Review sync issue - review counter remains at 0

[beambe]

Hi@all!

I have the following strange problem and would be very grateful for some advice:
Every now and then, especially when I make reviews with the official iPhone Anki app, they are synchronized but no due dates are set and the review counter remains at 0 (see screenshot).

Setting flags or suspending cards is also not synchronized. I have not had this problem on the iPad or Mac / PC so far I use a filtered deck with the following settings:

deck:Study::Clinic::Ankizin (is:new OR is:due) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

As a result, cards that I answered with “Easy” the day before appear again in the filtered deck as “New” the next day.

I have already run the “Check Database” function on all devices without any improvement.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as this issue has plagued me for quite a while and across several versions of Anki & several different decks.

Thank you

[Danika_Dakika]

What this sounds like more than anything is not being strict about your syncing. It’s especially hard to keep 3+ devices in sync, so you have to be absolute about it.

• Sync when you open the app AND when you close/leave the app, on every device every time.
• Don’t have changes happening in multiple devices at the same time.

Since it seems like they are out of sync right now, you’ll have to do a full round of syncing to get them caught up. You choose what order you want to do them, but sync device A, device B, device C, and then device A again.

I can allow space for their being more complicated reasons for this (especially around add-ons), but try strict syncing habits for a bit first and see if the issue pops up again.

[beambe]

Thanks for your reply.

Although I am uncertain about the exact nature of the issue’s reproducibility, I feel confident in excluding causes rooted exclusively in the way I handle hitting the sync buttons.

As a matter of fact, I faced this issue again two days ago and yesterday. Both times, I reviewed 200+ cards using the official iPad app, synchronised the progress right after only to find all progress I made to be non-existent the next day. Missing data:

• Updated review count (still at 0) for all cards
• New flags (flag 1 for ~ 30 cards)
• Suspended cards (appear as unsuspended again)

So, thanks again for your advice - my syncing routine has been consistent and this issue keeps appearing only every so often.
I first faced this issue about a year ago and believe it first came up after I enabled FSRS for the first time.

Is there any way how the FSRS scheduler could produce a situation where a card that was rated as easy on the initial contact with the above settings to have the review counter remain at 0, even though a “last review” date is set on that card?
Even stranger, there is that issue of flags and suspensions not being synchronised.
Changes to cards (meaning modifications to field contents) are properly persisted btw…

This is a really annoying, almost workflow-breaking bug for me.
I’ve had to manually sort through hundreds of already reviewed and easy-rated/suspended cards each day before I can start my reviews.

Thanks again for any help : )

[dae]

From what you have described, it does sound like a sync conflict as Danika suspects. This is particularly easy to have happen when you use add-ons that make bulk modifications to cards, such as ones that will automatically rebuild filtered decks.

[beambe]

Thanks for your input Damien.
I have disabled the add-on that rebuilds filtered decks and the FSRS Helper for now and will report if the issue persists.

[beambe]

Hi again,

unfortunately, this issue persists even after disabling all addons related to the rebuilding of filtered decks. I also made sure to sync before and after ever session on any device.

Today I again noticed that cards that I reviewed yesterday were registered as “reviewed”, but no new due date was set for these.
Some of the cards were reviewed on iPad, some on Mac and most of them (~80%) on iPhone.
Today therefore, all of these cards re-appeared in my filtered deck and I have to review these cards again, after which this additional review + new due date will then be properly registered.

As mentioned before, the issue seems to be most frequent when reviews are performed using the iPhone App.
All in all, the problem came up a couple of times since my last post, the following being latest example.
The filter settings, each with different limits, for the filtered deck are:

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:new) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:due) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

Here is an example card in the filtered deck:

I manually reduced the limit of the filtered deck to check the due date of the cards in their source deck. Please notice the discrepancy between “Latest Review” and “Due” in this example:

review stats for yesterday:

complete list of active addons:

filtered deck settings:

I’d really appreciate any advice as this problem keeps troubling me over and over, increases my workload and introduces unnecessary stress…

Thanks for you help
Ben

[Danika_Dakika]

.1. Have you run Tools > Check Database?

.2. Did you do a full round of syncing to get everything matching?

