Introduction

Thank you for buying AnkiMobile! Anki development would not be able to continue without your support, so it is greatly appreciated.

Some basic concepts covered in the computer manual are not repeated here, so please check it out if you have not already done so.

Privacy

No data you store in AnkiMobile is shared with us or other Anki users by default. If you use the optional synchronization feature, please see AnkiWeb’s privacy policy.

Trademarks

Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

Support

There are two ways to get help with AnkiMobile. Both are regularly checked by Anki's developer, so there's no need to post the same question on both sites.

  • There is a public user forum. This is a better choice for most questions, as other members of the community may be able to answer you faster.
  • There is also a private helpdesk for AnkiMobile. Messages posted here will not be visible to other users. If your question is about the computer version of Anki or AnkiWeb, please use the user forums instead.

User Interface Language

AnkiMobile's interface has been translated into a few different languages. Your iOS settings control which language AnkiMobile will appear in.

Wrong Language

If AnkiMobile is not appearing in your desired language, please go to the iOS Settings app > General > Language & Region. In that section, you can specify the languages you prefer. If you want English to be used in AnkiMobile, please ensure English is listed above the language you don't want to see. If your native language is not English, you can put your native language first.

You can see the list of available languages on AnkiMobile's app store page.

App-specific settings

You can also control the language on a per-app basis. For example, if you want all apps on your device to appear in Chinese, but want Anki to show in English, you can do this by going to the Settings app.

  1. Go to the iOS Settings app > General > Language & Region.
  2. If only one language is shown in the Preferred Language Order section, add the other language you wish to use as the second preference. If you have two or more languages shown already, you can skip this step.
  3. Go back to the first screen of the iOS Settings app.
  4. Scroll down to the list of apps at the bottom, and locate Anki.
  5. Tap on Anki, and choose the language you wish to use.

Some users have reported that AnkiMobile did not appear in the iOS Settings screen until they went into AnkiMobile's Preferences > Review > Notifications section and enabled notifications.

New Translations

If you would like to help translate AnkiMobile into another language, please see https://translating.ankiweb.net

Cloud Sync

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. If you are an existing Anki user with cards on your computer, syncing is the easiest way to start using those cards on your mobile device as well.

Intro Videos

Please check out these short videos that explain syncing:

If you'd prefer not to watch videos, please read on.

Creating an Account

To sync with AnkiWeb, you’ll first need to create an account. If you have used AnkiWeb in the past, you can skip this step.

  1. Visit https://ankiweb.net and click the Sign Up button.

  2. Type in your email address and a password of your choice.

Computer to iPhone/iPad

If you have decks on your computer and would like them to be synced to AnkiMobile:

  1. Open the computer version and click the sync button at the top right of the Anki window.

  2. If prompted to upload or download, choose 'upload' to send your cards to AnkiWeb. Please make sure you wait for media files to finish syncing.

  3. Tap Synchronize in AnkiMobile and then 'download' to grab the cards from AnkiWeb. Please make sure you wait for media files to finish syncing.

iPhone/iPad to Computer

If you have decks in your phone/iPad and would like them to be synced to the computer version:

  1. Tap Synchronize in AnkiMobile and then 'upload' to send the cards to AnkiWeb.

  2. Open the computer version and click the sync button at the top right of the Anki window.

  3. If prompted to upload or download, choose 'download' to grab your cards from AnkiWeb.

Subsequent Syncs

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.

After the first synchronization has completed, you can click the synchronize button again any time you wish to synchronize your changes to the cloud. Only changes made since the previous sync will be sent, so subsequent syncs are a lot faster.

If you add some new cards on the desktop computer and want to sync them to AnkiMobile, you’d repeat the same process: sync on desktop (or close the program, as it syncs automatically on close by default), and then tap the sync button on AnkiMobile.

The sync button will change colour when a normal or full sync is required.

Missing Images

If you receive a message about an image being missing, the most common cause is because media has not finished syncing yet. Please follow the steps on that page to confirm that all of your Anki clients have finished syncing media. Remember that if you've added images on your computer, you'll need to confirm the computer has finished syncing first, and then check AnkiMobile.

If you have confirmed media has finished syncing, but still receive a message about a missing image, then it is possible that the author of the shared deck you are using has accidentally or deliberately failed to include one or more images.

