Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Earlier today I reinstalled the Anki desktop app on my Mac (replacing an older install). I imported a new deck, then synced — and afterward, all of my previously existing decks on AnkiWeb were gone. Only the newly imported deck now shows up in my account.
My best guess is that the fresh local collection was empty except for the new deck, and the sync treated it as the source of truth, overwriting what was on AnkiWeb rather than merging or warning me about the conflict.
A few details that might help:
This happened within the last couple of hours (Pacific time).
I don’t have a local desktop backup from before this, since the app had just been reinstalled — the only local backup I have is from after the incident.
I haven’t synced again since noticing the problem, in case that matters for recovery.
Does AnkiWeb keep any server-side backups that could be restored to before this sync? If so, what information would I need to provide, and is there a time-sensitive window for this kind of recovery?
Thanks very much for any help — I’d really appreciate getting my old decks back if at all possible.
Anki stores collection in a separate place from the app itself. So updating/reinstalling the app shouldn’t affect it at all. The files also persist after uninstalling the app, so unless you’ve deleted them manually, you can still look for any backups there.
Were the older decks shown in your desktop app before and after the import?
When there is a conflict between local and web-stored collections, Anki shows a popup that allows selecting the version to keep or cancel the operation. Have you not been selecting between “Upload to AnkiWeb” and “Download from AnkiWeb” on your sync? Are you sure you are using the same AnkiWeb account as before, and it still had your data prior to the sync? (note that your data is not kept on the server for more than half a year unless you are actively using it)
Thanks so much for the reply! Yes, I did get a pop-up and chose ‘Download from AnkiWeb’, so I’m not sure why then on AnkiWeb my old cards no longer show up?
To get data back after you’ve overwritten it with a sync –
If you want to roll-back changes you’ve made just now (and haven’t closed or synced since then) – Undo the change. [If you select it from the ⚙️ Preferences menu in AnkiDroid or Edit menu on desktop, Anki will describe which change it is reversing with each click (useful when you can’t see it happening!).]This is worth mentioning, but it’s unlikely to work for you if you’ve already synced.
If you want to roll-back changes made longer ago than that – Option A: Restore from an automatic or manual backup [but you’ll lose any reviews and changes you’ve made since that backup was created].
If you just want to grab one thing from a backup (like the text of a template, or one deck out of many, or a set of notes/cards that use a particular note type), you can minimize data loss by importing the backup into a brand new (temporary) profile, find what you’re looking for, copy/export it, and then import it into your main profile.
If you want to roll-back changes made longer ago than that – Option B: Force a one-way sync and download from AnkiWeb [but you’ll lose any reviews and changes you’ve made since your last sync].Again, worth mentioning, but unlikely to help you here if syncing is what started the issue.
If you’ve got anything on AnkiWeb now, I think you’re mistaken about which direction you chose. Your collection on AnkiWeb was removed in May 2026 after your account had been inactive for at least 6 months. If this was your first sync since then, the only option should have been to upload; if you had downloaded your local collection would be empty too.