.3. When you find a discrepancy like this on Anki desktop, are you able to immediately check the Card Info on your iPhone, where you last studied the card? If so, there are things you should compare.

• If your last actions regarding the card on the iPhone were studying and then syncing (which sent the review log to AnkiWeb) – and you haven’t synced again since then – the iPhone should still show correct Card Info. Does it?
• In Browse on the iPhone, you should also be able to see the Card Modified and Note Modified date-time stamps [Browse > > add them as columns – rotate to landscape if you need to]. Card Modified should be the same as the last review, Note Modified should be something prior to that. Are they? How do those compare to the Card Modified and Note Modified that Anki desktop has for the card?

.4. It is notable to me that you’re talking about Filtered decks, but the revlogs for these cards don’t show they were studied in a Filtered deck.

.5. [While we’re on the subject of Filtered decks – why are you using one for everyday study of New and Due cards, which you could more easily do in their home decks.]

.6. Please send us the ID/email for your AnkiWeb account – you can send that privately in a DM to @moderators here, or through the AnkiMobile help-ticket system: Support - AnkiMobile Manual .

[beambe]

Hi there,

I am currently working towards a big exam and my cards are piling up because reviews are not properly registered.
I have had this issue in the past, but never figured out a solution and just carried on and re-reviewed cards until they finally disappeared. (iPhone review sync issue - review counter remains at 0)

With the increased workload I am facing now, this is not a viable option though.
I have to figure out what’s going on, otherwise I’ll be overwhelmed with reviews within a couple of days.

Example

I did about 250 reviews yesterday (using AnkiDroid) in a filtered deck.

I made sure to sync my progress upon completion of the review, both with AnkiDroid and my main computer (MacOS).

I rated a lot of these cards as easy, expecting them to be scheduled months into the future.
The following screenshot should clarify my issue - the cards reappear today. It seems like no due dates were set.

The filtered Deck is using these two filter settings (with different cards count limits):

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:new) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:due) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

Main deck settings:

Active plugins:

FSRS Helper settings:

Thanks a lot for your help!

[sorata]

Have you checked what happens just after you review these cards in the filtered deck? Try searching for such a card and check their card info. Does it have the due date in them? Does it retain the due date if you such after that?

---

By the way, do you see a forgetting curve or not?

[Danika_Dakika]

I merged this into your original thread so we can pick up where we left off. Everything about this looks exactly like what we identified in November, even though you’ve excluded that as the issue. So my to-do list for you is the same as in December:

@Danika_Dakika

.1. Have you run Tools > Check Database?

.2. Did you do a full round of syncing to get everything matching?

.3. When you find a discrepancy like this on Anki desktop, are you able to immediately check the Card Info on your iPhone, where you last studied the card? If so, there are things you should compare.

• If your last actions regarding the card on the iPhone were studying and then syncing (which sent the review log to AnkiWeb) – and you haven’t synced again since then – the iPhone should still show correct Card Info. Does it?
• In Browse on the iPhone, you should also be able to see the Card Modified and Note Modified date-time stamps [Browse > > add them as columns – rotate to landscape if you need to]. Card Modified should be the same as the last review, Note Modified should be something prior to that. Are they? How do those compare to the Card Modified and Note Modified that Anki desktop has for the card?

.4. It is notable to me that you’re talking about Filtered decks, but the revlogs for these cards don’t show they were studied in a Filtered deck.

.5. [While we’re on the subject of Filtered decks – why are you using one for everyday study of New and Due cards, which you could more easily do in their home decks.]

.6. Please send us the ID/email for your AnkiWeb account – you can send that privately in a DM to @moderators .

And I’ll add a few more:

.7. Go to Anki > About – click “Copy Debug Info” – paste that entire result when you respond.

.8. When you have FSRS Helper and any other add-on running actions on/after-sync, that changes your database as well. While you are having this issue, you should make sure that all features that make new changes to the database when you sync are disabled.

[beambe]

Thank you guys for the responses.

I am facing the same issue again today and I just checked: the due dates do not appear on the Ankidroid device either:
Ankidroid:

MacOS w. Anki 25.02:

In response to your questions, Danika:

.1. Have you run Tools > Check Database?

