Anki is incredibly slow after installing AnKing deck

[torretin]

Hi! I’m experiencing severe performance issues with Anki after setting up the AnKing add-on and hoping someone can help. I’m on MacOS with an M1 Pro (16GB) running Anki 26.05 with the latest version of AnKing. Everything is laggy; startup, syncing, browsing cards, and reviewing. It’s to the point where Anki is essentially unusable. The iPhone app works perfectly fine though.

The key thing I’ve noticed is that Anki was running perfectly before I installed AnKing, and the lag started immediately after setup. I’ve already tried checking media status and leaving Anki open for an extended period, and I’ve gone through the forum without finding a solution that works for me.

Any help is appreciated!

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Thanks for the detailed description — that helps narrow things down.

Because things were fine before adding the AnKing deck and only your Mac desktop is affected (not iPhone), this is almost certainly related to:

• Deck size (AnKing is huge)
• Add‑ons (especially the AnKing add‑ons and others interacting with the browser/reviewer)
• Background processes like media, search indexing, or FSRS

Try these steps in order and test Anki after each:

---

1. Rule out add‑ons (most common cause)

1. In Anki:
   Tools → Add-ons → Toggle Enabled (disables all add-ons).
2. Quit Anki completely and reopen.
3. See if:
   • Startup is still slow
   • Browsing and reviewing are still laggy

If things are fast with add-ons disabled:

• Re‑enable add-ons in small batches (especially the AnKing-related ones) to find which one triggers the lag.
• Common heavy ones to test last (or leave off unless you really need them):
  • Heavy browser/reviewer customization add-ons
  • Old/legacy add-ons not updated for Anki 26

Please post a screenshot or list of your add-ons in that topic so we can help identify likely culprits.

---

2. Check for media or syncing tasks stuck

You said you checked media and left Anki open, which is great. Still, double‑check:

1. Tools → Check Media → let it finish.
2. Tools → Check Database → this can significantly help performance after importing a large deck.
3. Make sure no “Background tasks” indicator is spinning indefinitely (bottom right of the Anki window).

---

3. Turn off heavy display options in the Browser

The Browser can be especially slow with a dataset as large as AnKing.

In the Browser:

• Disable or reduce:
  • “Sort by” columns that require calculations (like “Due,” “Ease,” etc.) if they make it hang.
  • Any add‑on columns (if you’re using add-ons that add custom columns).

Also try:

• Searching a single small subdeck instead of the entire collection to see if that’s much faster.

---

4. Check FSRS / scheduler settings

If you changed scheduler/FSRS options as part of an AnKing setup guide:

1. Tools → Preferences → Scheduling
2. Confirm:
   • You’re on the standard scheduler (V3) recommended for your Anki version.
   • You didn’t enable multiple experimental options at once.

If you’re unsure what’s on, you can post screenshots of your Preferences → Scheduling tab in the topic.

---

5. Basic Mac-specific checks

• Make sure Anki is installed in /Applications and you’re running the standard build for Apple Silicon (not Intel or alternate builds).
• Close other heavy apps (especially ones that might be scanning files, like cloud backup or antivirus tools).
• Reboot the Mac once after doing the steps above.

---

6. If it’s still unusable

In your forum topic, could you add:

1. A screenshot or copy‑paste of:
   • Help → About → Copy Debug Info
2. A screenshot of:
   • Tools → Add-ons window (showing your installed add-ons)

With that info, we can compare to known AnKing/AnkiHub setups and see if a specific add-on or setting is known to cause issues on Anki 26.05 + M1.

---

Reply in that thread with:

• Whether disabling add-ons fixed the lag or not
• Exactly when it feels worst (startup vs. browsing vs. answering a card)

and I’ll help you narrow it down further.