If you're able to contact the deck author, it may be worth notifying them of the issue, as they may be able to provide you with the missing image in a deck update. If you're unable to reach them, and want to make the warning go away, please read on.

If you open the Edit screen and see a broken image icon, one of the images on that card is missing. You can delete the image icon to make the warning go away.

If you see a warning about the same image name on every card, it means that the deck author has added an image to the "Card Template", which is shared by multiple cards. You can make the message go away by tapping on the gear/cog in the bottom right of the review screen, then scrolling down to "Card Template". In the screen that follows, search for the image name in both the Front and Back of the card - it will look something like <img src="myimage.jpg">. Remove the text starting with <img and ending with >, and it should resolve the problem.

Shared Decks

From AnkiWeb

To download a shared deck directly to your mobile device:

  1. Ensure you’re connected to the internet.

  2. Tap Add/Export on the bottom left.

  3. Choose Shared Deck List. AnkiWeb will open.

  4. Select a category, or type in a search.

  5. Tap on a deck you’d like to study.

  6. Scroll down and tap Download.

  7. Safari will start downloading the file

  8. When it’s done, tap on the blue download arrow in Safari, then Downloads.

  9. Tap on the file, and Open in Anki if prompted..

  10. When the import completes, your deck should be ready to study.

Other Sources

If you've downloaded a shared deck from another website, or received it in an email or messaging app:

  1. Tap on the file.
  2. Locate the "Open In" or "Share" icon, and select AnkiMobile from the available options.

The Deck List

The deck list is the screen you see when you start AnkiMobile. It displays a list of your card decks, and provides buttons for performing various actions.

Next to each deck, two numbers are displayed. The top, green number corresponds to how many cards are due to be reviewed again today. On a deck you’ve never studied before, there won’t be any cards waiting for review. The second, blue number, corresponds to how many new cards you have to learn today. Anki will introduce 20 new cards a day by default, and you can customize this number in the deck options if you’d like.

To study cards in a deck, simply tap on the deck, and AnkiMobile will switch to study mode.

If you wish to rename or delete a deck, swipe your finger from right to left over it, and buttons will appear.

At the top of the screen, you’ll see four buttons.

  • The question mark opens this help page

  • The graph icon opens the deck statistics screen.

  • The magnifying glass opens the card browser.

  • The gear/cog opens the preferences screen.

On the bottom of the screen, there are two more buttons. Add/Export allows you to download shared decks, add/create an empty deck, and import/export .apkg files from iTunes. Synchronize synchronizes your cards with the cloud.

The synchronize button will change color if you have made changes that need to be synchronized to AnkiWeb, or if changes are waiting on AnkiWeb that need to be synchronized to the device. One of the changes that Anki synchronizes to other clients is the current deck, so tapping on a deck will change the button color, even if you do not study any cards.

The Study Screen

If you have not used Anki on a computer before, please have a look at the first intro video before reading on, as it explains the basic review process.

When you tap on a deck in the deck list, the study screen will load, and if any cards are waiting to be studied, a card’s question will be shown to you.

If you wish to change to a different deck, you can do so by tapping the top left button. The next three buttons allow you to add cards, edit the current card, and search/browse all cards.

The gear/cog in the bottom right will open up the tools screen.

On the bottom of the screen you’ll see three numbers. From the left, these correspond to new cards, learning cards, and cards to review. These are explained in more detail in the intro videos for the desktop program, so please check them out if you haven’t already.

When you’ve looked at a card’s question and remembered the answer, or decided you don’t know it, tap anywhere in the card area in order to show the answer. When you do, the bottom area will change to display 2-4 answer buttons, depending on how you’ve answered the card previously. The buttons will display the time a card will next be shown, so 10m means "10 minutes" and "5d" means "5 days". You can tap directly on these buttons to choose a particular answer.

To make reviewing faster, you can also tap on the card in order to answer it. For more information on the available taps and how to customize them, please see the taps section.

If you are studying content for which it is useful to sketch something before showing the answer on the card (e.g., characters in a foreign language), AnkiMobile provides a feature called the 'scratchpad' (the analogous feature is called the 'whiteboard' in AnkiDroid). You can enable the scratchpad by tapping on the tools button, then "Scratchpad".

