Lost Media Files

Anki Syncing & AnkiWeb
1

I ran into an issue where I lost my media files when switching from one profile to the other. I have all my notes but the cards show a missing file icon within them. I have heard there is sometimes a server-side backup for media?

Thanks in advance

@dae

2

What do you mean by “switching from one profile to the other”? How did you move the rest of your data to the new profile? All of your media files should be in the collection.media in your old profile.

3

Switched profiles and then it made me sync anki/ankiweb so I uploaded to ankiweb. I switched profiles again and it seemed to merge my decks/media. I deleted the other profile because everything was on my default profile. Then it seemed like the media was lost and many of my notes had the missing media icon in the note. All the media files are in the collection.media but still seem to be missing ~10,000 media files

4

Your switching and switching and switching is confusing. Can we put some label these ProfileA and ProfileB? As near as I can tell, is this what happened?

  1. Was using ProfileA / “my default profile”
  2. Switched to ProfileB, synced, selected uploaded to AnkiWeb
    • Was this to the same AnkiWeb account that ProfileA was already connected to and synced with? You can only have 1 profile per AnkiWeb account, so this overwrote ProfileA on AnkiWeb.
  3. Switched back to ProfileA “and it seemed to merge my decks/media.”
    • What made it seem like that?
  4. Deleted 
 which profile?

If I’m right so far, I get lost after that.

5

I have restored your recently-deleted media files. They will automatically download on the next sync.

Simply switching profiles should not cause any files to be deleted. If you’ve been manually moving files about, they would appear to have been deleted from the old location.

6

Thank you!
It appears now that when I sync this message shows up repeatedly:
“Please sync again. If this message keeps appearing, please post on the support site.”

7
  • Is this after you completed the download of you media?
  • Is that the entire error message?
  • Have you run Tools > Check Database – and Tools > Check Media?
9

This is during the sync (media sync log shows up). That is the entirety of the error message. I have run Check database and check media multiple times to no avail

10

That message may just be letting you know that the sync timed out before finishing.

  • What do you see when you run Check Media – missing files, unused files, etc.? Is the sync making progress each time?
  • On AnkiWeb (https://ankiweb.net/decks), at the bottom of the screen, what is your collection and media size?
11

Please try logging out in the preferences screen, then syncing again. It will force a rescan of all media.

12

Still shows up with the same screen error:
Capture

13

Collection: [65.66MB] Media: [2089.97MB]

Missing files: ⁚670⁩
Unused files: ⁚2999⁩

It does not make progress each time

14
15

I am in the United States. I am able to complete a sync when I turn off “Synchronize audio and images too” but still unable to sync with it checked and network timeout increased to 10 minutes

16

Try running Tools > Check Media – delete unused media. Then Tools > Check Database. Then sync again.

17

Unfortunately none of the above worked :frowning:

18

The goal was not for it to work instantly, but for you to start seeing some progress in your sync.

If you’re not seeing progress at all, where (what system and what profile) is the collection that you consider the most complete and updated?

19

Unfortunately there has been no progress at all. My most complete and updated is my primary (and only) profile Trev and on my laptop.

20
  • Since you were able to sync with the media sync turned off, the only difference right now is the media files, right? All of your notes/cards/decks are in sync?
  • And when you run Check Media – all of the unused files are deleted now, right? But it still shows as missing 670 files?
  • Are you sure those files exist on AnkiWeb?
21

The “please sync again” message is due to some discrepancy between the count of files on your local device and AnkiWeb - around 10 files. I’d start by repeating the logout-and-sync steps again while you have all add-ons disabled, to rule them out as contributing. Some add-ons dump files in the media folder, and depending on when they’re being written, it may be causing this.

Please note that this won’t help you recover any media files you’ve lost - it will just prevent that message from showing at the end of a sync.

I can also restore any media files you have deleted from AnkiWeb in the last month (~800). This will only help if the recently-deleted files are the ones that you’re wanting to recover.

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