Yes, several times. That did not help.

.2. Did you do a full round of syncing to get everything matching?

Yes, I synced all of my devices several times. That did not help.

.3. When you find a discrepancy like this on Anki desktop, are you able to immediately check the Card Info on your iPhone, where you last studied the card? If so, there are things you should compare.

I will check one the review device again tomorrow, immediately after my reviews and before syncing with Anki on the Mac.

• If your last actions regarding the card on the iPhone were studying and then syncing (which sent the review log to AnkiWeb) – and you haven’t synced again since then – the iPhone should still show correct Card Info. Does it?

Again, I should be able to add more info here tomorrow.

• In Browse on the iPhone, you should also be able to see the Card Modified and Note Modified date-time stamps [Browse > > add them as columns – rotate to landscape if you need to]. Card Modified should be the same as the last review, Note Modified should be something prior to that. Are they? How do those compare to the Card Modified and Note Modified that Anki desktop has for the card?

The cards date in “Note modified” does not reflect the timestamp of its latest review (today at ~ 6PM), regarding todays session, I unfortunately can only report on the Mac, since iPhone was not involved and I can’t find that info in Ankidroid:

.4. It is notable to me that you’re talking about Filtered decks, but the revlogs for these cards don’t show they were studied in a Filtered deck.

Agreed. Even stranger, some of the cards reviewed today did get their reviews properly registered and the due dates are set correctly:

And yes (@sorata), those cards do have forgetting curve.

Other cards from today seem stuck:

.5. [While we’re on the subject of Filtered decks – why are you using one for everyday study of New and Due cards, which you could more easily do in their home decks.]

I use two filtered decks to review cards from different sources (own vs. pre-made) and different levels of difficulty based on the review situation (treadmill vs. casual etc.).

.6. Please send us the ID/email for your AnkiWeb account – you can send that privately in a DM to @moderators .

I just did.

I also just disabled the FSRS helper rescheduling. Settings are now:

Here is the Anki debug info:

Anki 25.02 (038d85b1) (ao)
Python 3.9.18 Qt 6.6.2 PyQt 6.6.1
Platform: macOS-15.3.2-arm64-arm-64bit

===Add-ons (active)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
AMBOSS add-on [‘0amboss_addon’, 2024-08-05T16:24, ‘None’, mod]
Advanced Browser [‘874215009’, 2024-10-27T15:20, ‘None’, ‘’]
AnkiConnect [‘2055492159’, 2025-06-13T04:01, ‘None’, mod]
Ankizin Notiztypen Lernplan-Manager - ehem ProjektAnki [‘2058530482’, 2025-07-11T13:30, ‘None’, mod]
Audiovisual Feedback [‘231569866’, 2025-02-19T02:51, ‘1.0’, mod]
Batch Editing [‘291119185’, 2023-10-26T02:38, ‘None’, ‘’]
BetterSearch [‘1052724801’, 2025-04-06T23:13, ‘None’, ‘’]
Bold Color Shortcut [‘1759040096’, 2021-04-01T18:36, ‘None’, mod]
Browser Resizer [‘1435775540’, 2025-01-28T12:03, ‘None’, ‘’]
Colorful Tags Hierarchical Tags [‘594329229’, 2022-09-15T17:06, ‘None’, ‘’]
Contanki - Controller Support for Anki beta [‘1898790263’, 2024-03-01T02:22, ‘v1.0.2’, mod]
Customize Keyboard Shortcuts [‘24411424’, 2023-11-01T10:17, ‘None’, mod]
Export selected cards from the browser HTML Clipboard [‘572556524’, 2023-09-11T09:51, ‘None’, ‘’]
FSRS Helper Postpone Advance Load Balance Easy Days Disperse Siblings [‘759844606’, 2025-07-05T14:39, ‘None’, mod]
Fastbar- with nightmode support [‘46611790’, 2023-02-18T00:18, ‘None’, ‘’]
Image Editor [‘307397307’, 2022-09-08T06:09, ‘None’, mod]
Image Occlusion Enhanced [‘1374772155’, 2022-04-09T09:15, ‘None’, ‘’]
Import Scheduling Info from CSV [‘891862080’, 2021-10-13T23:49, ‘None’, ‘’]
Markup! [‘1560623599’, 2022-01-05T17:41, ‘None’, mod]
Maximum image height and width in card editor [‘229181581’, 2021-07-23T08:01, ‘None’, mod]
Mini Format Pack [‘295889520’, 2023-11-02T19:00, ‘None’, mod]
Open linked pdf docx epub audiovideo etc in external Program [‘879473266’, 2022-07-14T21:17, ‘None’, mod]
Opening the same window multiple time [‘354407385’, 2023-11-05T02:59, ‘None’, ‘’]
Progress Bar cards done cards left secondscard time spentleft and ETA [‘1097423555’, 2023-10-02T10:05, ‘None’, ‘’]
Progress Graphs and Stats for Learned and Matured Cards [‘266436365’, 2020-03-29T08:26, ‘None’, ‘’]
Remove Cloze Button and Hotkey [‘1966460736’, 2022-05-21T12:29, ‘None’, mod]
Removes Empty Note Types for 21 [‘530953383’, 2019-06-12T16:11, ‘None’, ‘’]
Review Heatmap [‘1771074083’, 2022-06-30T03:43, ‘None’, ‘’]
Special Fields [‘1102281552’, 2025-02-25T14:07, ‘None’, mod]
SwiftAnki Quick Anki Navigation with Keyboard Shortcuts [‘1467361433’, 2025-07-08T00:18, ‘None’, ‘’]
The KING of Button Add-ons [‘374005964’, 2025-06-22T15:39, ‘None’, mod]
copy note contents to new Add window from Browser Reviewer Add EditCurrent [‘759018284’, 2022-08-16T12:28, ‘None’, ‘’]
extended editor for field for tables searchreplace [‘805891399’, 2023-06-20T14:08, ‘None’, mod]