[torretin]

Here’s the copy debug info: Anki 26.05 (e64c6b1a) (ao)
Python 3.13.11 Qt 6.11.0 PyQt 6.11.0
Platform: macOS-26.5.1-arm64-arm-64bit-Mach-O

===Add-ons (active)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
AnkiHub [‘1322529746’, 2026-07-01T12:28, ‘None’, ‘’]
Image Occlusion Enhanced [‘1374772155’, 2022-04-09T02:15, ‘None’, ‘’]
Review Heatmap [‘1771074083’, 2022-06-29T20:43, ‘None’, ‘’]

===IDs of active AnkiWeb add-ons===
1322529746 1374772155 1771074083

===Add-ons (inactive)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])

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Thanks for the debug info—that’s very helpful.

The good news: your setup looks very “clean”:

• Anki 26.05 on Apple Silicon
• Only 3 add-ons, all well‑known: AnkiHub, Image Occlusion Enhanced, Review Heatmap

Because performance tanked right after importing AnKing but your add-on list is minimal, this is almost certainly due to:

• The size of the AnKing deck plus
• Some expensive operations Anki may still be doing in the background (indexing/search/media/database).

Let’s go step‑by‑step and try to pin it down. Please try these in order and let me know which step changes things.

---

1. Confirm whether add-ons play any role at all

Even though your list is short, this is worth checking once:

1. Tools → Add-ons → click “Toggle Enabled” to disable all.
2. Fully quit Anki and reopen.
3. Test:
   • How long does startup take now?
   • Is browsing still super laggy?
   • Is reviewing still laggy?

If Anki becomes much faster with all add-ons disabled, re‑enable only AnkiHub and test again. Then add the others back one by one.

If there’s no difference with add-ons disabled, keep them enabled again and continue below.

---

2. Run a database check (very important after importing a huge deck)

Right after importing AnKing, the database can be fragmented or have inefficient indexes.

1. Tools → Check Database
2. Let it complete, then restart Anki.
3. Test again (startup, browsing, reviewing).

Many users see a big performance improvement from this after large imports.

---

3. Check whether it’s “everything” or specifically the Browser

Please test these separately and report back:

1. Time from clicking the Anki icon → profile open.
2. Time from clicking Browse until the Browser becomes responsive.
3. In the Browser:
   • Search only a small subdeck (for example, a single AnKing tag or subdeck) instead of the entire collection.
   • Is that still laggy or relatively smooth?

This helps us see if the bottleneck is global or just when Anki has to touch the entire AnKing deck at once.

---

4. Try a clean profile with only AnkiHub + a small deck

This isolates whether the problem is truly the combination of your profile + huge AnKing deck.

1. File → Switch Profile → Add → create a new test profile.
2. Don’t import AnKing here. Just:
   • Install AnkiHub add-on.
   • Create or import a small deck (a few hundred cards).
3. Test startup, browsing, and reviewing.

• If this test profile is fast, then the problem is specifically your main profile + giant AnKing deck.
• If the test profile is also slow, something else on the system or in Anki’s config is off.

---

5. Mac‑specific / build checks

From your debug info, you’re on the Apple Silicon build, which is ideal. Still verify:

• Anki is located in /Applications (not run from Downloads each time).
• No aggressive antivirus / backup tools are constantly scanning your Anki profile folder (e.g., in iCloud/Dropbox). If your profile is inside a synced folder, try moving Anki’s profile out of that.

---

6. If it’s still unusable

Could you post the answers to these in the thread?

1. Did disabling all add-ons change anything?
2. After Tools → Check Database, did performance improve at all?
3. Roughly how many seconds for:
   • App launch
   • Opening the Browser
   • Showing the next card during review
4. Results of the new test profile (step 4).

With that info, we can narrow down whether it’s:

• Just the sheer size of the AnKing deck on your machine,
• Something odd with your main profile, or
• A rare interaction with the AnkiHub add-on on macOS 26.05.

Reply with those details and I’ll suggest more targeted next steps (e.g., splitting the deck, changing browser usage patterns, or more advanced cleanup).

[MarcosZan]

Hello,

Let’s try a few things:

1. Open Anki while holding down the Shift key. This will disable all add-ons. See if that makes a difference.
2. Go to Tools > Check Database.
3. Go to Tools > Add-ons > Check for Updates.
4. Go to Tools > Preferences and try changing the video driver to OpenGL.
5. Close Anki and open it again normally.

Let me know how it goes!