# Lost all 19,232 of my Media files
**URL:** https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911
**Category:** Syncing & AnkiWeb
**Created:** [February 20, 2026, 8:18am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911 "2026-02-20T08:18:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 8:18am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/1 "2026-02-20T08:18:32Z")
I updated the anki, then I saw images did not load and I was freaking out so I went to the backup and choose a recent one and it is still not there on Anki or Anki web but it shows 12929 files missing only because I used a recovery app on the computer called Recuva to recover some of the deleted images… can you please help, I’m really freaking out right now.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/2 "2026-02-20T09:17:23Z")
That is a very confusing description of events. I will try to help you, but you’re going to have to talk me through it more clearly.
I can’t tell whether you think this had something to do with a version update in Anki (which would be nearly impossible), with syncing (also unlikely), or with manually deleting them from your `collection.media` folder using a 3rd-party app.
In addition to clarifying that – what devices do you have synced with your AnkiWeb account? The email address you used to post here only has an old inactive account, so you haven’t been using that for syncing. Even if you deleted the files on your computer, you would still have them on AnkiWeb – as long as you don’t sync from desktop Anki – and still have them on other devices you use – as long as you don’t sync those devices.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 11:15am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/4 "2026-02-20T11:15:12Z")
(post deleted by author)
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/5 "2026-02-20T15:22:48Z")
You don’t need to post your email address here publicly – you’re welcome to edit that out of your message. But you haven’t given me much more information about what happened.
I can see you also sync AnkiDroid to your account, so you should be able to use that to restore anything that is missing on your computer.
1. Enable airplane mode on your Android device, so it’s not connected to the internet.
2. Open AnkiDroid – which won’t be able to auto-sync.
3. `Settings > Sync > AnkiWeb account > Log Out`.
4. Connect your device to the internet again.
5. Log In to your AnkiWeb account again, and Sync.
That will force a rescan of your media, and the files will be restored on AnkiWeb. 19K is a lot of files, so that will take some time, and maybe a few tries. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to sync your computer and the files will be restored there.
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### Author:  [@2Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/2Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/6 "2026-02-20T16:49:19Z")
So this is me on a next account because I was silence. I updated my anki to the newest version on the 18th of February, 2026 and deleted the old version off my drive. After that I saw it was syncing but when I got home from school on 19th of February, 2026 I realized that all my pics were missing….. it was 19,232 missing files. So I tried to use a backup specifically the one from 18th and 17th of February, 2026 and that was not working, I tried to download it from ankiweb and it was not working. So I then tried a next backup….it was not working still…..then I went back to an up to date back one specifically from the 18th of February… tried syncing and there was still no pictures. After that I downloaded RECUVA to get deleted files and I only got 6,000 and something pictures back….. that’s why it now says 12929 were missing. I then came to the forum to ask for help and yh………. when I return home from class which is in the next 2 hours, I will then do what you told me to do in the reply above^… Thank you so much for the replies so far.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 7:38pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/7 "2026-02-20T19:38:36Z")
[I removed that automatic flag from your original account right away, but the system didn’t lift the Silence like it was supposed to. Sorry about that.]
> [@2Background-Fan-6154](#):
>
> I updated my anki to the newest version on the 18th of February, 2026 and deleted the old version off my drive.
You shouldn’t have needed to delete anything if you just updated versions.
Do you know what you deleted? Your media is stored with the rest of your collection in your `Anki2` data folder – but installer/launcher/program files [are stored elsewhere](https://docs.ankiweb.net/files.html#program-files), so deleting those shouldn’t have changed anything in your personal data.
> [@2Background-Fan-6154](#):
>
> So I tried to use a backup … and that was not working, I tried to download it from ankiweb and it was not working.
Automatic backups don’t include media, and one-way syncs are separate from media syncing, so neither of those would help if you really deleted your `collection.media`.
> [@2Background-Fan-6154](#):
>
> After that I downloaded RECUVA to get deleted files and I only got 6,000 and something pictures back
I’m not familiar with that app, but is there any chance it would recover the rest of them?
Have you also checked in your recycle bin?
* * *
The reason I’m asking all of these questions – and gave you the method using your other device – is that there is a way to restore recently deleted media on the AnkiWeb servers, but depending on the status of the account, it can cause syncing to be fussy afterwards, and I’d like to avoid that for you if we can.
