# Unexpected "notes updated"

**URL:** <https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 11, 2020, 6:56am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264 "2020-09-11T06:56:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WGroleau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@WGroleau](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/WGroleau)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 6:56am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264/1 "2020-09-11T06:56:32Z")

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I’ve been noticing lately that when I add forty or fifty notes to a text file and import, Anki says # notes added, # notes updated, # notes unchanged

The second number is generally in the neighborhood of 150. Now every time I add notes, I generally edit a few—but never even a hundred.

So, tonight, I imported the file with 56 new notes and three changed.

It said 156 updated. Without even opening the file, I imported the same file again, and it said _ **148** _ notes updated.

What is being updated?

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**Author:** ![dae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dae/32/65_2.png) [@dae](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dae)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264/2 "2020-09-11T23:07:25Z")

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I suggest you export the notes to a text file and compare the result with the text you’re importing to see what’s different.

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**Author:** ![WGroleau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@WGroleau](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/WGroleau)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264/3 "2020-09-12T00:34:11Z")

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I exported the deck and did a sort -u on both import and export and deleted the unnecessary quote marks from the export.

sdiff on the sort results said that every line was different, but I could not see any difference. I piped sdiff into od -xc and could not find any differences.

So I tried `head -2 /tmp/{IN,OUT} | od -xc` and verified that the first lines are NOT different!

So, I imported the same (unsorted) unedited file again, and it again said “148 notes updated.” I did a check DB and imported again: same result.

If there is something in the import file that Anki doesn’t like and alters during import, I cannot find any evidence because either `od -xc ` or ` diff/sdiff` is giving false output!

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**Author:** ![WGroleau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@WGroleau](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/WGroleau)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264/4 "2020-09-12T07:20:26Z")

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Just now, I added 18 notes to the file, changed no previously existing notes, and imported.

Said 18 added, 148 updated.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 5:31am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/unexpected-notes-updated/3264/5 "2023-05-01T05:31:40Z")

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Closed on May 1, 2023, 5:31am UTC