First of all, the bug report process is a bit… cumbersome. On github it says “This issue tracker is for developers. Please report any bugs you encounter over on the user forum, and they will be triaged there”. Ok, fine. Is that here? This sub forum specifically? Because I don’t see one called “Bugs”. It is unclear what the correct, intended behavior is that I as a user am supposed to follow.
I want to be polite and helpful, and not annoy people with reports, that’s made more difficult by this process. I also had to make a new account to report this.
When I’m importing a deck from a file, the cards get dumped into some deck without an option of intervention. I would prefer if I got the option to either create a new deck, or merge the import into a deck, as a choice. it is also impossible to create a new deck manually and import into that, because the import button is not available/visible when the deck is empty.
Thank you for creating and maintaining this software. I hope this bug report helps.
I’m guessing that the feeling was that an .apkg file contains a single, discrete Deck that already has its own name, as opposed to just a group of individual cards. Because of that, I’m guessing that the feeling was that Anki should import the entire deck as a whole using the deck’s name, rather than to allow its cards to be merged with another deck. So, this is the intended behavior and not a bug.
But, being able to rename the deck upon import or have it imported into an existing deck name does seem like it might be a useful enhancement.
Regarding the other reported behavior where the Import File button is not available or visible, I am not able to reproduce it. Although it is not possible to import a deck into an existing deck (as discussed above), when I create a new, empty deck, I still see the Import File button.
This is the behavior I see:
Create a new deck.
Click on the new deck’s name. (As expected, I see the “Contratulations! You have finished this deck…” screen because the deck is empty.)
Click on the Decks button to go back to the Decks screen.
The new deck is selected. The Import File button is still visible, as expected, and it still works.
If you still see the problem behavior where the Import File button incorrectly disappears, please provide steps to reproduce it.
Yes I also see this behavior, as you described it.
What I meant was that the “import file” is only available in the “decks” screen/view, but the “decks” screen/view only allows opening the deck and then the import button disappears.
The selection that you described is also implicit. And as far as I can see opening and the closing and returning to the decks view is the only way to do that selection.
Also, the buttons are labeled “Get shared” (implying deck), “Create Deck” and “Import File”. And that is why I assumed the import would also create a deck, I suppose.
Importing cards into an existing deck is also a useful function. I would have expected it either as a button in the “single deck” view, or as an option in the cog wheel drop down, which also already allows “export”.
So I guess I can confirm that there is nothing “broken” and it’s just a question of UI and where to put which button.
This thing about importing the cards into “some deck” instead of the one already existing is weird though.
I just imported my whole collection that contains 97 decks all of them were there, intact.
The .apkg was made in AnkiDroid with the review schedule, the media and the custom deck options and I imported it in the latest version of Anki for Linux (26.something).
Import is always available in the main window’s File menu.
There isn’t a category called “Bugs” because users rarely report actual bugs. Part of the triage process here is determining whether the user needs help with an issue, whether that issue is fixable, whether that fix requires a change that will be made in the app, or whether the user is requesting functionality that doesn’t exist yet. [For instance, here, you labeled this as a bug, but really it was a feature request. I updated the title to reflect that.]
And yes, you need an account in the Forums to start that process.
You can just move the cards after importing and delete the imported deck. Or even better yet, just drag the imported deck to make it a subdeck of the deck you want.
I also tried it again, with the implied selection of a deck as a target and that does not work. The cards where imported into the wrong deck again, ignoring the selection.
So: apkg import matches decks by name, not by id. Anki looks for a deck with the same name in collection and if a normal deck with that name is already there, incoming one gets merged into it and no new deck is created. Names that don’t already exist get created fresh. If the name matches but yours is a filtered deck, the incoming one gets a timestamp stuck on the end instead. Same check at every level for subdecks
So if the deck inside the file is called Default, or has the same name as one of yours, the cards land there and no new deck shows up anywhere. Which is what you’re describing. Your target deck wasn’t ignored, the name from the file just already existed on your side.
To get them back out without dragging anything: Browse, search added:1 (cards added today), Ctrl+A, then Cards > Change Deck. Hundreds in one action. One caveat, added:1 also catches anything you added yourself today, so narrow it by note type or by a tag from the file if that’s in the way.
And since matching is on the name, that’s also the lever for next time. Rename on your side before importing. If you already have a deck with that name and you want them kept apart, rename yours first and the import will make its own
Of course you can. But you’d be smart about it and search for things that were created today, sort them by that column, and grab the ones all created at the just about the same time.
No, there’s definitely a deck when you import – whether it’s an APKG or a txt/CSV file. Importing notes creates cards and cards have to be in a deck.
But it sounds like you’re importing an update to an existing deck? That’s the only way the cards would be mixed in with other cards you already have in your collection. There might be ways to avoid that, but you’re reacting badly to ideas so far, so I’m not sure we need to wade into that.
That isn’t a feature, so you can stop trying it. The deck is already determined inside the file you’re importing.
I can’t see the name of the deck before I import it. Then it automatically merges it where I don’t want it.
I renamed the preexisting deck and the import then created a new deck with the same name the preexisting deck had previously. So that explains it.
Do you see how this may provoke a negative reaction?
Unfortunately this also doesn’t work. There is “added” and “edited”, but the import doesn’t seem to “add” or “edit”, the “card modified” column shows a date 8 years in the past.
So specifically, if I
the list is empty.
My guess would be that the edited/added date gets saved in and loaded with the file. I also found and tried this before, but I didn’t mention that, which is also my mistake. But it also didn’t seem relevant because I did not modify the cards or add the cards to the deck and programming is usually specific about wording like that.
I admit I came into this discussion a bit annoyed because I had to make a new account. But all I want is to have the issue being taken as a factual problem. I am having this issue. You / the devs can decide if it’s intended to work this way, if it’s a “stupid user” problem, or if it’s an actual problem that they also have the time to fix. And I also admit I have been the stupid user before, but that’s not the case here, I genuinely don’t find it obvious that decks get merged automatically based on a name I can’t see and behavior I don’t know about.
You could also suggest to me to Read The Friendly Manual. Which I also admit I didn’t do before coming here, but it’s fine, because the source of the issue that hamanovich described, isn’t mentioned in there.
Do you maybe want me to open an issue or a PR on the manual, or do you want to do that yourselves? …or change the behavior?
I hope this was an acceptable tone, I do appreciate the help and the existence of helpful forums and the collaboration in open source to solve problems.
@ZornHadNoChoice sorry to you specifically, moving cards is a valid solution, it just didn’t fit the problem. I think it’s unnecessarily complicated, especially when I just imported the deck and the software could just do the import the way I want.
