Problem with tag hierarchy (B&B)

[abrooks1239]

Hello,

I’m having an issue with my AnKing Step Deck where my Boards & Beyond tag hierarchy appears duplicated and/or outdated.

I recently imported a school-provided .apkg (in hindsight, I think this may have been a mistake) on top of my existing AnkiHub collection. Since then, the B&B tags no longer seem to match the current organization. For example, I have duplicate/overlapping B&B sections, and some lectures appear under incorrect or outdated hierarchies.

I’ve already:

• Fully synced AnkiHub multiple times.

• Used Reset Local Changes twice.

• Confirmed I’m subscribed to the official AnKing Step Deck.

• I’m also using my school’s AnkiHub Optional Tags, which I’d like to keep.

Despite resetting local changes twice, the B&B tags remain unchanged.

Is there a way to restore the official B&B tag hierarchy without losing my review history or my school’s AnkiHub Optional Tags?

Thanks!

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You’re right that importing a school .apkg on top of an AnkiHub deck can disrupt the official tag structure, especially for complex hierarchies like B&B. AnkiHub’s Reset Local Changes only restores note content and tags that are tracked by the shared deck, not arbitrary extra tags or tag changes introduced by other imports.

Because of that, the “old/duplicate” B&B tags from the school deck are likely extra tags that AnkiHub doesn’t know about, so they’re not removed by resets.

Here’s the safest way to clean this up while preserving:

• Review history (card scheduling)
• Your school’s AnkiHub Optional Tags
• Official AnKing B&B hierarchy

---

Step 1 – Verify which tags are official vs. extra

1. In Anki, open the Browse window.
2. In the left tag pane, look at the B&B section(s).
   • The official AnKing B&B tags will exactly match what you see in the current AnKing Step Deck tag list on AnkiHub.
   • The outdated/duplicate ones often have slightly different wording, spelling, or structure and may come only from the school deck.

If you’re unsure which is which, you can post a screenshot of your full B&B tag tree and we (or AnKing support) can help you identify which branch is correct.

---

Step 2 – Remove only the extra B&B tags

You want to remove the “bad” tags without touching the official ones or your review history.

For each incorrect/duplicate B&B parent tag:

1. In the Browse sidebar, click that specific parent tag (e.g. B&B::Old_Structure::…).
2. Press Ctrl+A / Cmd+A to select all the notes on the right.
3. In the menu bar: Notes → Remove Tags…
4. Carefully type the exact tag (or branch) you want to remove, e.g.
   B&B::Old_Structure
   and confirm.
   • This only removes the tag label. It does not delete cards or change scheduling.
   • Your school’s AnkiHub Optional Tags (which are separate tags) will stay attached to those notes.

Repeat for other obviously outdated B&B branches.

---

Step 3 – Force AnkiHub to re‑apply the official tags (if needed)

Once the “bad” tags are gone:

1. In the AnkiHub add‑on, run Reset Local Changes → Selected Cards Only on:
   • The AnKing Step Deck
   • And specifically on the notes that should have B&B tags (you can select by tag like B&B before the cleanup to capture that note group).
2. Sync AnkiHub again.

If the notes are part of the official AnKing Step Deck, AnkiHub will re‑assert the current official B&B tags on them. Since you removed only the non‑AnkiHub tags, there’s no conflict with your school’s optional tags.

---

If the mess is very extensive

If you feel there are too many odd tags to manually sort:

1. Export a backup of your entire collection (File → Export → Anki Collection Package (*.colpkg)) and save it safely.
2. Consider:
   • Creating a new profile,
   • Installing only the AnKing Step Deck via AnkiHub,
   • Then adding your school material again through AnkiHub (not via .apkg), if your school offers it there.
3. You can then migrate your review history by:
   • Using AnkiHub’s deck mapping (if your school’s deck is based on AnKing); or
   • Using Anki’s built‑in “Change Deck” / “Change Note Type” tools to align duplicates (this part can get tricky; if you go this route, post details and we can walk you through options).

---

To move forward here

To give you more targeted instructions without risking your data, please reply with:

1. A screenshot of your entire B&B tag tree in the Browse sidebar.
2. Confirmation of whether your school is providing:
   • A completely separate deck via .apkg, or
   • An AnkiHub-based optional tag set layered on the AnKing Step Deck.

Once we see how many duplicate branches there are, we can tell you exactly which tags to safely strip and which ones to keep.

[Brian_BH]

Hello,

I would be happy to help.

@abrooks1239

I recently imported a school-provided .apkg (in hindsight, I think this may have been a mistake) on top of my existing AnkiHub collection. Since then, the B&B tags no longer seem to match the current organization.

Yep, this is indeed likely the cause

@abrooks1239

Is there a way to restore the official B&B tag hierarchy without losing my review history or my school’s AnkiHub Optional Tags?

