Images on Anking Step Deck not appearing/broken images in Extra Field

[kat020]

Hello,

I recently synced my anking step deck to ankihub. The last time I did this was maybe 2 years ago.

A lot of the images that I had previously in the Extra field now appear as broken links. I have never added or removed any text or images in the Extra field on my part. It contained what was added on by Anking v12 at the time. I would say this is an issue in almost every card that has an image in the extra field.

To troubleshoot, I have:

1. Updated Anki. Current version:

   

2. Made sure Extra fields was unprotected

3. Deleted the broken images from the appdata folder

4. Made sure there were no updates on the Ankihub addon

5. Made sure all the notes were under the Anking note type

After each troubleshoot attempt, I reset local changes to the deck.

Let me know what else I can do. Or if there is a way I can revert to the Extra field content I had before updating the cards?

Thanks,

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Thanks for all the details and screenshots—those help a lot.

What you’re likely seeing is:

• The HTML <img> tags in the Extra field are still there, but
• The actual media files are missing or were renamed when you updated / resynced (or during a past cleanup), so Anki shows them as broken images.

Because AnkiHub only syncs note fields + tags, not your local media folder history, there unfortunately isn’t an automatic way via AnkiHub to “revert” the Extra field back to an older state with its original images if the files are gone.

A few concrete things to try:

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1. Check if the images exist at all

1. In Anki, go to Tools → Check Media…
2. Let it run and see:
   • Does it list a large number of missing files?
   • If yes, those are very likely the images that used to be in your Extra field.

If they’re missing there, they’re not in your current collection’s media folder anymore.

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2. See whether the issue is specific to the Step deck templates

Because you mentioned this is the AnKing Step Deck, but you also have other AnKing decks:

1. Open Browse.
2. Pick a card from a non‑Step AnKing deck that you know should have an image in Extra (e.g., from Overhaul).
3. Check whether:
   • Extra field still has working images there, or
   • They’re broken in all AnKing decks.

• If only the Step deck is affected, it’s more likely something changed in that deck’s earlier version and the media wasn’t preserved.
• If all AnKing decks have broken Extra images, then it’s almost certainly a media-loss issue on your local collection.

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3. Look for an older backup with the media

Your best shot at restoring those images is an older Anki backup from before you re-synced with AnkiHub:

1. In Anki go to File → Switch Profile… → Open Backup (or File → Import, depending on how your version exposes backups).
2. Look for a backup from before you updated the Step deck / re-synced to AnkiHub.
3. Open that backup (it will open as a separate temporary collection).
4. Inspect a few Step deck cards:
   • If the Extra field images appear correctly there, then:
     • Export just the relevant deck as a .apkg with media from that backup.
     • Import that .apkg into your main profile.
     • When importing, you can:
       • Keep the note type / deck structure aligned with AnKing, and
       • Allow Anki to add missing media.
     • Then re‑sync with AnkiWeb first, and then AnkiHub, making sure you don’t reset local changes until things look right.

If the backup also has broken images, then the media was already gone before this recent update.

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4. Avoid further deletions from the media folder

You mentioned:

3. Deleted the broken images from the appdata folder

If those filenames still corresponded to images used on other cards, this could make things worse. Going forward, avoid manually deleting anything from the collection.media folder unless Anki’s Check Media explicitly recommends it and you’re sure you don’t need the files.

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5. About “reverting Extra field content” via AnkiHub

• AnkiHub does not store full historical versions of your media.
• It does keep note history for text fields, but if the text is just <img src="…"> and the underlying file is missing, reverting the text won’t fix the broken image.
• If you never edited these fields yourself and the problem is entirely missing media, AnkiHub alone can’t restore those images.

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6. Next steps / what I’d ask you to post

To help further, could you reply with:

1. A screenshot of the Check Media results (especially the “Missing files” section).
2. Whether the Overhaul deck or other AnKing decks have the same problem in the Extra field.
3. Whether you found a backup where the images still work.

Once we know whether an older backup still has the media, we can walk you step‑by‑step through:

• Importing just the media back into your main collection, and
• Safely re‑linking everything while keeping your AnkiHub sync intact.

[MarcosZan]

Hello,

This may be because you haven’t synced in a long time. This is also a common issue when downloading the deck for the first time. There is a lot of new media, and it can take a while to sync. Sometimes it can take hours, and the syncing only occurs while your Anki app is running.

To see if it is currently downloading or idle, please check your AnkiHub Media Sync status:

1. Open the AnkiHub menu at the top of your Anki main screen.
2. Click on Media Sync.

Please let me know what the media sync status shows.

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Also, I recommend removing this tag from your protected tags because it is the current tag used by the AnKing Step Deck. I don’t think this is interfering with your issue, but if you keep this tag protected, you won’t receive any tag updates. If you haven’t updated your deck in the past two years, your tags might be quite outdated. Please remove this tag, save your changes, and then reset local changes again.

[kat020]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

I should have mentioned, the media sync has been idle for a while. I don’t think it’s ever switched to anything else while I ran through the troubleshoot options.

Thanks for the heads up - I removed the tag from my protected tags like you mentioned, then reset and synced with AnkiHub. Over 1000 note tags got updated which is great, but yes it did not affect the media issue.

[MarcosZan]

Could you please try running Tools > Check Media and then resetting your local changes again to see if the media starts downloading?

Also, if a message appears at any time asking you to upload to or download from AnkiWeb, please click Upload.

[kat020]

This is what comes up after running check media -

I reset local changes and synced to Ankihub again. The media sync changed to downloading!

I’ll let it run and update you after.

Thank you!

[kat020]

All the cards I had tagged earlier have the images updated now.

Running the media check again:

Is there anything I should do about the missing or unused files?

[MarcosZan]

Hello,

Anki’s built-in Tools > Check Media tool can sometimes show a “missing files” report even when no media is actually missing from your AnkiHub decks.

So you are good to go! You only have to worry about it if you see broken image icons in the Text and Extra fields.

[kat020]

Great, thank you!

Can I go ahead and delete the unused files to clear up some space?

[MarcosZan]

Of course