===IDs of active AnkiWeb add-ons===
1052724801 1097423555 1102281552 1374772155 1435775540 1467361433 1560623599 1759040096 1771074083 1898790263 1966460736 2055492159 2058530482 229181581 231569866 24411424 266436365 291119185 295889520 307397307 354407385 374005964 46611790 530953383 572556524 594329229 759018284 759844606 805891399 874215009 879473266 891862080

===Add-ons (inactive)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
‘’ [‘Anki-add-tag-move-card-in-review-master’, 0, ‘None’, mod]
Advanced Copy Fields [‘1898445115’, 2024-01-08T18:01, ‘v0.4.01’, ‘’]
Anki Simulator [‘817108664’, 2023-11-06T18:26, ‘None’, ‘’]
Anki-redesign [‘308574457’, 2023-02-04T19:43, ‘None’, ‘’]
AnkiWebView Inspector [‘31746032’, 2022-04-08T21:44, ‘None’, ‘’]
Auto Sync [‘501542723’, 2023-11-20T17:14, ‘None’, ‘’]
Automatically rebuild filtered deck [‘1997713323’, 2021-07-18T17:18, ‘None’, ‘’]
Cloze Overlapper for Anki 21 [‘109531687’, 2021-01-12T04:12, ‘None’, ‘’]
Custom Background Image and Gear Icon [‘1210908941’, 2025-06-22T15:27, ‘None’, mod]
Duplicate and Reorder [‘1114271285’, 2023-08-27T22:55, ‘None’, ‘’]
OpenInExternalEditorRenameDuplicate for ImageAudioVideo [‘1560623518’, 2023-03-19T18:33, ‘None’, mod]
Quick tagging 21 [‘304770511’, 2020-02-11T07:17, ‘None’, mod]
ReColor [‘688199788’, 2025-01-28T12:23, ‘3.1’, mod]
Speed Focus Mode auto-alert auto-reveal auto-answer [‘1046608507’, 2022-12-16T12:24, ‘None’, ‘’]
Straight Reward [‘957961234’, 2023-11-01T15:11, ‘None’, ‘’]
Symbols As You Type [‘2040501954’, 2025-01-05T20:55, ‘None’, ‘’]
Transfer scheduling data from one card to another [‘94685914’, 2024-08-09T16:32, ‘None’, ‘’]
Zoom 21 [‘1846592880’, 2020-01-12T18:26, ‘None’, mod]
rebuildempty some or all filtered decks [‘104518886’, 2023-05-17T00:33, ‘None’, mod]

Thanks again for your help…

[Danika_Dakika]

I’m definitely interested in knowing what happened between 17:57 – when you’ve got 4 examples of cards that have this mismatch – and 18:02 – when you’ve got 2 examples of cards that are scheduled correctly. It will be especially interesting to see how the Card Modified and Note Modified timestamps for each of these cards compares to the time of review.

