# Lost all my anki cards prior and cannot find ANY backup

**URL:** <https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871>\
**Category:** Syncing & AnkiWeb\
**Created:** [January 2, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871 "2025-01-02T23:29:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![f12345](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@f12345](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/f12345)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871/1 "2025-01-02T23:29:38Z")

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Hi! Like a month ago i added some decks that were send to me through a friend to my account, and i just realized today that all previous cards before that upload were deleted -both from my ankiweb account and the ankidroid app. Idk why it synched like that, and the worst part is that there’s no backup on my computer or anything (since i deleted ankidesk almost a year ago), and i cannot find a way to get them back. I don’t care if the solution entails deleting the new decks, but does someone know a way to get my old decks back?

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**Author:** ![Danika\_Dakika](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/danika_dakika/32/17815_2.png) [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871/2 "2025-01-02T23:52:24Z")

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It sounds like your friend sent you a `colpkg` file that replaced your entire collection when you imported it. But you don’t need desktop Anki to restore a backup, you can do that [on AnkiDroid as well](https://faqs.ankiweb.net/restoring-an-automatic-backup-recovering-from-data-loss.html).

I’m going to suggest you take a look at that first, because there should be a backup from _immediately_ before you imported that colpkg, and that will be your best chance to get back to the most updated version of your collection.

[Restoring from an AnkiWeb server-side backup should be a last resort, because you won’t get to choose what date it’s from, and it might not have what you’re looking for.]

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**Author:** ![f12345](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@f12345](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/f12345)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871/3 "2025-01-07T23:44:20Z")

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omg, you’re a lifesaver! thank you so much 😃

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/lost-all-my-anki-cards-prior-and-cannot-find-any-backup/53871/4 "2025-02-06T23:44:38Z")

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