Latest macOS font compatibility

[kakikake]

I updated apple os to the latest: Sequoia 15.7.1 then I can’t use Anki on MacBook because the characters on cards are all displayed as question mark in a square box.

I’m wondering if Anki is sending out a bug fix or that sort to fix this critical problem related to the latest apple ios?

[Danika_Dakika]

See if this helps you –

Anki shows ".notdef glyph" symbol with any text inputted even previously

It sounds like you were using a font that you no longer have access to. If this is happening in the Browse window editor and the Note Add/Edit windows – check the Editing Font – Adding/Editing - Anki Manual . If this is happening on cards that you study – check the card templates and Styling for your note type – Styling & HTML - Anki Manual .

[kakikake]

Thank you for the replay. I’m glad someone gave me some ideas on what was happening.

Anki was working fine til I updated MacBook iOS.

Is this MacBook generated problem?

[Danika_Dakika]

Once you figure out what font changed and where it was coming from, you’ll have a better sense of what caused the problem. Anki is interacting with fonts just as it always has.

[kakikake]

My font was arial. I hoped arial was like a universal font.

Which font would you recommend to avoid this problem in the further?

[PeterH]

I have the same problem (symptom) today, and I can’t (yet) trace it to a missing font…

1. I upgraded to Macos 15.7.1 a little while ago.
2. I mostly use Anki on my iPhone and only use Ankiweb when adding sounds.
3. I tried upgrading my Ankiweb version, but this has not helped.
4. I checked the font on a sample card.

I hope I can attach screenshots to show all of the above.

Thoughts?

[Anon_0000]

I had told others with this problem on a mac to change their font in the past, which had always solved the issue for them. So most likely, something is wrong with the Arial font (or whatever font mac uses to display / substitute for Arial).

What if you open an app like LibreOffice Writer (or similar) and try to type in Arial? Or if you reinstall Arial on your mac (no idea how, I’m a linux user)?

Edit: Also try AnkiWebView Inspector on your card and check what it uses in the “computed” tab. E.g. I get this:

(I don’t use Arial though, so obviously it doesn’t show Arial for me)

[PeterH]

Thank you for this fast and spot-on reply! I just used the MacOS Font Book app to firstly remove the problem Arial font files and then restore them (Settings | Advanced | Reset Fonts). Bingo! Everything fine again.

[Barclad]

After migrating to Tahoe the anki app does’nt show cards or note properly.
every single character in all fields are presented as a question mark.

Any suggestion?

Thanks

[Danika_Dakika]

See suggestions above.

[Barclad]

Thanks. solved.

[Doctor_X]

THIS IS THE ANSWER for MAC.

Sorry for the shouting but I want it to stand out.

[philosophaster]

For some reason, all of my decks are showing both answers and responses as boxes with question marks. I can still copy/paste the boxes to Word, and everything shows up as it should, so the data isn’t lost. But I have no idea why the default font, Arial, wouldn’t be displaying correctly.

(Note as well that the arrow under “more” is a box too, is that important?)

Everything is fine on the home screen. It’s only in study mode that the problem happens.

I’m not sure what triggered this - perhaps a new OS on my Mac? It started on the prior version of Anki, and I upgraded but the problem has persisted.

Thanks so much for your help!

[philosophaster]

I didn’t see any queries matching mine before I posted - now I see the same problem in the links at the bottom. Feel free to delete this one!