Other similarities/differences between ...

– those 2 sets of cards (calling the 17:56-57 cards “A” and the 18:02 cards “B”). [This is mostly a note-to-self for me. I don’t know yet if any of this matters.]

• The A cards are all still in the 💻 filtered deck, even though they were studied in Learn and graded Easy, so they should have returned to their home deck.
• The B cards are back in their home deck. They were studied in Review.
• The A cards come from the “Ankizin” deck – B cards from the “Ben” deck.
• The A cards are “ProjektAnkiCloze” note type – B cards are “Cloze” note type.
• The decks are in the same Options preset.
• The A cards have weird Position numbers: -99959 -99957 -99949 – the B cards have normal (albeit HUGE) Position numbers: 2000042 1451143904

---

@beambe

Yes, I synced all of my devices several times. That did not help.

I might not have been clear before, by a “full round of syncing” I don’t just mean syncing several times. It’s important that you ensure there are no changes being made on any of the devices during/between those syncs. If anything changes on a device, you have to start over, or you won’t catch everything. So – while making absolutely no changes (including changes made by add-ons in the background) – sync each device, one-by-one, and when you’re done, sync the first device again. [Ex: sync device A, device B, device C, and then device A again.] Now you can be sure your devices are in sync

---

@beambe

The cards date in “Note modified” does not reflect the timestamp of its latest review (today at ~ 6PM), regarding todays session, I unfortunately can only report on the Mac, since iPhone was not involved and I can’t find that info in Ankidroid

I want to make sure you’re set up to successfully get this data tomorrow –

It’s important to look at the “Note Modified” AND “Card Modified” timestamps. Those are 2 different columns. I only care about the devices you’re using currently, so yes, leave any others out of it.

You can find this same info in AnkiDroid by changing what columns show. It looks like you’ve got the recent upgrade, so it’s even easier – just long-press on a column header to see the full list of columns, and add “Note Modified” and "Card Modified.

This seems pretty easily reproducible, so checking at every step will give you the best chance of figuring this out–

• Study 5 cards on AnkiDroid – but DO NOT sync yet.
• Search for just those cards rated:1 – check their Card Info to make sure it’s correct – make a note of both Modified timestamps.
• Sync AnkiDroid – search and check Card Info and the Modified timestamps again to make sure they didn’t change.
• Switch to desktop starting it in safe mode so it does not auto-sync.
• Run the same search rated:1 – which should be empty.
• [If you can look up those cards some other way, it would be great to be sure that their Card and Note Modified times are the same or earlier than the ones on AnkiDroid.]
• Sync desktop – run that search – Does the Card Info match AnkiDroid? Are the Card and Note Modified timestamps unchanged?
• Since you’re leaving desktop – sync.
• Switch back to AnkiDroid – sync. Does everything still look the same?

If you can get through that and nothing goes wrong, you can keep studying – do bigger batches of cards, keep an eye on the Card Info and Modified dates for a sample, gradually get closer to your normal workflow (e.g. not starting desktop in safe mode) – until you see an issue. Keep your syncing habits steady though – sync when you start using the app, sync when you switch to a different device, then on the next device, do the same, sync at the start and at the end.

Something I didn’t ask before: When you leave desktop (after syncing!), do you close the app so none of your add-ons can run updates in the background, or do you leave it open?

---

The semi-good-news is that even while we’re trying to figure out what else could be causing this, you won’t need to do any more double-studying of the affected cards, so you should have some relief on your workload.

