My computer crashed and in the reboot it deleted the anki backups file and i lost 4.000 media cards. Could someone please help me?

Anki Help
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Hi!
My computer´s bluetooth crashed, and i had to kind of reboot the whole thing. And iin the process it happened to delete all the anki backups. When i went to download it again i realized that more than 4.000 media files were lost. Is there any way that someone from Anki can restore my files? the deletion was 2/17/2025, so i´d need the data from the 16th.
Thank you.

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None of the backups have the media – but they are stored in the same Anki2 data directory – Managing Files - Anki Manual. Is that what was deleted?

If your computer was in sync with AnkiWeb and your other devices, all of that media is still in your account and on your other devices. [Now would be a good time to make sure your other device is fully synced with AnkiWeb.]

To get that media back in desktop Anki –

  • First – don’t sync.
  • Open Anki in safe mode (or disconnected from the internet) so it doesn’t auto-sync.
  • Log out of your AnkiWeb account – Preferences > Syncing .
  • (Reconnect to the internet.)
  • Click Sync and log in again.

The media will be rescanned and anything you’re missing on your local profile will be downloaded.

1 Like
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Thank you,
But it had already synced. Is there any other way?
Since yesterday, some media was restored, but 2.000 are definitely lost.

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What about your other devices? You could do the same log out/rescan steps there.

The reason why I’m sending you to your own resources is that there is a way that I can restore data deleted recently on the server side, but it has caused some syncing issues for the last few folks who have used it. I’m hoping you can avoid that.

If it’s not possible and the files are already missing from all devices, I’m going to suggest something radical – Finish syncing the deletion to AnkiWeb and all of your synced devices. If it’s going to delete 4000 files, let it delete them (it may take a few syncs until the media sync fully completes), and get your devices fully in sync. Check Media should give you the same result on all devices. Then I can run the restoration from the server side.

[Yesterday, there was no recently deleted media in your AnkiWeb account – presumably that was before you synced. Today, I can see there are 2772 files that have been recently deleted.]

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