Log out to log in to a different anki account

I don’t see the option to log out of my anki account on desktop. I would either like to log out and log in to different accounts or…
I would like to have more than one instance of anki on my desktop to log in to different accounts.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

This sounds like a case for profiles. Each profile can sync to only one AnkiWeb account. You can switch profiles in the app at any time, and no logging in and logging out is necessary once a profile is set up. You can read about them here:

https://docs.ankiweb.net/profiles.html

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Thank you garrettm30, unfortunately this won’t do what I want.
Only a single profile can be synced to an AnkiWeb account.
I need to be able to sync to different AnkiWeb accounts.

Yes, you’d need multiple profiles to sync to multiple AnkiWeb accounts. But you didn’t exactly say why you feel you need multiple AnkiWeb accounts. Take a look at the FAQ about that. Synchronizing multiple profiles - Frequently Asked Questions

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I have people in rural South Africa who uses Anki for learning different subjects on their phones. They do not have access to computers, so the idea is to use my PC to setup their accounts and manage it from my PC.

I don’t want them to be confused with different profiles or seeing each other’s “stuff”.
I hope it makes sense.

At the moment I’ve setup virtual machines to accomplish this, but was wondering if there is a better way. I thought there might be a way for example to run multiple instances of Anki that don’t share the same data. Thanks for the input Danika_Dakika.

You can run multiple Anki instances by installing the application in different folders. Some users use different Anki version on the same PC

Got it. And yes, multiple profiles on your end is an exact solution for this. I’ve used this to setup a collection for someone else to get them started.

You’ll be able to setup and admin their collections, sync each collection/profile to a single AnkiWeb account, and switch between them in the profile switcher. On their end, they will only be syncing to one AnkiWeb account, so they won’t see the other profiles.

There’s no need for multiple installs, or logging out/in.

Thanks chrislg, I’ve actually tried that and it didn’t work for me. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. After intstalling it the 1st time, I installed it again but chose a different folder for the 2nd installation. But opening either one of the two showed the same decks. But I’ll try again, now that I know it should work and try figure out where I’m going wrong.

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Thank you again for the response. I’ll try and see if I can replicate what you suggest tomorrow when I have more energy for it, :crazy_face:.

I’m still advocating for profile-switching instead having separate installs! But there’s a solution to this too.

To get the 2nd install to look at a different Anki2 data folder, you need to pass it that instruction on startup – Managing Files - Anki Manual . That page also describes how to open Anki into a specific profile, or force the profile switcher to appear on every startup.

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Oh wow, thank you Danika_Dakika, this is exactly what I was looking for, (what I had in mind with my limited knowledge). Like a deer in the headlights I’m not sure how to go about the profile-switching method since it doesn’t seem to work the way you advocate.

I will try this…
If you always want to use a custom folder location, you can modify your shortcut to Anki. On Windows, right-click on the shortcut, choose Properties, select the Shortcut tab, and add “-b \path\to\data\folder” after the path to the program, which should leave you with something like

"C:\Program Files\Anki\anki.exe" -b "C:\AnkiDataFolder"

One related question though, where/how do I find the “AnkiDataFolder” presuming I installed Anki in the default location on Windows?
“C:\Users\Hannes\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki”

“Switch Profile” is the first item in the File menu.
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From there you can create new profiles and switch to any of your other profiles.
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When you create and open a new profile, it will be just like you are a new user opening Anki except because this is the same install, you will have access to all of your installed add-ons, and some of your preferences will be carried over. You can add all of the notes/cards/decks/templates that the user will need, and then set up sync for just that profile to the user’s AnkiWeb account.

Most users want to open the same profile every day, so Anki skips the Profile-picker and opens the most recent profile. If you want it to always go to the Profile-picker first, you’ll use the -p parameter with a dummy name, as described in the link I posted already.

That’s your “Anki” program folder – where the app itself is installed.

But all of your profiles are stored together in your “Anki2” folder (AnkiDataFolder in those examples) – each in their own folder matching the name of the profile. See the page I already linked for (1) the default location for your Anki2 folder, and (2) a summary of what each profile folder contains.

You would use the -b parameter to designate a different location for your Anki2 folder. But I don’t think you need that here.

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Thank you profoundly. :smiley:
This works for me.

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