You can use the FSRS Helper add-on to (partially) fix this. Running “FSRS update memory state and reschedule” will cause FSRS to look at only the review history (which is correctly recorded) and decide anew when the cards should be correctly scheduled. See: Scheduling differences between Anki desktop and Android - #4 by Danika_Dakika . [Note that this does not mean you should re-enable FSRS’s reschedule on-sync. That’s too much of a wildcard yet.]

[beambe]

@Danika_Dakika

• Study 5 cards on AnkiDroid – but DO NOT sync yet.

I just tried that, will show my results using one example, even though this applied to all of these cards coming from the “Ankizin” deck.

• Search for just those cards rated:1 – check their Card Info to make sure it’s correct – make a note of both Modified timestamps.

This is on Ankidroid, after review and before sync:

• Sync AnkiDroid – search and check Card Info and the Modified timestamps again to make sure they didn’t change.

The data after sync on Ankidroid matches the screenshot above.

• Switch to desktop starting it in safe mode so it does not auto-sync.
• Run the same search rated:1 – which should be empty.
  I started in safe-mode, checked the card:

• [If you can look up those cards some other way, it would be great to be sure that their Card and Note Modified times are the same or earlier than the ones on AnkiDroid.]

• Sync desktop – run that search – Does the Card Info match AnkiDroid? Are the Card and Note Modified timestamps unchanged?

After sync, the review shows up, but the due date is not updated and the card again appears in one of my filtered decks.

• Since you’re leaving desktop – sync.
• Switch back to AnkiDroid – sync. Does everything still look the same?

It does not. After sync with Anki on Mac, the due date is now also incorrect on Ankidroid.

I took note of your remarks regarding the “full round of syncing” and can confirm I did just what you recommended.

The above cards were just for testing, I expect more cards to gradually devolve and my workload to become more and more extreme due to this. I need to find a solution to this fast, because I can’t keep up with the increasing workload as I need to review new content every day until October.

Thanks again!

EDIT:

I just tried this again using AnkiMobile on iPhone and did reviews of the exact same cards (reviewed on iPhone, checked on iPhone, checked on Mac, synced on iPhone, confirmed correct state on iPhone, confirmed on Mac, synced on Mac, confirm on Mac & iPhone).

This time, the reviews acutally DID register properly.

I just noticed: even though the scheduling failed, the card difficulty seems to have decreased with each review (notably also the ones rated 4)

[beambe]

Hello again,

so I made sure to remember a card I definitely reviewed today (using Ankidroid) and checked its status before syncing: it has an updated “Card modified” date, but no review for today and no due date.

After syncing on Ankidroid, then on the mac, the filtered decks are populated again with all the cards I already reviewed today.

Here are more examples of cards that has been coming up several times over the last two days and I have had to re-review today:

I am using two filtered decks:

Filtered deck 1

Filtered deck 1 has two filters:

Filter A

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:new -tag:leech* -is:suspended)

Filter B

(“deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankiphil - Klinik” OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ankizin OR deck:Studium::Klinik::Ben) (is:due) (-tag:leech* -is:suspended)

Filtered deck 2

I use this deck to review specific cards each day that correspond to content that I have studied recently and tagged with “m2_daily”.

One other thing:

some of my new cards (it’s really sporadic, I’d say this has only been about a handful of them), from the “Ankizin” deck as well as my own cards, seem to be handled totally different by FSRS. I noticed that when hitting easy on these, instead of them being scheduled about 3-3.5 months into the future, they are scheduled to reappear within three days, even though all decks I use are subsumed under my main Deck (Studium) and have the same study options preset applied (note that :

Here are a two examples of cards that for some reason are scheduled completely differently compared to the rest:

It seems like my routine using Anki is dissolving even more quickly than I had anticipated. There is no way I can keep up with the increased workload if the reviews keep on piling up like this. I have used safe mode on Anki desktop while syncing, so I feel confident about my choice of plugins, but of course would be more than happy to get any suggestions about what else to try… could there be something wrong server-side? might this be the result of multiple overlapping issues?

Thanks again for any help in this matter.

[Danika_Dakika]

@beambe

There is no way I can keep up with the increased workload if the reviews keep on piling up like this.

[I’m putting this at the top of this post so you don’t miss it.] I explained in my last post how to reschedule these cards so that you don’t need to study them again. Jump up to:

@Danika_Dakika

You can use the FSRS Helper add-on to (partially) fix this.

