Missing audio files

AnkiMobile (iPhone/iPad) Help
1

I’m new to the iOS app and have just synced my decks. A lot of the audio files are missing for some reason and cards with audio on the desktop version now have no audio. I hit sync a couple of times but the media check button still shows 2k missing audio files. How can I get these to play?

2

Please read Media files may take time to sync - Frequently Asked Questions. Does it solve your issue?

1 Like
3

Thanks, I did do that. I’ve since deleted and synced several times, staying on the detail screen until sync is complete. I have the same 2k audio files missing each time. I can see them in the desktop folder and they play fine. I have also double checked that the sync options are enabled on both.

Not sure if it’s relevant but when I sync, it asks me to sync from ankiweb rather than my desktop?

4

Ah! This makes me wonder: have you synced Anki Desktop too?

A little background. Syncing works like this:

           AnkiWeb
┌──────────┘│  │└──────────┐
Client 1┌───┘  └─────────┐ Client 4
     Client 2          Client 3

That is, each client only “speaks” with the central authority, AnkiWeb. Here, a client can be Anki Desktop, AnkiMobile or AnkiDroid (plus an other one, which is not relevant) installed on a given computer. When you sync a client, it means that you ensure AnkiWeb and that client share the same version of your collection. Usually, when you modify your collection on one client (even reviewing counts as a modification), you sync, which pushes the changes to AnkiWeb; then, you sync on every other client, which pulls the the changes. This is the simple case, when you modify your collection on several clients at once, it can become a little bit complicated to agree on a common collection, so the process is slightly more convoluted, but Anki will in general try as hard as it can to do everything by itself (that is, it will make any sensible merge it has to do make clients agree). However, this can fail, and in this case Anki will ask you which version you choose to keep when you sync a client: either the client’s version, or AnkiWeb’s version. The other version will be dumped.

Back to your problem: your question makes me wonder if you simply synced AnkiMobile without syncing Anki Desktop first, which couldn’t have moved the media to your mobile / tablet.

1 Like
5

Oh wow I feel silly now! Thanks so much for clearing that up. I didn’t realize i needed to sync on the desktop too. Low and behold it works just fine now. Thanks so much for your patience!