When you’ve finished the cards that are due to be studied today, you’ll be shown a congratulations message. If you have other decks, you can tap the top left button to return to the decks list and select a different one.

You can tap the home button to close Anki and save your progress at any time, whether you have completed the day’s reviews or not.

If you have a bluetooth keyboard, you can use the keyboard to review. Space will show the answer or answer Good, and 1-4 will choose the answer buttons. You can also press 'r' to repeat the audio on the current card.

Study Tools

The tools screen will open when you tap on the gear/cog icon in the study screen.

On the top right, there are buttons that will adjust the text size on your cards.

The "Frequent Actions" section contains some commonly used actions. You can rearrange the actions there or remove actions by holding your finger on a button for a second or so.

Below the "Frequent Actions" section is a list of all available actions in AnkiMobile. You can add these actions to the "Frequent Actions" section by long-pressing on them.

Actions

The following actions can be run from the tools screen, or by assigning them to a tap, swipe, or the top bar in the preferences.

Add
Opens a new window to add cards to the deck.

Answer "Again"
When the answer screen is shown, choose the red button, indicating you wish to review the card again soon. This is useful when you forgot a card or wish to review it more frequently.

Answer "Hard"
When the answer screen is shown and there are four buttons, choose the second button from the left, indicating you found the card hard to remember.

Answer "Good"
When the answer screen is shown, choose the green button. This is the button you should end up using the most.

Answer "Easy"
When the answer screen is shown, choose the button on the right, indicating you found the card too easy to remember and would like a much longer delay.

Auto Advance
Allows you to automatically reveal the answer, and automatically rate or bury cards. You can customize the behaviour in the deck's study options.

Bottom Bar
Hides or shows the bottom bar, where the answer buttons and card counts are shown.

Browse
Opens the card browser, where you can search for and modify cards.

Bury Card
Hides the current card from review. It will be shown again the next day, or when you manually unbury cards.

Bury Note
Hides the current note from review. It will be shown again the next day, or when you manually unbury cards.

Card Info
Shows information about the current card.

Card Template
Allows you to edit the card template, changing which fields are shown on the front and back of the card, and the card styling.

Current Audio +5s
Jump forward 5 seconds in the currently playing audio.

Current Audio -5s
Jump backward 5 seconds in the currently playing audio.

Custom Study
Allows you to study outside of the normal schedule. Please see the documentation of the computer version for more information on custom study presets.

Deck Statistics
Shows graphs and statistics about your deck or collection.

Decks
Returns to the deck list.

Delete Note
Deletes the currently shown note and all of its cards. If you’re not studying in multiple directions, this will just delete a single card.

Edit
Edits the current card.

Empty
Removes all cards from the current filtered deck.

Filter/Cram
Allows you to create a temporary deck based on search criteria such as "tag:hard". Please see the documentation of the computer version for more information on filtered decks.

Flag 1 - 4
Sets or clears the card’s flag. Flagging cards allows you to find them easily in the browse screen later.

Mark
Adds a tag called "Marked" to the current note, so it can be easily found in a search.

Mark & Bury
Marks the card, then buries it.

Mark & Suspend
Marks the card, then suspends it.

Night Mode
Switch the interface between light and dark mode, if you don't want to use the system setting.

Off
Don’t do anything. Useful if you want to disable certain swipes, tap zones and so on. Not shown in the tools screen.

Pause Audio
Temporarily stops or restarts the currently playing audio file.

Rebuild
When in a filtered or custom study deck, rerun the search to fetch any cards that may newly match the criteria.

Record Voice
Allows you to create a temporary recording of your voice, to compare it to audio that you have on your card.

Replay Audio
Replay the card’s audio. You can customize whether the audio in the question is replayed while the answer is shown in the computer Anki.

Reset Card
Turn the current card back into a new card.

Scratchpad
Show or hide the writing pad, allowing you to practice writing characters during review. Anki will remember the on/off state for each card type. You can tap once on the undo button to undo a stroke, or hold on it for a second to clear all strokes. On devices that support pressure sensitivity (iPhone 6S, iPad w/ Apple Pencil), the stroke width will depend on how hard you press.

Scratchpad Size
Alters the size of the scratchpad window.

