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Anki Backups User Guide 

Anki allows users to create backups of their curated decks to protect against unexpected events like device failure, theft, or accidental deletion.  

Regular backups ensure the data on your cards and decks remains consistent and provides the flexibility to transfer data to new devices or share with others.   

The following guide outlines the steps used to create and restore content from both types of system backups: 

Automatic Backups 

Anki automatically creates backups of your card data, including the text on your cards and scheduling information. However, these backups do not include sounds or image files. 

Important Notes: 

  • Automatic backups are useful for recovering from mistakes but should not be solely relied upon. 
  • Since backups are stored on your local device, they won’t protect you if your device breaks or is stolen. Combining automatic backups with manual backups is recommended. 

Restoring from Automatic Backups 

To restore from an automatic backup: 

  • To restore from a backup, open the Backups section in the preferences, and tap on the backup you wish to restore to. 

Alternatively, you can access your backups using the iTunes file sharing area on a computer: 

Connect your Apple device to your computer via the USB cable. 

  1. Open iTunes if it doesn’t open automatically. 
  1. Locate Anki’s file sharing section with Apple’s instructions. 
  1. Drag your backup folder from iTunes to your desktop. 
  1. Create a new, empty profile via File>Switch Profile, and then File>Import the latest backup .colpkg from within that profile 

*Restoring from a backup will result in the loss of any changes made since the backup was created. Anki disables automatic syncing and backups during the restoration process. 

Managing Backups: 

After backups are two days old, Anki will start removing older backups. You can control how many daily, weekly, and monthly backups you’d like to keep by editing your preferences. 

*Backups created with Anki version 2.1.50 will not be importable into older versions. 

Sync to AnkiWeb 

Anki has a free cloud synchronization service called AnkiWeb that makes it easy to keep your card decks in sync between mobile devices and your computer. 

To sync with AnkiWeb, you’ll first need to create an account. 

Syncing from iPad to your computer 

To sync slide decks from your iPad to your computer: 

  1. Tap Synchronize in AnkiMobile and then ‘upload’ to send the cards to AnkiWeb. 
  1. Open the computer version and click the sync button at the top right of the Anki window. 
  1. If prompted to upload or download, choose ‘download’ to select cards from AnkiWeb 

If you have a lot of sounds or images on your cards, the first sync may take some time, and until it completes, sounds and images may fail to appear. 

You can click the synchronize button again any time you wish to synchronize your changes to the cloud. Only changes made since the last cloud sync will be updated. 

Syncing from computer to iPad 

To sync slide decks from your computer to your iPad: 

  1. Click the sync button at the top right of the Anki window. 
  1. Choose ‘upload’ to send your cards to AnkiWeb. 
  1. Tap Synchronize in AnkiMobile and then ‘download’ to grab the cards from AnkiWeb. 

*Make sure you wait for media files to finish syncing before importing decks from your computer.