# Why do Anki need to sync media? It takes too much time!
**URL:** https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [December 18, 2024, 5:35am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327 "2024-12-18T05:35:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rg1234](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/rg1234)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 5:35am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/1 "2024-12-18T05:35:49Z")
Hello, so I’m planning to make a heavy media based anki flashcard system. But one thing that stops me from doing it is syncing. Why does syncing need to download ALL media itself? Shouldn’t we just assign IDs for these images and sync the progress itself and not download the whole images/audios of the entire flashcard system?
Like “hey ive done this one flashcard with audio/video in my phone, can you sync it me doing this with an assigned id and NOT download/upload the media/audio? and also when you sync this to my pc, just match the id assigned of this media to the same media/audio present in my pc, wouldnt that be great? that would be great”
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### Author:  [@ferophila](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/ferophila)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 6:21am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/2 "2024-12-18T06:21:43Z")
You can move media manually between devices, so Anki can use it if needed. It is still synced to the server, however.
I can imagine that the problem of some users with the duration of syncing is also due to the fact that a) unnecessarily large files (resolution, …) are used and b) a lot of prefabricated decks are added to the collection, which are only used much later (or never).
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### Author:  [@Shigeyuki](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Shigeyuki)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 7:33am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/3 "2024-12-18T07:33:11Z")
If the decks are too large I think it would be faster to export the decks and sync them locally.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 8:07am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/4 "2024-12-18T08:07:20Z")
The media isn’t synced every time you study a card. But if you want to use local media (as opposed to links to remotely hosted media) – the media needs to be on your device.
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### Author:  [@rg1234](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/rg1234)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 10:33am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/5 "2024-12-18T10:33:44Z")
So, how do I go with that? let’s say I have a 2000 vocab flashcards filled with images and audio on both of my pc and android. How do I sync them easily? I just want some online database to assign the card I studied as “studied” without downloading what the hell is in it and send them on some of my devices where I did not study the flashcard there and will update once it synced.
like this
android: _connects to database_ hello, so I studied this flashcard right, can you record it
online database: ok sure
android: but i wanna save data so can you just familiarize with it and see if it is similar to the ones I have in the pc?
online database: uhhh… ok sure, how many did you study? and what do they look like?
android: so uhh I studied this image of a zebra and they call it something in this language called something
online database: ok cool.
* * *
pc: _connects to database_ hello there news for me
online database: so uhh your android said it studied this flashcard where theres “an image of a zebra called something in a language called something”
pc: let me check, oh yeah, its here, so they studied it in android and not here?
online database: yeah so can you just mark it studied. i dont really have the flashcard for you to see
pc: oh dont worry, i know what it looks like based on what you said to me, the flashcard has a tag “an image of a zebra called something in the language called something” so I already knew what you’re talking about.
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### Author:  [@llama](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/llama)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/6 "2024-12-18T11:19:34Z")
I don’t know about older versions of ankidroid but in 2.20.0 you can turn off media sync in Settings \> Sync \> Fetch media on sync
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### Author:  [@ferophila](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/ferophila)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2024, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/7 "2024-12-18T11:19:53Z")
> **[Managing Files - Anki Manual](https://docs.ankiweb.net/files.html#file-locations)**
>
> Anki's user manual. Anki is a flashcard program that makes learning easier.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/8 "2024-12-19T02:27:48Z")
So then, just don’t sync your media. And you won’t have access to it on the other device. Anki can’t predict in advance what media you will want on which device – that’s up to you.
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### Author:  [@rg1234](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/rg1234)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/9 "2024-12-27T03:10:01Z")
im asking is that why the media sync? its not really prediction, but why cant anki servers treat images just like normal text flashcards? at least just an option so it would only need to know the name of the image and that it has been worked/studied on and the pc and android will just work it out themselves (what has been studied etc.)
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### Author:  [@Anon\_0000](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Anon_0000)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/10 "2024-12-27T03:35:42Z")
I’m not sure I understand.
Syncing media does make sense. If you add new cards (with media) on device A, device B won’t be able to display media if you don’t sync it (or copy them with another method to device B).
If you truly don’t want to sync media, then go to `tools > settings > sync` and turn media sync off.
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### Author:  [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 3:37am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/11 "2024-12-27T03:37:30Z")
As I said above:
> [@Danika\_Dakika](#):
>
> The media isn’t synced every time you study a card.
The answer is still the same.
> [@rg1234](#):
>
> why cant anki servers treat images just like normal text flashcards?
I don’t understand what you mean by that – because it does. Studying a card doesn’t cause the media to resync or the card text to resync.
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### Author:  [@llama](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/llama)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2024, 6:26am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/12 "2024-12-27T06:26:43Z")
> [@rg1234](#):
>
> why cant anki servers treat images just like normal text flashcards?
Flashcards without media may look like plaintext, but they’re still webpages with html/css/js. And your case seems to be the exception to the rule, which is that people expect whatever media’s on their flashcard to load and display properly.
If you’re asking why ankiweb isn’t acting like a CDN and just serving media, 1) increased costs on dae’s end and 2) the lack of privacy
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/why-do-anki-need-to-sync-media-it-takes-too-much-time/53327/13 "2025-01-26T06:26:57Z")
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