Scroll Up
Scroll Down
When card content larger than one screen, scrolls up or down. Useful when using a gamepad without an analog control stick.

Set Due Date
Make the card a review card if it is not already one, and make it due in the number of days you specify. If you choose 0 days, the card will be ready to review immediately.

Show Answer
Reveals the answer when a card’s question is shown.

Study Options
Show the study options screen.

Suspend Card
Prevent current card from being shown during review until you unsuspend it via the search action.

Suspend Note
Prevent all cards of current note from being shown during review until you unsuspend them via the search action.

Top bar
Show or hide the bar at the top of the screen.

Tools
Show the tools screen.

Unbury Deck
Makes any buried cards in the current deck ready for review again.

Undo
Undoes the last review.

User Action 1-8

From 2.0.88+. An advanced feature that allows you to trigger JavaScript in the review screen. Please note we can not provide any assistance with using this feature, as it uses JavaScript.

Some shared decks provide keyboard shortcuts to perform actions like revealing a hint, or revealing the next cloze deletion. If that action is available as a public function, you can tell AnkiMobile to call it when a user action is triggered. This makes it possible to trigger the action with your gamepad instead.

To define a user action, you must know the function the card template provides. If you know it provides a revealNext() function for example, you can tell AnkiMobile to call it with the following code:

var userJs1 = revealNext;

The author of the shared deck or template may be able to tell you if a function is available.

Please note that standard Anki templates do not provide any actions - this feature is only useful for triggering actions you have written yourself, and ones that certain shared decks/templates provide.

Study Options

The study options can be accessed from the tools screen. Almost all the options available in the computer version can also be adjusted in AnkiMobile. For a description of what everything does, please see the computer documentation. While some of the options have different wording, the behaviour is the same as the computer version.

Adding & Editing

Adding

To add cards to a deck, tap the "Add" button while reviewing.

The "Type" button at the top allows you to select the type of note you’d like to add. For more information about note types, please see the introduction in the computer version’s manual.

When you tap on a field, a keyboard will come up, allowing you to type in information. You can use the next and previous buttons to move between fields.

The toolbar has the following icons:

B I U
Mark the text as bold, italics or underline.

Fx
Remove formatting.

Paintbrush
Sets the text color.

Paperclip/Camera
Allows you to add media files from the camera, microphone, photo library or from a file. On iPads, the mic button is shown separately.

Pen
Only available on iPads. Allows you to draw an image and attach it to the card. You can later edit a drawn image by holding two fingers on it.

Square root
Shortcuts to subscript/superscript, and MathJax.

Eye
Shows a preview of how the card will appear when reviewed.

</>
Reveals the underlying HTML that fields are comprised of.

When you’ve typed in the content of a note, hit the save button to add it to your collection.

Editing

To edit a note, tap the "Edit" button while reviewing.

The edit screen is similar to the adding screen mentioned above, with some key differences:

  • There is no note type selection button or deck selection button. If you want to change the type of an existing note, go to the "Browse" screen, tap the checkmark button at the upper right corner, select the card, then use Actions->Change Notetype.

  • There is a "Tools" button at the top of the screen. Tapping on it will allow you to perform actions on the current card or note. Please see the action descriptions for more information on what each action does.

Browsing

You can search or browse your deck by tapping the "Browse" button while reviewing.

The browse screen will show all the cards in the current deck by default.

You can type text into the search box in order to limit the cards further. If you only wanted to show cards in the current deck that contain the text "hello" for example, you’d modify the text so it says deck:current hello and then tap return. If you wish to search across multiple decks, you can remove the deck:current part.

AnkiMobile supports all the search strings that the desktop version of Anki does, allowing you to perform quite complex searches. Some examples:

tag:marked show cards that with the tag "marked"

is:due show only cards that are waiting for review

front:rabbit show only cards where the front field is exactly "rabbit"

For a full list of the possibilities, please see the section in the desktop manual.

Tapping the Filter button will reveal a list of filters you can apply, like the side bar in the computer version. Tapping on a line will replace the current search; you can also swipe on a line to add to the existing search instead.

The Options button will allow you to change what is shown in the left and right columns, and change the order cards are shown in.

The Select button allows you to select multiple cards at once, and then perform actions on them like changing their deck, or suspending them.

