User interface size slider has no effect on Linux (X11) — survives add-on disable and prefs reset

Anki Help
1

Anki Version

26.09.3 (29bb700b) (ao)
Python 3.13.15, Qt 6.11.2, PyQt 6.11.0

Operating System

Linux Mint (Cinnamon), X11 session
Kernel: Linux-7.0.0-34-generic-x86_64
glibc 2.39

Description

Preferences > Appearance > User interface size has no visible effect on the rendered UI, at any value (tested up to 200%). The interface stays pinned at its default size regardless of the slider setting and a full restart.

This started after updating from a 25.x release to 26.05+ (currently on
26.09.3). It worked correctly on 25.x on this same machine.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Preferences > Appearance
  2. Set “User interface size” to 200%
  3. Restart Anki fully (confirmed via pgrep anki that no old process lingers)
  4. Interface renders unchanged from 100%

Expected Behavior

The UI (fonts, buttons, window chrome) should scale to the selected
percentage after restart.

Actual Behavior

No visible scaling occurs at any tested value.

Troubleshooting Already Attempted

  • Confirmed full restart (not just closing Preferences) — no change
  • Disabled all add-ons via Shift-launch — no change
  • Set scale directly via debug console (mw.pm.setUiScale(2.0)) +
    restart — no change
  • Deleted prefs21.db to force fresh defaults — issue persists even on a
    clean prefs file
  • Confirmed X11 session (not Wayland)
  • Resetted window sizes

Since the issue survives both a prefs wipe and add-on disable, it doesn’t
appear to be a stale-preference or add-on-conflict issue — points toward
something in how the scale factor is being applied at the Qt/rendering
layer post-26.05 packaging change.

Add-ons (for reference, all disabled during testing above)

AJT Japanese for JP Mining Note [200813220]
AnkiConnect [2055492159]
CSS Injector - Change default editor styles [181103283]
JPMN Manager with prereleases New Version [301910299]
Local Audio Server for Yomichan [1045800357]
Review Heatmap [1771074083]
True Retention by Card Maturity [923360400]

2
3

Hello, I also encountered the same problem.

4

Just wanted to chime in and confirm that this exact regression isn’t just limited to Linux and Windows, it is completely broken on macOS for me too.

I just updated to the same version and hit a brick wall trying to change the sizing. The “User interface size” preference is completely ignored.

Here are my system details for reference:

  • Anki Version: 26.09.3 (29bb700b) (ao)
  • Python / Qt: Python 3.13.15, Qt 6.11.2, PyQt 6.11.0
  • Platform: macOS-27.0-arm64-arm-64bit-Mach-O (Apple Silicon)

Like the OP, I tried disabling all add-ons via Shift-launch, running mw.pm.setUiScale() directly in the debug console, and entirely wiping my prefs21.db file to get a fresh layout. The interface remains completely frozen at 100% scale regardless.

Temporary Mac Workaround:
If anyone else on a Mac is tearing their hair out trying to study with microscopic text, you can completely bypass the broken menu by launching Anki directly from your Mac Terminal while setting the webscale variable inline. For example, to force 1.4x zoom:

ANKI_WEBSCALE=1.4 /Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/Anki

Hopefully, since this is impacting all three major operating systems, the dev team can push out a quick hotfix patch soon! I’m currently sad tho :frowning: