Things that still REALLY piss me off after using Anki for 8+ years

[KebabKiller]

So there are a few things that make me really angry about Anki, because - in my opinion - they are still missing essential features. I thought they would be added eventually, but since it hasn’t happened yet, I have taken it upon myself to express them myself. Maybe I have just not discovered certain options yet. In that case, please do feel free to teach me. Since this is quite an emotional topic for me as anger has build up over these things over years, please understand that this will be a bit of a rant and have some sympathy with this poor sinner.

I have 5 problems for which I hope there might be a solution in the software in the future.

1.
I have an issue when trying to establish uniform time intervalls.
… I have experimented with custom time intervals quite a lot, because the suggested ones are not very effective in my opinion. The regular ones are often not long enough to allow me to learn a lot of different cards in my deck on one day. For example, if I have to learn a complex card (which is not simplifiable) and can’t figure out the card in 1 go, I have to have a longer intervall between tries to learn it, bit by bit. If the system tries to cram it into my card schedule every 1-5 minutes, I won’t be learning it, because I don’t have time to process the contents and will get frustrated, since the system shoves it into my face every 5 minutes. So I have adjusted for that and set the intervall to 30 or 40 minutes in some decks - which works splendid. But unfortunately, the timings are all over the place now in the different decks. I want to set a uniform timing standard for ALL of my decks, but I can’t even find this option.

I don’t have time to micro-manage all of my decks, so a solution for this would be the option in the menu to set a unified timing standard for all cards.

2.
I have an issue if I want to optimize card or decks which are provided by commercial third parties (in this case, Thomas Kahn).

Some of them contain significant errors or would need considerable additions for optimization. I have bought cards from a third party, but it is absolutely tedious to communicate problems with these cards. It would be great if Anki would allow for other people’s card decks to be integrated & updated and give the creators quick feedback for their cards so that they can be updated and improved for all the uses who use them.

3.
I have an issue with new cards not being integrated into my workflow.

Unfortunately, Anki seems to prioritize the repetition of very old and slightly older cards significantly before the introduction of new cards to the point where they are practically excluded.
For example, this is what my deck looks like:

I have had a 1-2 year Anki hiatus, so older cards stacked up. Now the damn system practically EXCLUDES all the new cards I enter into, but shoves all the old shit into my face, that I only rarely need. I need to learn the newer ones MORE, not LESS and the current system does not take this into consideration for users who use the system for years or even decades. This makes Anki borderline useless to me at the moment, because I will need significant time for reintegrating all those old cards into my workflow before I can tap into those new cards. That’s too long and I need it to be quicker and more pragmatic. E-Mails etc. just take too long and disrupt my workflow.

I would LOVE a more BALANCED approach where I can select that I want to have a certain ratio of new cards being asked EVERY DAY.
A more uniform option would be lovely.
And before some annoying person comes along with overcomplicated “custom stacks”: No, thank you, I don’t want workarounds, I want a system that is balanced and works from the get-go long-term!

4.
I have an issue with maximum time for cards.
Some of my cards have been repeated for some time and have been “learned” by me according to the system. The problem is: The system suggests that I will be asked for this knowledge/card again in 16,7 years for example. That is simply NOT how my brain works and it makes me furios that the system is suggesting those idiotic time periods simply by multiplication. I know there are definitely people with better memory than me, but my silly little brain can only hold information reliably for about 2-4 years before I need to train the information into my brain again. More than 16 years in the future is totally unrealistic garbage for me.
I wish there would be a solution for this in form of a maximum time cap for repetitions like 2-4 years (which is uniformally appliable to all stacks/decks whatever).

5.
I have an issue with tooltips.
While doing cards, I have a few options on the right side of the screen. Now, I am quite happy that these options have received better descriptive titles with the last updates, but some are still pretty shitty. I especially struggle with understanding what the differences between some options are. What happens if I delete a card/“Karte” versus deleting a note/“Notiz”?

It would honestly just be pretty useful if all of these options had a tooltip or clickable question mark button on the right or left side of this side menu which explains what this option does in detail if you click on the question mark or hover your mouse above that option.

Thank you very much for reading & considering!
I hope this allows the program to become better for everyone!

[Eltaurus]

@KebabKiller

I want to set a uniform timing standard for ALL of my decks

This can be done using deck option presets. Admittedly, if you already changed your decks to different presets, reverting this would require some effort. But once the same preset is selected in all decks, any adjustments will be picked up by all decks automatically.

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@KebabKiller

It would be great if Anki would allow for other people’s card decks to be integrated & updated

I agree. Having some system for distributing deck and note type updates would be awesome.

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@KebabKiller

I would LOVE a more BALANCED approach where I can select that I want to have a certain ratio of new cards being asked EVERY DAY.
A more uniform option would be lovely.

The ratio is practically determined by your “New cards/day” and “Maximum reviews/day” settings in the deck options. If you are encountering a problem where overdue cards are pushing new cards out of the set limit – turn the option “New cards ignore review limit” on. It will ensure you will get the required number of new cards each day. You might also want to set “New/review order” to “Show before reviews” to get the new cards first, in case you don’t get enough review time to go through all the scheduled cards each day.