Preferences

The preferences screen can be accessed by tapping on the gear icon at the top right of the deck list. It allows you to customize various application settings and how AnkiMobile appears.

The Preferences screen is divided up into different sections, which are covered below.

Syncing

The syncing screen allows you to customize cloud synchronization with AnkiWeb.

Sync Sounds & Images
By default, AnkiMobile will sync sounds and images as well as your cards and review history. If you disable this option, sounds and images will not be synced by AnkiMobile.

Full Sync
The full sync button allows you to force a full upload or download of your cards. This is useful if you accidentally deleted some cards and want to revert to the local or remote version, instead of having those deletions propagate to other devices. After tapping the button, you’ll be given a choice of whether you want to upload your collection or download it from AnkiWeb. Please note this option only affects how cards, notes and review history is transferred - it does not change how sounds and images are synced.

Review

The review screen allows you to customize how AnkiMobile behaves when you’re reviewing cards.

Feedback Ticks
Flash a tick or cross in the top right to confirm your answer choice.

Tools Overlay Button
Show the gear/cog icon on the study screen. If you prefer not to see it, you can assign the tools action to the top bar instead.

Tools Overlay Position
Allows you to put the tools button on the left.

Audio Buttons
Allows you to hide the play button that appears for each audio file you’ve placed on the card. Useful if you’d rather replay audio via the "Replay Audio" action bound to a swipe or tap.

Always Duck + Ignore Mute
When enabled, AnkiMobile will quieten any music you have playing in the background, and will automatically play audio even when the mute/vibrate/silent switch is turned on.

Answer Keeps Zoom
By default, if you have zoomed in on a card, the screen will zoom out when you reveal the answer. If you enable this option, AnkiMobile will not zoom out.

Never Type Answer
If you have set up your cards to ask you to type in the answer (as explained in this section of the desktop manual), AnkiMobile will display a keyboard on such cards and allow you to check your answer. If you find typing on a mobile device inconvenient, you can use this option to disable the keyboard for all cards.

Shake Action
Allows you to customize what happens when you shake your device. The default action is to undo the previous answer.

Double Tap Prevention
This option ignores a second tap when two taps are made in quick succession, so that you don’t accidentally reveal the answer or advance to the next card. If you review your cards very quickly, you may wish to select a shorter detection time.

Scheduling

These options affect the way Anki schedules cards in all decks.

Day Starts
Controls when a new day starts and new cards become available. Default is 04:00, which means new cards become available at 4AM.

Learn Ahead Minutes
The number of minutes to look ahead when the only cards remaining to review with a next repetition time in the future. The default is 20 minutes, which means cards due to show in 10 minutes will be shown immediately if nothing else is available to show.

Notifications

When enabled, Anki will display an alert at the selected time of day, reminding you to study and telling you how many reviews are waiting.

Top Bar

You can assign frequently used actions to the top bar for convenient access. For an explanation of the available actions, please see the actions list.

Bottom Bar

Show Bottom Bar
Hides or shows the bottom area that shows the answer buttons and card counts.

Remaining Count
Whether to show the card counts when the question side of a card is being shown.

Answer Buttons
Whether to show the answer buttons on the answer side of a card.

Next Times
Whether to show the next study time above each of the answer buttons.

Taps

When you’re reviewing, you can tap on different parts of a card in order to trigger different actions.

Anki divides the screen into 9 sections:

Top Left

Top Center

Top Right

Mid Left

Mid Center

Mid Right

Bottom Left

Bottom Center

Bottom Right

Each section can have a different action assigned to it if you wish, and the taps when the question is shown are also different from the taps when the answer is shown.

By default, AnkiMobile responds as follows when the question in shown:

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

Show Answer

In other words, tapping anywhere on the screen will show the answer.

When the answer is shown, by default AnkiMobile responds as follows:

Answer "Again"

Off

Answer "Good"

Answer "Again"

Off

Answer "Good"

Answer "Again"

Off

Answer "Good"

This allows you to tap on the left side of the screen to trigger the red button, and the right side of the screen to trigger the green button. Taps near the middle of the screen will be ignored.

You can assign frequently used actions to taps for convenient access. For an explanation of the available actions, please see the actions list.

Swipes

You can also swipe up, down, left or right across a card to trigger an action.

