I ran into a problem downloading the Anki 26.9 update and after searching for advice on this forum I uninstalled anki according to a post I read. I then reinstalled anki from ankiweb and after logging in I tried syncing and retrieving my decks, but nothing is showing up.
I tried accessing my decks on ankiweb, but none of my decks are showing up on there either.
Is there any way my decks are still retrievable by some backup? I use anki daily and I was just about to finish RTK some 90 kanji short of 3000
If all you did was uninstall Anki, your collection is still on your computer. Your personal data is stored separately from the app – Managing Files - Anki Manual .
When you reinstalled, the app probably created a new default profile. Go to File > Switch Profile – are there any other profiles that could be the one you were using?
As far as your account – are you sure you were syncing with an AnkiWeb account before? The email address you used to post here is attached to an account, but it was created in January, and has been inactive since then. Is there another account you might have been using?
I think I might have gone overboard with the deleting, becouse I actually deleted it two times and on the first time I got a error message again, so I thought the old anki files were causing the problem so I deleted literally everything releted to anki and reinstalled it and managed to get it open.
The next time I can access my computer is tomorrow evening becouse of a school related course, but I will check again if some other profile still exists.
The only email I use is the one linked to this account and I think I first downloaded the app in 2024 and I have been using anki activly since 2025 fall, always using the same account.
That would explain it too. If you deleted your data, then the new install would have created a new Anki2 folder with an empty profile. That’s a shame, but there’s still a couple potential paths to recover from.
You should look in your Recycle Bin or Trash, wherever your OS puts deleted files, and see if you can still recover your Anki2 folder and its contents. That wouldn’t have interfered with your installation, and deleting it wasn’t part of any suggestion for dealing with that installation issue.
From your description, that’s definitely not the account I see for this email address. It was created in January 2026, and only used for a day or 2. It’s been inactive since then, and empty since July.
If you’re sure that you’ve been syncing regularly more recently than that – manually clicking sync, or you’ve been seeing the sync window that pops up for auto-syncing on open/close, or especially if you’ve been syncing your collection to another device – then you just need to figure out what email address your active account is connected to –
Check any device(s) you have used Anki on. You’ll see your account email address in Preferences > Syncing.
Check your email accounts for confirmation messages you would have received from ankiweb.net.
I was able to recover most of my cards using this app called “Windows File Recovery”.
It was able to source a deleted Anki2 collection folder from 4th September 2026 recovering 2700 RTK cards of my 2906.
In total it recovered:
5393 card
5393 notes
30288 review history-entries.
Although there is still some work to be done catching up on reviews from September 4th until today, as well as some 200 cards whose stories I’ll have to rewrite, that’s nothing compared to having to start again from scratch. So I’m glad to say I was able to get away with nothing more than a major scare.
