Hello everyone
I’m trying to understand FSRS behavior with new cards and learning steps in Anki Desktop.
Initial setup:
I’m using Anki Desktop with FSRS enabled. Initially my preset had NO learning steps and NO relearning steps (the fields were completely blank) as recommended by Anking video. I have four decks, all using the same preset, same FSRS settings, same insertion order, and same new-card limits.
In three decks, new cards never entered the Learning queue at all. On the very first view of a new card, the answer buttons always showed hour/day-based intervals. Again- 1 day, Hard- 1 day, Good- 2 days, Easy- multiple days. These cards did not show minute/hour learning steps and did not appear in Learning.
In one deck, new cards did enter the Learning queue, showing short intervals like minutes or hours.10 minutes, 1 hours and repeated the same day.
Then I changed settings:
I later added learning steps 1m 10m and relearning steps to the same preset and confirmed that all four decks are using this identical preset.
After adding learning steps:
The behavior in the three decks did NOT change…new cards still do not enter the Learning queue at all on first exposure and still show day-based FSRS intervals.
The one deck that previously showed learning behavior continues to do so (minute/hour steps appear, cards repeat same day).
I tried forgetting/resetting cards (reset learning, lapses, and position), but this still did not make the three decks enter Learning.
Card Info shows 0 reviews and 0 lapses (cards are truly new).
Same Anki version, same preset, no active filtered decks.
Learning/relearning steps were added after the decks/cards already existed.
My questions:
Why would new cards in some decks never enter the Learning queue at all, even after learning steps are added?
Is this due to FSRS design (learning steps are not enforced on first exposure and are only used after an “Again” )? This I was told by ChatGPT.
Does the timing of when learning steps were introduced (after cards/decks already existed) permanently affect how FSRS treats those cards?
Is there a supported way to force all new cards to always enter the Learning queue first under FSRS?