To ensure swipes don’t interfere with your ability to scroll on a large card or select text, a vertical swipe must begin from the far left or right side of the screen. Begin by placing your finger on the left or right side of the screen, and then move it up or down to trigger the relevant swipe.

Horizontal swipes can be begun from any point on the screen.

With the default settings:

  • Swiping left displays the tools window

  • Swiping right returns to the deck list

You can assign frequently used actions to swipes for convenient access. For an explanation of the available actions, please see the actions list.

Scratchpad

Ignore Fingers
When enabled, the scratchpad will only respond to the Apple Pencil.

Undo Clears All
Reverses the behaviour of the undo button, so a quick tap clears everything, and a long press clears the last stroke.

Scratchpad Below Buttons
Whether the scratchpad should be placed above or below the bottom bar.

Gamepads

From AnkiMobile 2.0.53+, you can control the study screen with a game controller. The controller must be supported by iOS, and must provide an extended controller profile. Controllers with fewer buttons can not currently be used. For more information on setup, please see this page.

The gamepads section of the preferences allows you to configure which actions are triggered when each button is pressed. You can assign an action to each direction on the d-pad, but the analog thumbpads can not be customized - they will always scroll the card up or down.

General

Theme

The theme screen allows you to customize the bar colours AnkiMobile uses. The available options will depend on whether night mode or iOS 13’s dark mode is enabled.

To customize the appearance of your cards, you’ll need to alter your card templates. You can do this using the Card Template action in the tools screen, or by using the computer version. For more info, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1j1Zx0mXME&yt:cc=on

Profiles

Profiles allow multiple users to study with the same device. You can add profiles from the settings screen. To rename or remove a profile, swipe to the left on it.

Each profile needs to be synced with its own AnkiWeb account. Please be careful not to sync two profiles with the same AnkiWeb ID, as this could lead to data loss.

Backups

AnkiMobile will automatically create backups of your collection for you. The backups include all your cards and statistics, but do not include sounds or images, since they take up a lot of space.

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

If you’re unable to get AnkiMobile to start due to a serious error, you can still retrieve the backups from the iTunes file sharing area:

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

  2. Open iTunes if it doesn’t open automatically.

  3. Locate Anki’s file sharing section with Apple’s instructions.

  4. Drag the your backup folder from iTunes to your desktop.

  5. With the computer version of Anki, create a new, empty profile via File>Switch Profile, and then File>Import the latest backup colpkg from within that profile to confirm that it’s ok. If it is corrupt, you can try a previous backup. You'll need Anki 2.1.50+ to open the backups.

Check Database

This will check your collection for a number of possible errors and fix them if possible.

It also will remove any tags that are no longer used by any cards.

Check Media

This scans all your notes for references to sounds and images, and then checks to make sure that the sounds and images are available. It will display a report letting you know of any sounds or images that are missing, and any sounds or images that are not used by any cards. If you tap the delete button, the unused sounds or images will be deleted.

Collection Transfer

If you don’t have regular internet access, it’s still possible to copy your collection back and forth between devices, though the process is not as convenient.

Collection transfer works by importing or exporting all your decks at once, in a special file called collection.colpkg. You can export that file on one device, copy it to another device, and import it there.

When you import a collection file, any existing content you have is replaced with the contents of the file - it is a one-way transfer from your other device.

This means that unlike syncing via AnkiWeb, you can’t make changes from two locations at once and then merge them - you need to make sure you’ve imported any recent changes from your other device before you make changes, or you’ll end up losing the changes made on one device.

A workflow you would typically use is to export your collection from your mobile device and import it into the computer version, make modifications (such as importing a shared deck you downloaded to your computer), and then export your collection and import it back into your mobile device.

Exporting individual decks is not currently possible, but is planned for the future.

Computer to iPhone/iPad

Export the File

On your computer:

  1. Open the computer version of Anki.

  2. Choose File>Export from the menu.

  3. Click the Export​ button. Make sure to leave "All decks" and "Include scheduling information" turned on.

  4. Anki will automatically create a collection.colpkg file on your desktop. If the file is named something else like deckname.apkg, please see the previous step again. If it is called collection.apkg, that will work - your Anki version is just old.

