Help in filtered decks please

[nncny9933]

Hi, sorry, I need a little more help understanding filtered decks.

Let’s say I create a filtered deck by tag and there are 400 cards in that deck. Should I set the limit to 200 cards, or should I set it to 999999 like I often see other people recommend?

The reason I’m confused is that I only want to do 200 cards per day. If the deck is limited to 999999, how do I keep track of stopping at 200 cards without accidentally seeing the same cards again?

For example, today I completed 200 cards. When I clicked “Rebuild,” it looked like Anki pulled in some of the same cards I had just reviewed. My question is: how do I continue reviewing the remaining 200 cards that I haven’t seen yet, rather than rebuilding the deck and potentially reviewing cards I’ve already done?

I have a large backlog, but I’m using 400 cards as a simple example to better understand how filtered decks are supposed to work.
Thank you

[AnkiHub_AI_bot]

Thinking

Search
Found 0 results for ‘tags:official filtered deck tag limit 999999 200 cards per day category: Support order:latest max_posts:10 status:open’

Search
Found 0 results for ‘tags:official filtered deck limit 999999 rebuild backlog category: Support order:latest max_posts:10 status:open’

You’ve understood the core problem really well — filtered decks can be confusing here.

1. What the “limit” in a filtered deck actually does

When you set the search and a limit (200, 400, 999999, etc.), you’re only telling Anki:

“From all the cards that match this search, at most this many should be placed into this filtered deck right now.”

It does not mean “200 per day.” It’s just how many cards are loaded into the filtered deck when you build/rebuild.

That’s why people often use very high limits (e.g. 999999): they want all matching cards in the filtered deck and then control how many they actually study by stopping manually.

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2. Why you saw some of the same cards again after Rebuild

Key point:
Filtered decks are basically temporary views of your main decks. When you:

• Study in the filtered deck
• Then Rebuild

Anki:

1. Puts the cards back into the original deck with their new due dates based on the reviews you just did.
2. Pulls in again all cards matching the search, including ones that are now due again or still new (depending on your settings).

So if your search is something like:

"tag:xyz"

with no extra constraints, already-reviewed cards can be pulled back in when you rebuild, which is what you’re seeing.

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3. How to do “200 per day” without repeating the same cards

You have two main options:

Option A – Use a big limit (e.g. 999999) but only study 200

1. Set the filtered deck search to something like:
   • For new only (from backlog):
     tag:xyz is:new
   • For reviews only:
     tag:xyz is:review
2. Set the limit high (e.g. 999999).
3. Each day:
   • Open the filtered deck.
   • Do exactly 200 cards, then stop (close the deck / don’t keep pressing “Again/Good”).
   • Do not click Rebuild until the next day.
4. Next day:
   • Click Rebuild.
   • Anki will pull in the next “batch” of cards that match the search (which will exclude cards that are not due/new anymore if you used is:new / is:review).

This way, the “daily 200” is controlled by you stopping at 200, not by the limit number.

---

Option B – Limit the deck to daily size (200) and rebuild daily

If you really want the deck itself to only contain 200 cards total:

1. Filtered deck search:
   • Again, use tag:xyz is:new or tag:xyz is:review so that you don’t keep pulling in the same “just-done” cards.
2. Set the limit = 200.
3. Each day:
   • Click Rebuild once.
   • Study all 200.
   • Don’t rebuild again that day.

Because you used is:new / is:review, cards you just did will no longer match the “new” set or will have different due dates and may no longer be selected immediately, depending on your search and scheduling.

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4. Which should you choose?

• If you want to clear a backlog of new cards by tag:
  Use a search like tag:xyz is:new, set limit high (999999 is fine), and just do 200 per day without rebuilding multiple times a day.

• If you want to keep it very strict to “200 in the deck at a time”:
  Limit = 200, search = tag:xyz is:new or tag:xyz is:review, rebuild once per day.

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5. Answering your specific example (400 cards, 200/day)

• Have a backlog of 400 cards with a tag.
• Want 200 per day, no repeats until you’ve seen all 400:

Use:

1. Filtered deck search: tag:xyz is:new
2. Limit: 200 (or 999999 if you prefer Option A’s style).
3. Day 1:
   • Rebuild.
   • Do 200 cards.
   • Don’t rebuild again.
4. Day 2:
   • Rebuild.
   • Anki pulls in the next 200 “unseen” new cards (since the first 200 are no longer is:new).
   • Study those.

Result: you see each of the 400 new cards once before they ever reappear as reviews (assuming normal new-card settings).

---

If you tell me:

• The exact filtered deck search you’re using now, and
• Whether these are new cards, reviews, or both

I can suggest a concrete search string and settings tailored to your setup.

[MarcosZan]

Hello,

Unfortunately, that’s not quite how filtered decks work. When you create a filtered deck for a given tag, it pulls all the cards that match your criteria up to the limit you set. Once the cards are gathered, the number displayed represents all the cards currently in that filtered deck.

Filtered decks aren’t designed for long-term studying, so you can’t set them to automatically introduce 200 new cards per day. When you click Rebuild, Anki simply recreates the filtered deck using your original search criteria, which is why it pulls back the cards you just reviewed.

[nncny9933]

So how do people use filter decks? If not for a long term studying. Are you genuinely so confused on how to use it?.

What worked for me was to change the entire deck based off of the tags but when tags overlap it gets a little complicated so I thought by creating a filter deck it would make it less complicated but now I think I’m even more confused on how to long-term study cards. Majority of the cards are already in the learning/review process so it’s not like I’m learning anything new. I just still don’t know how to organize it.

[MarcosZan]

If you want to study long-term (if you want to use Anki’s algorithm and review a fixed number of new cards per day so they mature in the same deck) you just need to use normal decks. You don’t need to use filtered decks at all. You can just create a normal deck, select the cards by tag, and move them to that deck. They will stay there permanently, and you can review a fixed number per day if you wish by adjusting the settings, allowing you to follow Anki’s standard review algorithm.

Filtered decks are usually used if you want to cram for an exam, where you filter cards based on a tag and review all of them immediately. They are also useful for dealing with backlogs; I have used filtered decks in the past to manage backlogs by creating a deck with cards that are overdue. You can then review a little bit daily, though it is not possible to set a strict daily card limit within the deck itself. You might have to do the math mentally instead. For instance, if I have a backlog of 1000 reviews, I can create a filtered deck that pulls those cards, and then I can review them whenever I have extra time left in my study sessions.

You may also want to check or uncheck this box depending on your goal.

Here is some more information about filtered decks in the Anki manual, if you are interested:

Filtered Decks - Anki Manual