Timer is still counting in-between cards !! Is it normal ?

Hey guys I’ve recently update anki from 2.1.35 into 2.1.52
Also I’ve started using the V3 scheduler

Recently however I’ve started noticing that anki timer is still counting even after answering a card and while reading the answer and extra fields. It doesn’t happen with me in the old version

Any fixes or suggestions? Is it the v3 scheduler ?

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It’s normal that the timer is still counting after showing the answer of the same card. I remember this being like this for quite some time. I don’t think it’s a V3-specific behavior. Maybe it was introduced after 2.1.35.

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Honestly this seems to me like weird behavior. Is there are reason for it not to stop?

The only reason I can think of is that it results in a more accurate representation of your study time. I guess these measurements are used to estimate the remaining time.

Maybe it’s better to differentiate between answer time and the total study time, i.e. measure once only for the time it takes to press answer and then another value for the total time you spent on the card.

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As far as I recall, it’s been like that for 10+ years. Including the answer-side time means the times match the average answer times in your stats, and I vaguely recall people complaining when it used to only include the question side time.

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It’s not meant to represent study time. According to the manual the purpose is to show “how long it takes you to answer each question.” (Deck Options - Anki Manual)

The timer should stop once you’ve told Anki to show the answer. Otherwise there isn’t a way to know how long it took to recall the answer unless you look at the timer immediately after pressing space. It’s important to me to see that number with some difficult cards, but I don’t always remember to look at the timer because I’m focused on the card contents. By the time I remember it’s too late and has turned red from reaching the stopping point.

Can we get this bug fixed, please?

It’s not a bug.

You left out an important part in your manual quote:

… so that it can show you how long was spent studying each day.

Studying includes the time you spend on the backside. I think “each question” was just inaccurate phrasing - the manual isn’t a software specification after all.

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I disagree.

I left it out because it’s not relevant. The part I quoted states what the timer does. The part I left out states why it does it. The time spent answering the question is a subset of the time spent studying. The fact that the last sentence contains the phrase, “If you consistently take longer than 60 seconds to answer a card,” makes it fairly clear that this entire paragraph regarding the timer is about answer time not total study time for a card.

Manuals are software specifications. Their purpose is to describe how the software functions. If this paragraph in the manual is inaccurate, then it should be revised to reflect what’s really happening. I don’t know what the developer’s intentions were; I can only know what was stated, not what was intended.

Regardless, it appears that the feature implementation and its documentation are not in agreement, so that’s still a bug that should be fixed. It’s up to the developer to identify which one.

My expectation, as a user, is that the timer operates as described. I’m not worried about stats, but I do want to know how long it takes me to produce an answer. Hence the reason I’ve enabled the “Show answer timer” option in my deck. Even here the UI element’s label is referring to answer time which is consistent with the documentation I reference above.

If the current behavior has been in place for 10+ years as @dae stated, then maybe the solution is to add a new feature that, when enabled, will pause the timer display when the answer is revealed but keep the timer value incrementing internally (i.e., the current behavior). That would allow existing users to be unaffected while bringing the timer’s visible behavior closer to what’s described in the documentation.

I’ve tweaked the manual to make it clearer that “answer a card” includes the time taken to decide on and press an answer button.