one manually? Thanks again!

6

When you dragged them from the collection folder, did they show up in the same folder? Anki copies whatever image you drag into the right folder, so if for some reason you have two profiles and two collection folders, they each are tied only to their respective collection and can’t see each other files.

For example:

/home/skafiend/.var/app/net.ankiweb.Anki/data/Anki2/Collection_1/collection.media

/home/skafiend/.var/app/net.ankiweb.Anki/data/Anki2/Collection_2/collection.media

Collection_1 doesn’t see files from Collection_2 and vice versa.

To make sure that your profile uses the right collection folder:

Click Tools → Check media → View files.

Also check media shows:

  • Missing files: basically, notes have references, but the collection has no files
  • Unused files: ⁨files in the collection folder, but no notes are associated with them
7

It’s not clear from the thread if you’ve –

  1. Confirmed that the shared deck included the media. A shared deck is not showing images/playing audio - Anki FAQs
  2. Confirmed whether your AnkiHub deck has finished downloading all media. If it’s a lot of media, it might take a few tries.
  3. Run Tools > Check Media to determine what media is listed as “missing” – Media - Anki Manual.

That media check in #3 will also show you “unused” media. While it’s usually a good idea for you to clean that up, using “Delete Unused” [especially since you have over 10 GB of media in your account] – you shouldn’t do that right now. Hold off, just in case some of those files are the missing media you’re looking for.

8

  1. i am not sure about the shared deck including the media - its not all media that isnt there its just in some of it - i believe they downloaded one big deck with lots of sub decks all in one and it is only in one of the sub decks the media isn’t there - i am happy to accept maybe it is just broken links

  2. the anki hub deck had indeed finished downloading thats why i was confused especially as this happened soon after i downloaded the shared deck

  3. i have done the run tools for checkng media to see what is missing and some of the missing media (i obviously couldn’t check it all) was in the missing media folder

10

Have you looked at the underlying HTML for a field that references one of these broken/missing images [click < > above the field]? Is it a locally stored file or a link to remote media?

To clarify – I was asking specifically about media. Even if the text of the deck had downloaded, are you sure the media had? If you are, this could be an issue with that specific AnkiHub deck, or the AnkiHub download process, you should search the AnkiHub support community about that – https://community.ankihub.net/ .

If a file doesn’t show up in your note, and is listed as missing in the media check, but the file actually exists in your collection.media folder (for that same profile, Managing Files - Anki Manual), you need to look at that file more closely. Is the filename slightly different – like using - instead of _, truncated, using special characters, etc.?

11
  1. yes, so i looked at the underlying html for a field, went to my media collection, found the one with the exact same file name, for example:

image
image778×252 14.1 KB

image
image1524×178 45 KB

image
image498×468 37.2 KB

as you can see, this is what it says. whatever the reason is for it not working, not sure how to fix that as i also do not have the ability to get the deck sent me again.

  1. with the anki hub - i will check again, that deck isn’t that important to me right now i have exams coming up soon (1 week) so just trying to prioritise

  2. i have been trying to be careful with the names, again please feel free to correct me if i have done it wrong in the screen shots i showed u

12

The files are apparently corrupted. This used to be an issue in an older version of the AnkiHub add-on where if media download fails halfway through it can result in incomplete files. These files stick there in your media folder as AnkiHub didn’t check their integrity.

You should check if you have the latest add-on version first. Please go to Tools > Add-ons > Check for Updates. Hopefully this will fix the issue in your AnkiHub deck at least.