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@KebabKiller

I wish there would be a solution for this in form of a maximum time cap for repetitions like 2-4 years

This is also in the deck settings as “Maximum interval” in the Advanced section (the number is set in days with the default value of 36500 being equivalent to 100 years).

[brainravens]

@KebabKiller

because - in my opinion - they are still missing essential features

A good chunk of this is manageable with Anki as it is, tbh. At least a few very much are existing features. Some of this frustration seemingly stems from a desire for solutions that are already present and available.

@KebabKiller

Unfortunately, Anki seems to prioritize the repetition of very old and slightly older cards significantly before the introduction of new cards to the point where they are practically excluded.

The order in which Anki prioritizes cards to be shown can be opted by ‘Display Order’ in deck options.

@KebabKiller

but shoves all the old shit into my face

To be fair, a 2-year hiatus may involve a bit of sprucing up. Again, display order is an option in deck settings.

@KebabKiller

It would be great if Anki would allow for other people’s card decks to be integrated & updated and give the creators quick feedback for their cards so that they can be updated and improved for all the uses who use them.

Ankihub already does something that is essentially this. Much of the onus lies on third parties to build appropriate interface and infrastructure, rather than the issue lying solely with Anki.

@KebabKiller

I would LOVE a more BALANCED approach where I can select that I want to have a certain ratio of new cards being asked EVERY DAY.

This can be accomplished by defining the number of new cards and max reviews. Simple enough.

@KebabKiller

More than 16 years in the future is totally unrealistic garbage for me.

This setting exists; max interval setting. Also deck options.

[Expertium]

@brainravens

This can be accomplished by defining the number of new cards and max reviews. Simple enough.

And “New/review order” under “Display Order”

[eroscard]

1- You can define a different preset for each deck, click on the deck gear > options > at the top there is the option to add preset, so I suggest putting the same name as the deck, do this for each deck.

2- The latest version of Anki already comes with Ankihub integrated.
Tools > preferences > third-party services > Ankihub.

3- There are 2 options in this case.
Option 1
Create a filtered deck with only new cards
To do this, open the deck and press F, instead of is:due, put is:new
Option 2
Click on the deck gear > options > in display order go to order of new vs revision and put show before revisions.

4-Click on the gear in the deck > options > advanced and change the days to 730, which is 2 years.

Whenever you change any setting, remember to save.

5-I didn’t understand the question. Do you want to know the difference between deleting a card and a type of note?
If that’s the case…
You put a card inside the type of note.
Imagine the situation…
If card “a” and card “b” are inside the type of note “x”.
If you delete card “a”, then only card “a” is deleted.
If you delete the type of note “x”, then you will automatically delete all cards that are inside that type of note.

[KebabKiller]

This can be done using deck option presets. Admittedly, if you already changed your decks to different presets, reverting this would require some effort. But once the same preset is selected in all decks, any adjustments will be picked up by all decks automatically.

Honestly, that’s just bad. And I don’t quite remember which timing presets I have set for each deck. As you can see, there are quite a lot of them and I’m short on time.

The ratio is practically determined by your “New cards/day” and “Maximum reviews/day” settings in the deck options. If you are encountering a problem where overdue cards are pushing new cards out of the set limit – turn the option “New cards ignore review limit” on. It will ensure you will get the required number of new cards each day. You might also want to set “New/review order” to “Show before reviews” to get the new cards first, in case you don’t get enough review time to go through all the scheduled cards each day.

This is horrible to set up honestly. For everyone else reading this at a later point: The option is NOT in the regular options menu. This user means the hidden option menu that you can only see when selecting a deck or hovering your mouse over the name of one of your decks (the gearwheel will appear on the right).
Selecting both options helped my change my deck layout. I am baffled why a balanced new/old question mix isn’t the standard option. This should also be selectable in the main options menu, not (only) the deck menus.
Thank you so much!

This is also in the deck settings as “Maximum interval” in the Advanced section (the number is set in days with the default value of 36500 being equivalent to 100 years).

Why do they use this terrible menu and layout? It’s just not intuitive.
They menu just says “36500” without any explanation of what this value is. Days? Hours? Weeks? I mean you can deduce it, but for people who are not used to this type of writing limits and aren’t so tech-savy, this is bad. Adding the “?” there is a good idea, but it would be smarter to just add the unit into the end of the selection bar in my opinion.

Anyway, I set the standard time to a maximum of 3 years (= ~1.095 days). Thanks!

[KebabKiller]

5-I didn’t understand the question. Do you want to know the difference between deleting a card and a type of note?
If that’s the case…
You put a card inside the type of note.
Imagine the situation…
If card “a” and card “b” are inside the type of note “x”.
If you delete card “a”, then only card “a” is deleted.
If you delete the type of note “x”, then you will automatically delete all cards that are inside that type of note.

Holy shit!
Oh no. Oh nononono.
Do you mean that you delete all types of cards which have been written inside that card type?
My most used card type is one with different kinds of segments which produce seperate questions/card repetition prompts.
This would be desastrous for me either way and would explain some of the malfunctions I have seen with other card types.