In this case, there isn’t anything to ‘restore’ really, as you appear to have two separate sets of tags; one from AnkiHub and one from an imported deck. This is also why resetting local changes won’t have fixed it

In most cases, if you look at one of the two duplicates it should have very few, or no cards. Typically those will be older cards that are no longer part of the AnkiHub version of the deck

You can delete those cards, or re-tag them, and then delete the empty tags. This is about the only way to clean up the duplicates since they came from an .apkg packet outside of AnkiHub; neither Anki nor AnkiHub itself has a way to differentiate or clean up tags that you imported from elsewhere, unfortunately

A bit of clerical work, but should only take a few minutes to clean up your collection however you’d like for it to be. In any instance, you won’t lose review history. It may be worth noting that none of these tags are ‘optional tags’ in the typical sense, it’s just that whatever tags you inherited are older or out of date and are thus being duplicated

Please let me know if that answers your question, and if there’s anything else I can help with.

[abrooks1239]

@AnkiHub_AI_bot

If the mess is very extensive

If you feel there are too many odd tags to manually sort:

1. Export a backup of your entire collection (File → Export → Anki Collection Package (*.colpkg)) and save it safely.
2. Consider:

• Creating a new profile,
• Installing only the AnKing Step Deck via AnkiHub,
• Then adding your school material again through AnkiHub (not via .apkg), if your school offers it there.

3. You can then migrate your review history by:

• Using AnkiHub’s deck mapping (if your school’s deck is based on AnKing); or
• Using Anki’s built‑in “Change Deck” / “Change Note Type” tools to align duplicates (this part can get tricky; if you go this route, post details and we can walk you through options).

I have attached a screenshot of my B&B renal tags (duplicated and outdated) as they compare to one of my classmate’s (up to date and matches the new videos). I don’t think this is simply an issue of old/empty tags, but that I don’t actually have the updated hierarchy at all. Can you let me know what the easiest way to fix this is? I could potentially import an ankipackage of my classmates up to date cards as a quick patch, but I’d like to fix this at its root so that future ankihub updates come through correctly. Thanks!

[Brian_BH]

@abrooks1239

I don’t think this is simply an issue of old/empty tags, but that I don’t actually have the updated hierarchy at all.

From the images you shared, I can confirm that one of the images does indeed have the updated hierarchy.

I don’t quite know which image is yours, though, and which is your friend’s, as they aren’t labeled

This image is correct (just duplicated):

This image is outdated, and no longer correct:

I can’t say much about your friend’s collection as I don’t have a way to know much about the state of their local collection, unfortunately

@abrooks1239

Can you let me know what the easiest way to fix this is?

Yep, for better or worse the best way to fix it would be the same workflow I outlined in the previous message:

@Brian_BH

In most cases, if you look at one of the two duplicates it should have very few, or no cards. Typically those will be older cards that are no longer part of the AnkiHub version of the deck

You can delete those cards, or re-tag them, and then delete the empty tags. This is about the only way to clean up the duplicates since they came from an .apkg packet outside of AnkiHub; neither Anki nor AnkiHub itself has a way to differentiate or clean up tags that you imported from elsewhere, unfortunately

Unfortunately, since you’ve imported tags that are outside of AnkiHub’s current collection, there isn’t a way for AnkiHub to fix those tags as it can’t ‘see’ them. The only way to adjust these portions of your local collection would be to edit them yourself, I’m sorry to say

@abrooks1239

I could potentially import an ankipackage of my classmates up to date cards as a quick patch, but I’d like to fix this at its root so that future ankihub updates come through correctly.

Depending on what cards, and tags, that .apkg has it may very likely re-create or contribute to the same issue

Ultimately, if the tags contained in the .apkg don’t match those on AnkiHub, it’s going to create this very thing as some tags will be loaded from AnkiHub, and any additional tags will be loaded from your .apkg. Because you’re loading from essentially two separate libraries, the Anki software simply loads everything in both. There isn’t a central control for this, aside from your being able to edit your collection as best suits your needs

[abrooks1239]

Got it, is there any supported way to access the legacy tags then?

[Brian_BH]

In theory, the tags that you have on your .apkg are older tags. In a sense, those are ‘legacy’ tags

The more complicated answer is that AnkiHub, by definition, rolls out updates all the time. Sometimes dozens, or hundreds, of updates a day

For example, if BnB updates their video offerings then our tags have to update as well. As a result, it’s a constant rolling project of updates so there isn’t a single set of ‘legacy’ tags, really. There can be a snapshot of tags at a certain point in time, which is what you have in your .apkg, but there aren’t episodes, or editions, of tags in any formal sense

In the case of BnB they’ve been going through and updating their video offerings over about the last year and so, as a result, our tags have necessarily needed to be updated in order to keep pace with those

If you’re using older videos you may want to have older tags, but that isn’t something that we host once they’ve been updated or overwritten