Transfer the File

If your devices are on the same wifi network and signed in to iCloud, you can use the AirDrop option in Finder to AirDrop the collection.colpkg file to your mobile device.

If you do not have access to AirDrop, you can use Finder or iTunes to drop the .colpkg file into Anki's file sharing area.

Import the File

If you AirDropped the file, AnkiMobile should have automatically popped up and imported the file when you accepted it.

If you transferred the file via iOS file sharing, go to AnkiMobile's deck list screen, and then:

  1. Tap the Add/Export button on the bottom left.

  2. Choose Import from iTunes, then confirm the replacement.

  3. If you receive a message about "No file found to import", please check to make sure you put the collection.colpkg file in AnkiMobile's file sharing section.

Once complete, the decks on your device will have been replaced with the decks from your desktop.

When you import a collection.colpkg file, Anki will avoid copying any sounds or images if they already exist on your mobile device, and are the same file size. This will make imports after the first one considerably faster if you have a lot of media files.

iPhone/iPad to Computer

On AnkiMobile, tap the Add/Export button on the bottom left of the decks list.

AirDrop

  1. Choose Export to Share, and then choose AirDrop.
  2. Select your computer. If your computer doesn't appear, make sure you have AirDrop open on your computer.
  3. Once the file has arrived on your computer, use File>Import inside Anki to import the file.

Finder/iTunes

  1. Choose Export to iTunes, and tap Export.

Then on your computer:

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

  2. Open Finder or iTunes.

  3. Locate Anki’s file sharing section with Apple’s instructions.

  4. Drag the collection.colpkg file from Finder or iTunes to your desktop.

  5. Use File>Import in Anki to import the file.

  6. After importing, you can delete the file on your desktop if you wish.

Text to Speech

AnkiMobile 2.0.56+ supports using TTS tags in card templates. Please see the computer manual for more information.

To get the best quality sound, please go to the iOS Settings app, then:

  • Tap on Accessibility

  • Tap on VoiceOver

  • Tap on Speech

  • Tap on Voice

  • Tap on the voice you want to use

  • If there is an (Enhanced) version available, download it.

Please note that Apple limit Siri to their own apps, so you will need to pick a voice other than Siri.

The Voice section will only show options for your current language. To add voices for other languages, tap on "Rotor Languages", and after selecting another language, you will have a chance to download voices.

Like regular audio, text to speech will not play automatically when your device’s mute/vibrate switch is enabled.

MathJax

MathJax allows you to easily add mathematical equations to your cards.

AnkiMobile supports MathJax out of the box. Simply place something like the following on your card:

This is some text \(x^2\) with an inline equation.

An equation block:

\[\sqrt{-1}\]

More information is available in the computer manual.

Custom Fonts

AnkiMobile allows you to use non-system fonts on your cards. To set them up, the desktop client is required. Please see the section in the desktop manual for more information.

Please note that AnkiMobile has to load the entire font into memory in order to use it, and fonts for Asian languages can be quite large. If you have an older device and notice AnkiMobile crashing frequently after installing a font, you may have exceeded your device’s memory limits.

We have had reports from one user that no more than 3 fonts could be embedded - this may be a limitation imposed by the system web libraries. If you need access to lots of fonts, you may want to look at installing the fonts into iOS instead.

Night Mode Styling

By using the Edit Card Template action, it is possible to customize how cards appear when night mode/dark mode is enabled.

If you wanted a grey background instead of black, you could use something like:

.card.nightMode {
  background-color: #555;
}

If you have a 'myclass' style, the following would show the text in yellow when night mode is enabled:

.nightMode .myclass {
  color: yellow;
}

URL Schemes

AnkiMobile supports URL schemes for opening third party dictionaries, and for adding content to AnkiMobile from other applications.

AnkiMobile’s URL Schemes

Adding Notes

A 'URL Scheme' is like a link to a website, but it instead links to an app. A simple example is:

anki://

If you type this into Safari on your device, you’ll see AnkiMobile open up.

From 2.0.30 onwards, AnkiMobile provides a scheme for adding new notes to your collection. This can be used with dictionary apps that support calling other apps via URL schemes, and with automation apps like Workflow.

The scheme to add cards looks like this:

anki://x-callback-url/addnote?profile=User%201&type=Basic&deck=Default&fldFront=front%20text&fldBack=back%20text

The first part must always be there:

anki://x-callback-url/addnote?