This is exactly what I mean by confusing names. Why isn’t this explained in this menu?

[Anon_0000]

@KebabKiller

Why do they use this terrible menu and layout? It’s just not intuitive.
They menu just says “36500” without any explanation of what this value is. Days? Hours? Weeks? I mean you can deduce it, but for people who are not used to this type of writing limits and aren’t so tech-savy, this is bad. Adding the “?” there is a good idea, but it would be smarter to just add the unit into the end of the selection bar in my opinion.

Probably because the in-app “docs” already explains it, so whoever implemented it might have thought it’s unneccessary to include “days”:

The latest anki does show % and m (minutes), d (days), ect. in the options though. So I’ll see if I can include the days for the maximum interval setting as well.

Edit: No, I cannot. Pretty sure it’s in ts/lib/components/SpinBox.svelte, ts/routes/deck-options/AdvancedOptions.svelte and ts/routes/deck-options/SpinBoxFloatRow.svelte but I couldn’t get it to work.

[eroscard]

I don’t do that, I just explained to you what you wanted to know, which I assume was that.

[Danika_Dakika]

Your questions are pretty easily answered and most of these issues have been solved for years (or always). You might not like to hear this, but it looks like the real problem is that you’ve been using Anki for this long, with ongoing questions/concerns, and you never asked for help or consulted the documentation. That much be incredibly frustrating, but – and I mean this with all possible kindness – you have been your own worst enemy here.

And before “some annoying person comes along” to say, “But I shouldn’t have to read a manual! Software should be intuitive!” You’re trying to do advanced things with the software. You shouldn’t expect to do those without learning what to do first.

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@KebabKiller

1. … a solution for this would be the option in the menu to set a unified timing standard for all cards.6.

@KebabKiller

And I don’t quite remember which timing presets I have set for each deck. As you can see, there are quite a lot of them and I’m short on time.

As was mentioned, this can be easily done with Deck Options presets. But you’re the one who said you need different timings for different cards – so I don’t see how a uniform set of steps will help you with that.

It also sounds like you’ve made a mess of what decks are assigned to what presets [see also: your own worst enemy], but that’s something you’re going to have to remedy for yourself. If you want to know more, ask.

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@KebabKiller

2. …It would be great if Anki would allow for other people’s card decks to be integrated & updated and give the creators quick feedback for their cards so that they can be updated and improved for all the uses who use them.

As mentioned – AnkiHub does a great job in that space. Beyond that, this is an issue you have with a deck creator, not with Anki.

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@KebabKiller

3. … I would LOVE a more BALANCED approach where I can select that I want to have a certain ratio of new cards being asked EVERY DAY.

Any combination of setting a higher max review limit – or using “New cards ignore review limit” – or doing your own maintenance on your decks to retire older cards you don’t want to study anymore – would be a solution to this.

The reason your Reviews are crowding out New cards is because of the limits you already have set on your decks [see also: your own worst enemy]. It is a general guiding principle that if you have too many cards to do all of your Reviews, you don’t have room in your workload to be introducing more cards – but of course, you are free to disregard that.

Along with that there are sensible ways to dig out of a backlog while keeping up with your “current” Reviews – better ways than setting a low max limit and letting your backlog fester. If you want to know more, ask.

@KebabKiller

For everyone else reading this at a later point: The option is NOT in the regular options menu.

That’s just not true. It’s in the Deck Options – the same Deck Options where you set these limits [which your are complaining about how] in the first place.

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@KebabKiller

4. … I wish there would be a solution for this in form of a maximum time cap for repetitions like 2-4 years (which is uniformally appliable to all stacks/decks whatever).

@KebabKiller

I mean you can deduce it, but for people who are not used to this type of writing limits and aren’t so tech-savy, this is bad.

Well again – it’s an advanced feature that a basic user would never need to touch. And it uses the same naming as the other intervals (in the SM-2 algorithm) you set by days – Graduating interval, Easy interval, Minimum interval. And it has a tooltip right next to it that answers your questions.

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@KebabKiller

5. … I especially struggle with understanding what the differences between some options are. What happens if I delete a card/“Karte” versus deleting a note/“Notiz”?
   …
   It would honestly just be pretty useful if all of these options had a tooltip or clickable question mark button on the right or left side of this side menu which explains what this option does in detail if you click on the question mark or hover your mouse above that option.

Not every thing can have a tooltip – but all of these things are easily accessible in the manual and other documentation. In 8+ years, you really could have clicked “Help” in the menu bar at any point [see also: your own worst enemy].

Understanding the difference between a note and a card is Anki 101 – it’s covered in the Getting Started page that we frequently send new users to. It sounds like that would be worth a read for you too.

“Delete” is in the Notes menu – not in the Cards menu – it is a Notes-action.

@eroscard

If you delete card “a”, then only card “a” is deleted.

Just to clarify that hypothetical, you can’t actually delete a single card made from a note. You can delete a single note, which will delete all of the cards made from it.