But now that I can see your account, I do see that a large quantity of media was deleted recently. If nothing else works, we can fall back on a server-side restore of that.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 8:41pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/8 "2026-02-20T20:41:06Z")
> [@Danika\_Dakika](#):
>
> Do you know what you deleted? Your media is stored with the rest of your
Hey so (i) I did not delete the collection media I just uninstalled anki and reinstalled the newest version (which was stupid on my part but anki was lagging) and (ii) I did check my recycle bin nothing was there on the on recovery…..as I did not delete the collectionmedia or anything from anki…I just removed anki completely from the drive and then reinstallled it.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/9 "2026-02-20T20:52:07Z")
> [@Background-Fan-6154](#):
>
> I just removed anki completely from the drive
On Windows, running “uninstall” for the app doesn’t delete any of your collection data. You must have manually deleted something.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 9:00pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/10 "2026-02-20T21:00:46Z")
I promise I didn’t, they did ask me to remove all anki stuff from program x86 account as I was uninstalling, I went to recyle bin and nothing pertaining anki was therebut I did that before on my old laptop and all my images was still there when I reinstalled and sync it on my next laptop (this was 2 years ago). I am currently doing what you said to do on ankidroid and I included a pic to show you.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/12 "2026-02-20T21:31:28Z")
Don’t try to sync on this device until you’re completely done syncing on AnkiDroid, and you’re happy with the media situation there (i.e., Check Media gives a good result). If you have any add-ons that automatically run sync, you should disable them.
You might need to sync a few times on AnkiDroid to make sure all the media has synced. Once you are done with that, you can do [steps 3-5](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/5) on desktop too.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/13 "2026-02-20T22:04:13Z")
> [@Danika\_Dakika](#):
>
> I can see you also sync AnkiDroid to your account, so you should be able to use that to restore anything that is missing on your computer.
>
> 1. Enable airplane mode on your Android device, so it’s not connected to the internet.
> 2. Open AnkiDroid – which won’t be able to auto-sync.
> 3. `Settings > Sync > AnkiWeb account > Log Out`.
> 4. Connect your device to the internet again.
> 5. Log In to your AnkiWeb account again, and Sync.
>
> That will force a rescan of your media, and the files will be restored on AnkiWeb. 19K is a lot of files, so that will take some time, and maybe a few tries. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to sync your computer and the files will be restored there.
It’s still saying 12945 files are missing ☹
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2026, 11:23pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/14 "2026-02-20T23:23:38Z")
On AnkiDroid? Did you check what it said _before_ you logged out and re-synced?
When was the last time before today that you ran a media check? Have you considered the possibility that your collection was already “missing” the 12K files, and in this incident you only accidentally deleted the 6K files – which you’ve already been able to recover?
Had you already synced AnkiDroid after the files were deleted?
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 6:56am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/15 "2026-02-21T06:56:53Z")
I believe so because the media sync is not working at all…..still says the 12945 missing files 🥲
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 8:05am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/16 "2026-02-21T08:05:04Z")
I don’t know which of the questions that’s an answer to.
However, just because files are listed as “missing” doesn’t mean they are files you need, or files you had. If you go put `[sound:123.mp3]` in the field of a note, that will show up in your missing list as well.
So – _after_ restoring the 6K files, have you checked your notes/cards and found media missing that you know was in your collection recently?
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/17 "2026-02-21T13:10:51Z")
So the reply above was an answer to “Had you already synced AnkiDroid after the files were deleted?” and to yes, _after_ restoring the 6K files I did check my cards and found media missing that was in my collection recently.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/18 "2026-02-21T23:12:37Z")
Oh, well, there was no chance that you’d be able to recover the files on your other device is you’d already deleted them there too. So I guess I wasted your time with that. Sorry!
I will go ahead and restore the recently deleted media in your account. Make sure your devices are all in sync and then **respond to confirm you are ready for me to do that**. It’s a lot of files, so it could take a bit of time (20m+) to churn through all of them.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/19 "2026-02-22T12:50:07Z")
Good Morning, yes I am confirming that I am ready for you to restore the recently deleted media to my account. All of my devices are in sync.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/20 "2026-02-22T16:29:47Z")
Okay, it restored 13034 files. Those will take some time to download on each of your devices. When that is done _and all of your devices are back in sync_, you can run Check Media \> Delete Unused Media to clean up whatever you don’t need.
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### Author:  [@Background-Fan-6154](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Background-Fan-6154)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/21 "2026-02-22T16:56:38Z")
Thank you,I got them back. THANK YOU SO MUCHHH.🥳
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-19-232-of-my-media-files/68911/23 "2026-03-09T18:33:38Z")
A post was split to a new topic: [Syncing of media](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/syncing-of-media/69126)
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