On both of the past two days I have started my anki reviews on my laptop and finished my cards on the ios app. Today when I opened my laptop anki I was prompted to conduct a full sync and it appears that I have lost all of the progress on the cards I have completed in the past two days and lost my review streak (544 days).
The ios app currently is still displaying the correct card count that I should have for today and is showing a red sync button. I have seen in the past an option come up stating that two conflicting sync files exist and asking whether I would like to upload or download from ankiweb. If that’s an option then perfect, I can just upload to ankiweb on ios then download from ankiweb on laptop, but I haven’t pressed the red sync button on the ios app yet due to worry about it just auto-syncing to the data file currently shown on my laptop.
Ideally, I would like to rectify the review count on my laptop anki, preferably not lose the reviews I have done in the past two days, and hopefully fix my streak (I know it is dumb but 544 days is a long time).
Whenever I do cards on my phone I always sync multiple times because I worry about something getting lost, so I know that is not the issue. I actually opened the app before going to bed last night to make sure I did it.
Please help, literally took Step 1 yesterday and just wants to get my cards done
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You should be able to recover this, as long as you don’t let the wrong side overwrite the good data.
Right now, your iOS app has the correct, up‑to‑date progress, and your laptop is wrong. The goal is to:
Get the good data from iOS → AnkiWeb (upload).
Then have your laptop download that good data from AnkiWeb.
Do this carefully:
1. Protect your iOS data first
On iOS:
Go to the deck list.
Tap the gear icon → Export → export all decks with scheduling (and media if offered), and save the .apkg file somewhere safe (e.g., Files app / iCloud / email to yourself).
This is a local backup in case anything goes wrong.
Do not delete anything or uninstall the app.
2. Force a one‑way sync upload from iOS
On iOS Anki:
Tap the red sync button.
If you see a message about a full sync / one-way sync or a conflict (Upload vs Download):
Choose Upload to AnkiWeb.
This will send the correct collection (with the last two days of reviews and your real streak info) to AnkiWeb.
Let it finish completely.
If it does not explicitly offer a choice and just uploads, that’s fine as long as it completes successfully — the iOS data will now be on AnkiWeb.
3. Force your laptop to download from AnkiWeb
On laptop Anki:
First, create a local backup:
File → Export → “All decks” with scheduling and media → save the .colpkg somewhere safe.
Then set a forced one‑way sync download:
Go to Tools → Preferences → Network.
Check “On next sync, force changes in one direction”.
When you sync, Anki will ask Upload or Download:
Choose Download from AnkiWeb.
This will replace the incorrect local collection on your laptop with the good one from AnkiWeb (the same as on iOS).
After that:
Sync again on both devices normally.
Both should now show the same due counts and (in most cases) your correct streak.
About the streak
The daily streak is calculated from your review history.
If the iOS device has all your reviews for the last 544+ days and you upload from that device, the streak should generally be preserved once all devices are synced to that state.
If you end up with a broken streak even though you did review every day, that’s more of a core Anki/AnkiWeb issue than AnkiHub. In that case:
You can check Anki’s official FAQ on streaks and review history, or post on the Anki support site.
Important “don’ts” right now
Don’t sync on the laptop and choose Upload — that would overwrite the good data in AnkiWeb and on iOS.
Don’t delete and reinstall Anki on iOS before safely uploading or exporting a backup.
If you like, after you do steps 1–3, reply here with what you saw (did you get an upload/download prompt, did counts match, what does the streak show), and I can suggest the next exact step if something still looks off.
Did you click to download from or upload to AnkiWeb?
That’s exactly it!
This just means that you uploaded your phone’s progress to AnkiWeb. It doesn’t mean that the AnkiWeb version is instantly downloaded to your laptop. Your laptop will only download the updated version from AnkiWeb when you open the app and sync (which is what was happening when you were prompted).
If you haven’t clicked anything on your laptop yet, simply select “Download from AnkiWeb” to avoid uploading your outdated laptop collection. If you already clicked “Upload to AnkiWeb,” your AnkiWeb collection is now outdated. In either case, you can fix this by tapping the red sync button on your mobile device and choosing “UPLOAD to AnkiWeb.” Then, when you sync on your laptop again, just click “DOWNLOAD from AnkiWeb.”
When the sync button is red, it will always ask whether you want to upload or download. If you want to force this prompt to appear, you can go to Preferences on your mobile device and enable a One-Way Sync.
From the AnkiMobile manual:
“The One-Way Sync button allows you to force a full upload or download of your collection. After tapping the button and confirming, the Synchronize button on the deck list will turn red. The next time you sync you’ll be given a choice of whether you want to upload your collection or download it from AnkiWeb.”
