Unused files

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1

Hey guys! User of Anking for medical school learning here.

Recently downloaded AnkiMobile on my iPad and noticed that the “Media Sync Long” prompt has been taking somewhere around >2 hours at this point. My internet connection is pretty strong where I am.

Worried about how much storage my Anki is taking I went onto Anki Desktop to do the “Check Media” function under tools. Here, I discovered I had nearly 60,000 unused files. I am wondering if it is safe to delete these, knowing that I have many more Anking cards still to unsuspend as I progress through my learning. I can’t really find a concise answer to this on previous threads.

Would appreciate any guidance!

Thanks!

Screenshot from the check media tab is below.

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image1524×926 139 KB

2

I’ll help you with your question about unused media files in Anki. Let me search for some relevant information to provide you with a proper answer.

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Found 4 results for 'tags:official unused media files anking'

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Found 2 results for 'tags:official check media unused files delete'

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Found 1 result for 'tags:official anking deck unused files'

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Reading: 📸 Importing/Exporting Media

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Reading: Why don't I have all the media in the AnKing Step Deck?

Hi Babydocshums!

Those 60,000 unused files explain why your media sync is taking so long! It’s perfectly safe to delete these unused files. Here’s why:

Understanding Unused Files in AnKing

The AnKing deck has gone through many versions and updates, which often results in old or replaced media files remaining in your collection even though they’re no longer referenced in any cards. This is especially true when using AnkiHub, which handles media differently than traditional Anki.

Why You Can Safely Delete Them

  • The “unused files” shown in Check Media are files that are not referenced by any of your cards - including suspended cards
  • Deleting them won’t affect any cards you’ll unsuspend later, as those cards will reference different files that are still in your collection
  • AnkiHub now automatically syncs media when you download or update a deck, so any needed media will be restored if necessary

Benefits of Deleting

  • Significantly reduced storage usage
  • Faster syncing with AnkiWeb and AnkiMobile
  • Less clutter in your media folder

How to Proceed

  1. Use the “Delete Unused Files” button in the Check Media dialog
  2. Anki will move these files to your system’s trash folder (so you can recover them if needed)
  3. After deleting, sync with AnkiWeb to update your media status

If you’re concerned, you can also create a backup of your collection before deleting the files, just in case.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

3

Hello,

The bot got it right, you can safely delete all unused files. These are files that are not being used in any cards, so they have nothing to do with your unsuspended cards. These files might be from cards that you had in the past.

Every time you sync with AnkiHub, all the media is synced. So don’t worry about missing any media from your AnkiHub deck.

Let me know if you need help with anything else! :blush:

4

Thanks for confirming! Just deleted all unused media from my Anki desktop. How should I proceed on my iPads Anki Mobile? It is currently syncing with ~66k files checked. Should I “abort” the process?

5

  1. As you did this on your desktop first, if AnkiWeb asks to upload or download, click ‘Upload’. On your mobile devices, however, if this prompt pops up, you need to choose ‘Download from AnkiWeb’.

  2. You can abort the media syncing on your mobile devices and delete all your unused media as well.

  3. After that, the syncing may take a while because the AnkiHub add-on sometimes downloads unused media, but that’s okay. From then on, your syncing should not be loaded with a lot of images and should be very quick.