Importing new cards using CSV replaces fields with pre-existing cards

Anki Help
1

The situation:
I have a Apple Numbers spreadsheet I export to csv to import into Anki.
The spreadsheet has four columns, and each of the columns always has plain text data.
My Anki deck is setup to receive the CSV, and map each of these four fields to four fields in Anki.

Each of the columns may have duplicate information. For example:

JavaScript Basics,Practice,JavaScript Basics,Required Practice
JavaScript Basics,Supercharge,JavaScript Basics,Creating Variables
JavaScript Basics,Supercharge,JavaScript Basics,Using Variables
JavaScript Basics,Supercharge,JavaScript Basics,Using True and False
JavaScript Basics,Supercharge,JavaScript Basics,Checking Number Equality
JavaScript Basics,Coding Challenge,JavaScript Basics,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Practice,HTML Intermediate,Required Practice
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Gathering Input
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Grouping Elements
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Building Lists
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Linking Webpages
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge

This spreadsheet is updating as I learn more about programming, with the idea I would import additional cards as I learn more.

The issue:
However, importing new data overwrites the old data, and creating duplicates.

For example:

HTML Intermediate,Practice,HTML Intermediate,Required Practice
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Gathering Input
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Grouping Elements
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Building Lists
HTML Intermediate,Supercharge,HTML Intermediate,Linking Webpages
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge

has now become:

HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge
HTML Intermediate,Coding Challenge,HTML Intermediate,Practice Random Challenge

A potential workaround has been to ‘preserve’ existing notes, and this only does so much as the issue remains, and could cause issues later if I do an import where ‘preserve’ hasn’t been enabled and I could lose all of my cards.

Has anyone else come across this? I am unsure how to address this issue as there is no visible error I can see.

2

Anki expects your first field to be unique, as it’s used for identifying duplicates. If your fields are not unique on their own but only when combined, you’ll either need to add some other unique value like an incrementing number, join the fields together, or disable updating during import.

3

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