Is there a way to edit an anki deck to make it compatible with an old anki version (that uses V1 scheduler)?

Anki Help
1

TL,DR: I would like a way/hack to take a modern anki deck, and edit/make it compatible with an older anki version that uses the V1 scheduler and runs on older devices (ipad2/iphon5). I failed to do this in the recommended way of using a modern anki version (with v3 scheduler) and exporting it with the box checked to make it compatible with older versions. I suspect it is some sqlite line of code that breaks it, because many modern decks are perfectly imported and used, while others fail to import, and give this errour:

Import failed. Traceback (most recent call last): File “/usr/share/anki/aqt/importing.py”, line 339, in importFile importer.run() File “/usr/share/anki/anki/importing/apkg.py”, line 39, in run Anki2Importer.run(self) File “/usr/share/anki/anki/importing/anki2.py”, line 23, in run self._prepareFiles() File “/usr/share/anki/anki/importing/anki2.py”, line 35, in _prepareFiles raise Exception(“V2 scheduler must be enabled to import this file.”) Exception: V2 scheduler must be enabled to import this file

LONG VERSION. I have an Ipad 2 and an Iphone 5 lying around in my room, that were e-waste. But i discovered almost by chance that Anki actually still works on them (including synchronizing by the cloud). Since i use anki a lot, and get distracted easily, i decided to repurpose them as anki focused machines, and have been studying in them. But, due to terrible apple policy of not allowing external instalation and also not letting updating software after a while (even though both the devices could still run the apps effortlessly), the anki version i’m using on them is stuck in some ye olde iOS version that still uses the V1 scheduler.

I read some thread on the anki forum that the developer basically said that the anki cloud will always work with all versions, but they would not be updating anki to be retrocompatible with V1. If i use a modern anki version, the decks get updated with V2 or V3 scheduler, and i can not use them anymore in the anki of the devices. SO i take care to only using that anki account with old versions compatible with the V1 scheduler.

I have been able to make my own decks, and install quite a lot of others. I only do text based and text and sound decks. Like this. But there are other decks that give an error i can not progress (see above). Is there any way to edit those decks to be compatible with older anki ? There is nothing complex in the cards themselves, and i tried editing them to fit the older program note types, so i suspect it is something in the scheduler of the sqlite database.

2

You may be able to avoid the issue by exporting cards without scheduling, or by exporting with an Anki version that supported both v1 and v2, and downgrading to v1 first.

1 Like
3

I did try to export cards without scheduling, it still fails. I will try the second one. i accept suggestions of which, there are several of them.

4

I tried the second suggestion. I downloaded 2 anki windows versions: 2.19 from jan2020 and 2.1.20. Both i had to check the box to use the 2.1 scheduler, so i suppose the V1 was still the default. It didnt work, still had an errour when importing:
Import failed.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “aqt\importing.py”, line 387, in importFile
File “lib\site-packages\anki\importing\apkg.py”, line 37, in run
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode byte 0xb5 in position 1: invalid start byte

Importação falhou.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “aqt\importing.py”, line 385, in importFile
File “lib\site-packages\anki\importing\apkg.py”, line 37, in run
UnicodeDecodeError: ‘utf-8’ codec can’t decode byte 0xb5 in position 1: invalid start byte

5

PROBLEM SOLVED

Hey, thanks Dae, i finally managed to make it work. I extended your 2nd solution. i will write here for everyone else to reference. it actually was necessary to make 2 steps of import/export:

  1. I opened the modern Anki, imported a deck. Then i checked the box for compatibility with previus anki versions, checked the include multimedia box, left unchecked the boxes for schedule and deck presets, then exported as apkg.
  2. I opened a previous anki version i downloaded, the anki 2.1.38 exe of dec/2020. The V3 schedule arrived in 2021, so i think it is the last one compatible with V1 and V2. Then i exported the deck as apkg, checked box to include media, left unchecked the scheduling box (to not include it).
  3. I opened the old anki version i’m actually using. It then worked without problems.

I guess there are scheduling aspects that accumulated with time, so i need to format the deck twice untill the older anki on iOS will accept it.

2 Likes