My laptop got rebooted on Nov 4th following a storage space issue. Upon reinstalling anki and signing into ankiweb my anking step 1 deck and local medical school deck progress were lost. Before rebooting I had closed out from Anki and it said syncing so I assumed it was being synced on Ankiweb but I had no review or learning cards. Would it be possible to get the last backup that was synced or anything available on ankiweb cloud on Nov 3rd that could help restore my cards. Looking forward to your help. Thank you in advance.
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@abdo would this be possible? User lost their review card history, I’m assuming there may be a way to get the last backup since their backups got erased locally when their laptop was factory reset
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[I’m assuming we’re talking about more than a simple “reboot” here – because after that, you wouldn’t need to reinstall Anki and your collection would be right where you left it.]
- Had it been a while (at least a few weeks) since you had last synced?
- Are you sure that you were syncing with the same AnkiWeb account that corresponds to the email address you used to post here?
I’m asking because your account doesn’t show signs of recent activity. The most recent backup is from over a month ago [1 October 2025], and even then, the account had no recent review history.
If it’s possible you were using another AnkiWeb account, can you figure out what email address it is connected to?
- Check any device(s) you have used Anki on. You’ll see your account email address in Preferences > Syncing.
- Check your email accounts for confirmation messages you would have received from
ankiweb.net. - Go to https://ankiweb.net/account/settings and see if you have your credentials saved in your browser/cookies.
[If you find another AnkiWeb account, you can add the email address to your account in this Forum as a “secondary email” and I’ll be able to see it.]
Your other synced devices are also a good place to look for the most updated version of your collection, but if you weren’t syncing between your laptop and AnkiWeb, you might not have been syncing your collection with your other devices either.
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Hi
Thank you so much for your response. I have added another email here. Would you be able to take a look and see if there is recent activity because I only have Anki on the device that was rebooted. I have not explicitly clicked sync but everytime I close out from anki it said syncying and it takes a few minutes before closing out so i assumed it was being synced to ankiweb.
No, there is no AnkiWeb account using that address.
It looks like you synced an AnkiDroid install today as well.
Was that the AnkiWeb sync – or the AnkiHub sync, which can also be triggered on close (I think)? If you were only syncing with AnkiHub for deck/note updates, then your AnkiWeb account never got any of your collection data.
[I only know what the AnkiWeb syncing pop-up looks like –
– perhaps @Ahmed7 can tell us if AnkiHub has a separate / different / similar pop-up?]
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And does it show both pop-ups, or just that one?
@renitanair2000 –
Aside from the obvious Windows/macOS differences – which of those is the pop-up you’re used to seeing?
Just that one when closing, not the AnkiWeb sync (which I thought it also did upon closing) but I’m mixing it up with the sync button (which syncs both ankiweb and ankihub).
Does closing Anki (by default) also sync both AnkiWeb and AnkiHub?
I cant quite recall the type but if my memory isnt tricking me then I have seen the one you showed earlier with the added and modified cards.
I tried to do that before the reboot but ran out of space on my phone so had to delete it.
That’s AnkiWeb syncing then – but if you’ve been seeing that regularly and recently, you must have been syncing with a different AnkiWeb account. There’s just no recent syncing activity on this one.
Did you check all the places I suggested above for other email address possibilities? If you have reason to think you used any other address, I can check it for an account. [You don’t have to post the address publicly here – you can send it to us privately by DM to @ moderators.]
Did anything else change around the beginning of October? Did you change computers, or do a fresh install of the app, or create a new profile? Is it possible you never logged in to AnkiWeb syncing after that – and you’re just remember the pop-up from longer ago?
I’m not surprised you ran out of space, since you have over 9 GB of media in your AnkiWeb account. There’s a good chance you don’t need all of that, so you should use Check Media > Delete Unused Media to clean that up. Media - Anki Manual
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Those are the only 2 emails I would have used. I did check the other places infact I have an ankiweb verification link in my secondary email. I think I just didnt follow through with the account creation. Nothing really changes in October, I just started using Anki more frequently then. the IT department did a factory rest on my device cuz of a discrepancy in storage. I haven’t logged into Ankiweb recently but when I close out of Anki I do see the syncing tab. I just cant remember which tab I saw but neither way makes sense as I lost both my Anking deck and Anki hub reviews. I am not sure what can be done now but thanks a lot for all the help though. I truly appreciate it.
Are you sure you gave me the right email address? When I checked that one (that you used as a secondary in your account here), I would have expected to see at least a “started” account creation, but I didn’t.
I want to make sure you’re clear on this for the future.
- When you sync between Anki (any version) and AnkiWeb, your entire collection is synced – your notes, decks, cards, tags, flags, media, review history, etc.
- When you sync between Anki and AnkiHub, the only things that “sync” (as far as I know …) are updates in the content of notes from those subscribed decks – nothing about your overall collection or review history.
When you get going with studying again, please make sure you set up syncing with AnkiWeb (on any devices you use) – Syncing with AnkiWeb - Anki Manual . You can be sure it’s working if you look at your collection directly on the AnkiWeb site, or if you sync another device and you can see that your updated data is coming through. That’s your best path to avoiding anything like this in the future.