Repeated/skipped learning steps

Anki Help
1

The FAQ on repeated/skipped learning steps says –

This issue no longer exists if you change the learning steps in Anki 2.1.55+.

That appears to be a reference to the 2.1.55 fix by @Rumo –

  • You should no longer see strange behavior when changing learning steps while cards are in learning.

But this still seems to happen quite often – examples, from here or Reddit (and long enough after the Dec 2022 release that it seems unlikely they are still pre-2.1.55) –

I was in the process of writing this up as a fix needed for the FAQ, but how much effort anyone should put into updating the FAQ (and how to word it) depends a bit on what’s going on as far as development. I don’t see anything in the issue tracker about it.

Is this being investigated as a recurrence of what was happening pre-2.1.55? Or as a new issue that came up since then? Or is it unfixable?

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2

I have faced this recently when changing from 1m 5m 10m to 1m 10m (and doing other tweaks).

I think we should at least then list it as a known bug and not mark it off as fixed, regardless of other things.

3

I suspect these users haven’t been consistently syncing at the start and end of each session. A conflict could cause cards to be reverted to an earlier state, and that earlier state may have been appropriate for a different number of learning steps.

But it could also be that the fix isn’t working properly. Can anyone provide a minimum set of steps that triggers the issue, where syncing is not involved?

4

I looked through these examples again and many of the users were able to confirm strict syncing habits – and at the same time confirm they had definitely been changing their learning steps.

I think one of the reasons this has been so prevalent lately is that folks are removing their multi-day steps when they turn on FSRS, and

  1. If you have multi-day steps, you are almost guaranteed to have some cards in Learn at any given moment – probably a lot of them.
  2. A lot of the issues seem to arise around changing the number of steps (as opposed to just the length of the steps), so removing those multi-day steps is more prone to trigger the issue.
  3. When folks are turning on FSRS they are often keeping a closer-than-usual eye on the button-intervals.

Hopefully someone can identify a reproducible case. I’ll keep an eye out.

5

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

6

Well, that topic is closed so I’m starting a new one. Can you reproduce the repeated LS issue with these steps:

  1. Create a new profile so that everything is set to default.
  2. Create a new card.
  3. Click Good.
  4. Open deck options and empty learning steps. Save.
  5. No go back and put 1m 10m as LS.
  6. Go back to the card and it should show 10m on the Good button.
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7

Not sure if that was supposed to be a question, but I can reproduce it with the steps you provided.

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9

Thanks for confirming. So, we’ve got a bug I guess (not a syncing issue).

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10

Thanks, I’ve logged this on Better handle step changes? · Issue #3699 · ankitects/anki · GitHub

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11

Attempt to reproduce issue. :face_with_rolling_eyes: gifyu(dot)com/image/bbQ5p

Hello, I’m a software engineer with some experience in Rust. I was looking for a good first issue to contribute to and thought this one might be interesting.

In trying to reproduce the issue I’ve cloned the latest main branch from Github and built it. I’ve linked a gif of the reproduction steps in action and it might just be a misunderstanding of the expected behavior but it seems to be working as intended.

When creating a new profile, a new card in a new default deck, the Learning Steps are indeed:

“1m 10m”

Then when studying for the first time and the card is shown, the label above Good is “<10m”. The card is then shown again and the label above Good has changed to “10m”

Finally after this we see “Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now.”

Is this just a misunderstanding on my part and there is still an issue to be fixed here? If so I can start digging into it and open a PR.

Sorry about linking to an outside site to post a GIF of the behavior. It was the only way I could show the reproduction steps in action since I’m a new user and can’t attach images.

Thank you for all your hard work (I’m using Anki for language learning and it’s actually working great!!)

12

I appreciate you taking a look at it!

At that point, the card is already on the 10m step, and Good shows 1d for the “graduating interval”. [That matches what your GIF showed.]

Everything in your GIF worked as expected, but you didn’t do the key thing that triggers the issue – changing the learning steps while a card is in Learn. If you look at the many threads I linked, and at sorata’s and my posts above, you’ll see reproduction steps described.

If you’re new to Anki, it will help you to understand how a card proceeds through the learning steps – Deck Options - Anki Manual .

13

Thank you so much for pointing out what I was missing. This is indeed still a reproducible issue. I’m linking another GIF for anyone else who comes along and wants to see what steps are needed.

gifyu(dot)com/image/bbQoo

I’m going to start digging into this now. Thanks for all the help! :grin:

1 Like
14

I’m glad you were able to reproduce it. Please make sure any solution you find also works with a more natural sequence of actions. It would be rare for someone to blank out their learning steps, save, and then put the same learning steps in again.

A much more common case is what is frequently reported – changing the number of learning steps (removing or adding a step), or changing the length of 1 or multiple learning steps.

15

I’ve got a fix merged into Anki. I can only say for sure that it works for the reproduction steps posted. I’m going to be busy with other things for awhile but if someone wants to pull the latest main branch of Anki and test it out that would help. Thank you!

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