Lost backup after deleting the app

[watermelon]

Hi there,

I’ve accidently deleted my Anki iOS app. As a result all my cards and backups were deleted. Hence, my hard work of systematically creating cards for Norwegian language is now lost

I understand the stupidity on my end as I should have backed-up my cards.

Before I start creating new cards all over, does anyone know if Anki support can help me retrieve my cards?

I would be super grateful for any response.

[black_sheep37]

Perhaps, if you synced it, it might be still saved on the website, here: www.ankiweb.net/decks

[Danika_Dakika]

You have an AnkiWeb account that most recently synced with your iOS device (and another device) a couple days ago. You’ll be able to download that version of your collection as soon as you reinstall and set up syncing.

[watermelon]

Thank you so much for the responses

The accidental app deletion happened on 17 Dec 2024. So whatever I have on anki web is essentially an old backup from September 2024.

However I did create a lot of cards from Sept til 17 Dec that now seem lost

[ferophila]

If it synced a few days ago, only the cards created since then are lost.

[Danika_Dakika]

You were creating notes/cards on your iPad from Sept to Dec without syncing at all? Oh, goodness – then AnkiWeb doesn’t have any of that data.

It was only on your iPad – so you need to look to Apple for ways to recover your data. I have no idea if that’s possible, but if you’re looking for creative paths –

• Are you sure it was a “delete” of the app? Or is it possible you only “removed” it from your screen?
• When you delete an app, does iOS immediately and permanently delete all of the data, or is there a grace period or a trash bin where it might be recovered from?
• Do you backup your device to iCloud or keep your important data on iCloud Drive? Is it possible that your data is not gone from that online backup yet? Or that there are older versions of the backup that you could recover your database from?

[dae]

I’m afraid recovering any data you added after your last sync is unlikely to be possible. As far as I’m aware, iOS deletes app data as soon as you delete an app. If you had iCloud backing up your entire device (which would require paying Apple for more iCloud storage), you may be able to recover the app, but it would require you completely resetting your device and restoring everything from the iCloud backup. I’ve never attempted to do this, so can not guarantee it would work.