# Store Retrievability in Review Logs **URL:** \ **Category:** Suggestions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374 "2025-08-07T19:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/1 "2025-08-07T19:24:05Z")
Take this text from the tooltip Anki uses for Retention stats (formerly “True Retention”): ```auto If you are using FSRS, your retention is expected to be close to your desired retention. ``` Now, that should be generally true, but — 1. We can have backlogs 2. We study outside regular schedule in filtered decks 3. We change DR from time to time If none of that applies, at least one would have reviews from cards that weren’t rescheduled after the last regular optimisation. The point is that `retrievability` at the time of review can be very different from the DR that you’ve set so Anki. This makes comparison harder, because you can’t just compare your actual retention with whatever the `desired retention` value is. Therefore, Anki should store `retrievability` for each and every review just like it does for `difficulty`. That means we can come up with `average retrievability` for all the reviews we have done and can compare it to the retention. I’ve also started to realise — and what prompted this post — that storing `difficulty` isn’t very useful for the user. Apart from the fact that it’s a really unintuitive number (what is `86.7%` difficulty?), it also is not comparable across presets and collections. So what value does it provide? I really think storing `retrievability` is a better choice. Better ideas are welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Keks](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/keks/32/20537_2.png) [@Keks](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Keks)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/2 "2025-08-07T20:41:01Z")
> [@sorata](#): > > Therefore, Anki should store `retrievability` for each and every review just like it does for `difficulty`. That means we can come up with `average retrievability` for all the reviews we have done and can compare it to the retention. Retrievability depends on the FSRS parameters. And they change with every optimization. Why record information that becomes obsolete over time? Moreover, if necessary, it can be calculated. If you change True Retention, it will no longer be True Retention. The fact that this table allows you to indirectly evaluate the work of FSRS is only an additional function. To evaluate FSRS, there is already a function ⁨"Check health when optimizing (slow)". If you need some kind of numerical measure of FSRS accuracy, you could suggest returning log loss and RMSE. Another option for checking the accuracy of FSRS: [https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1613056169](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1613056169) [![Imgur](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/5/f/5f29b643e3d0eb5cb358d26a14a605acf0c35e63.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/KmUJ4f2) ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/3 "2025-08-07T22:11:31Z")
> [@Keks](#): > > Moreover, if necessary, it can be calculated. Do you mean we can retroactively calculate all the previous R values? That would be awesome then. But as for recording the R values in revlog, I agree it’s weird to record something that can become obsolete. But that felt like the only option, besides Anki records difficulty anyway which is unhelpful and can be confusing even (people get confused when the D value suddenly change after a optimisation). > [@Keks](#): > > The fact that this table allows you to indirectly evaluate the work of FSRS is only an additional function. The goal is to evaluate individual performance rather. This is also useful if you’re comparing different hours of the day: > [@Record and Show R values in Hourly Breakdown](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/record-and-show-r-values-in-hourly-breakdown/51576): > > In the Hourly Breakdown graph, can we also show the Average Retreivability of the cards? [[Screenshot-2024-11-05-17-33-01-43-a9eef3a2a561b80d5c76daebd0f9a14c]](https://ibb.co/y4ng9t7) Knowing only the recall rate doesn’t help much. ---
**Author:** ![L.M.Sherlock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/l.m.sherlock/32/16770_2.png) [@L.M.Sherlock](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/L.M.Sherlock)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/4 "2025-08-08T09:17:44Z")
The forgetting curve has shown the historical retrievability on the card info screen. ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/5 "2025-08-08T15:25:13Z")
Oh, you’re right. Then I guess it would be easy to get the data and put it in the stats screen as “expected retention”. @A_Blokee Would it be something you’re interested in? Given you already deal with stats in your add-ons. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Blokee](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/a_blokee/32/17955_2.png) [@A\_Blokee](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/A_Blokee)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/6 "2025-08-08T15:59:49Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/0/a/0a92b764de90506253e85bbcc56b789eaca3665c.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/3/5/352f4696ad2365eae275ed6e9b6433c118eb5f46.png) Do you mean one of these? ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 6:43am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/store-retrievability-in-review-logs/65374/7 "2025-08-09T06:43:50Z")
They’re similar graphs but take a look at this for what I’m thinking about: > [@Record and Show R values in Hourly Breakdown](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/record-and-show-r-values-in-hourly-breakdown/51576): > > In the Hourly Breakdown graph, can we also show the Average Retreivability of the cards? [[Screenshot-2024-11-05-17-33-01-43-a9eef3a2a561b80d5c76daebd0f9a14c]](https://ibb.co/y4ng9t7) Knowing only the recall rate doesn’t help much. Similar to that, I think Anki can show “expected retention” in the retention table (“true retention” formerly). So, you have the “actual retention” and you have the “expected retention” to contrast them both.