---

You found some good information in your experiments.

@beambe

This is on Ankidroid, after review and before sync:

That Card Modified timestamp of 9:21 is when you studied the card. You don’t show what the Card Modified timestamp was on your Mac before or after your sync – but then after syncing back to AnkiDroid, you can see that the card was modified at 9:30 – which is when the change happened. If that was on your Mac before you synced the review history to your Mac, that’s what is wrong. When Anki syncs the 9:21 state of the card with the 9:30 state of the card, the 9:30 state wins.

The problem isn’t that the review history isn’t being recorded or that it isn’t syncing – the problem is that something else is updating the card.

@beambe

I just tried this again using AnkiMobile on iPhone …

This time, the reviews acutally DID register properly.

I’m glad that worked, but the Card Modified timestamps are the key here (and you didn’t show those). It looks like in that case, whatever changes the card’s state didn’t happen – i.e., the Card Modified timestamp wasn’t newer.

@beambe

so I made sure to remember a card I definitely reviewed today (using Ankidroid) and checked its status before syncing: it has an updated “Card modified” date, but no review for today and no due date.

There are other things that update the card besides studying it – like moving it in/out of a Filtered deck, or burying it (which appears to be what’s happened to that card). Presumably you studied this card’s sibling at 17:48.

@beambe

After syncing on Ankidroid, then on the mac, the filtered decks are populated again with all the cards I already reviewed today.

I am using two filtered decks: …

I can’t tell if that’s –

• (A) a symptom – Something unknown is updating the card at “9:30” – and at that moment, it was in a Filtered deck, so that is part of “the most recent state” that the card ends up in.
• (B) the problem – The Filtered deck is rebuilt at “9:30” – which creates “the most recent state” of the card, before the additional review history has a chance to sync. [Because that review history and the resulting card state would prevent the card from being built into the Filtered deck.]

@beambe

I have used safe mode on Anki desktop while syncing, so I feel confident about my choice of plugins

Have you only been using safe mode “while syncing,” and restarting Anki to run it with your add-ons the rest of the time?

Even if you’ve been running exclusively in safe mode, I can’t get over the sense that your deck rebuilding add-ons are still sneaking around in the background rebuilding your decks. You’ve got 2 inactive ones that explicitly do that, and I don’t know what all of your dozens of active add-ons do. Are any of those add-ons constructed in some unusual way, where they have created external actions that run even when they add-on itself is disabled? [I don’t know, and I don’t expect you to know either, but it seems worth asking the question.]

Troubleshooting is often about removing variables, so I can think of 2 more aggressive things to try –

• Stop using add-ons.
  It’s the best way to be sure that none of them are updating your cards.

  • Close Anki, move your entire addons21 directory from your Anki2 data folder to somewhere else on your computer where Anki can’t see it, restart your computer, and spend a couple days using Anki without them.
  • Make a point of emptying all of your Filtered decks before you sync – basically, leave them empty unless you are building them to start a study session. Make sure none of them are rebuilt without you doing that directly.
  • If that doesn’t change anything, I’ll be shocked. But the next step would be to uninstall Anki, delete the Anki program folder, and install Anki fresh (still without any add-ons).

• Stop using Filtered decks.
  I think you can do what you’re using Filtered decks for with regular decks.

  • For “Filtered deck 1” – That’s just New and Due cards for 3 subdecks, excluding leeches. Study from their common parent deck instead (or if that has other subdecks, move these 3 subdecks to their own parent deck). As far as leeches – just suspend them entirely for the time being (you can put a reminder tag on the currently unsuspended ones so you can unsuspend them after).
  • For “Filtered deck 2” – That’s just New and Due cards with that tag. Move all cards with that tag into a regular subdeck for a while. If you need to be able to give some of them another tag so you can get them back to their right home afterwards, you can do that.
  • [In both decks, you’re excluding suspended cards, but those will never be built into a Filtered deck or offered in a study session, so you don’t need to do that.]

Either one of those options has some drawbacks, so it’s up to you where you want to start. This doesn’t mean you can never use add-ons or Filtered decks again, but you have let them go to figure out where the problem is.