After the first part, keys and values are separated by an ampersand. The following keys must always be provided:

  • type=<note type name>

  • deck=<deck name>

    • Separate nested decks with ::
      • deck=<deck name>::<sub deck name>

Fields are entered by prefixing their name with "fld". So if your first field is called "Text", the key would be "fldText". The field text is interpreted as HTML, so if you wanted a newline in the text you’d use something like "line 1<br>line 2".

Special characters in the URL must be escaped. For example, if you have spaces in a field, they must be represented with %20. If you’re using the Shortcuts app, there is a URL encode action which you may find useful.

The remaining keys are optional:

  • profile=<profile name>

If provided, adding will fail if the provided profile is not currently active.

  • tags=<tags separated by space>

  • dupes=1 - if provided, allow a note to be added even if the same content is on an existing note.

  • x-success=<url scheme for another app> - use to automatically return to another app after the note is added.

If a field you provide is a link to an image or audio file, AnkiMobile will automatically download that media and place a link to it in the field. Eg:

fldFront=http://example.com/image.jpg

The link will only be downloaded if it ends with a recognized file extension. If your link is to a dynamic webpage, you can add a fake argument with the extension at the end, eg http://example.com/getImage?imgID=1234&fakePath=foo.jpg. Be careful to escape the URL before including it in the URL scheme, as otherwise ? and & characters will be interpreted as part of the URL scheme instead of the URL.

Info for Adding

There is a separate URL scheme that third-party apps can use to get your profile, deck and notetype names, so that they can be presented to you in a friendly manner.

The app should invoke the following URL:

anki://x-callback-url/infoForAdding?x-success=...

If the user authorises the request, the requested data will be available on the clipboard, and can be retrieved using the following. You should clear the clipboard after retrieving the data.

let PASTEBOARD_TYPE = "net.ankimobile.json"
if let data = UIPasteboard.general.data(forPasteboardType: PASTEBOARD_TYPE) {
   // clear clipboard
   UIPasteboard.general.setData(Data(), forPasteboardType: PASTEBOARD_TYPE)
   // ... handle json
}

From AnkiMobile 2.0.90+. Allows you to open the search string with the provided search.

anki://x-callback-url/search?query=...

Sync

From AnkiMobile 2.0.90+. Performs the same action as tapping on the Sync button.

anki://x-callback-url/sync

The desktop version of Anki provides the ability to open a web page based on the contents of a field, for easily creating a link to an online dictionary site. This is documented in this section of the manual, though please start from the cards & templates section as the above link assumes you have read it.

Like the desktop, AnkiMobile supports links to dictionary websites. In addition to that, you can also link to different dictionary apps that you have installed on your device using a URL scheme.

Some dictionary apps provide a URL scheme that allows you to provide a particular phrase to search for. For example, an app called iDict+ allows the following type of URL:

idictplus://?search=mysearchtext

If you have iDict+ installed and type that into Safari, iDict+ should open up and immediately search for "mysearchtext".

iDict+ also supports passing a return link. We can replace the above with:

idictplus://?search=txt&scheme=anki://

If you type that into Safari, it will search for "mysearchtext" like before, but will also provide a "return" button that when pressed will open up Anki.

By taking that text and combining it with the instructions for the desktop version linked above, it’s possible to have a link on your cards that searches for a word in another app, and then allows you to return to Anki when you’re done.

Unfortunately, there is no standard for URL schemes: some apps implement them, some don’t, and the way they implement them can different. For example, in the app called "Kotoba!", the URL scheme is:

kotoba://dictionary?word=mysearchtext

Note how not only the app name differs but also the text after it, and how Kotoba! doesn’t provide the ability to automatically return to the app that opened it, meaning that you need to double tap the home button and manually return to AnkiMobile.

Some dictionary apps publish their URL scheme in their documentation. If you’re using a dictionary app that doesn’t, please contact the authors and ask them for more information.

Installing AnkiMobile on multiple devices

Once purchased, you can use AnkiMobile on multiple devices you own without having to pay again.

To do so, make sure the device is using the same Apple ID as you made the original purchase with, or is enrolled in family sharing.

  • Open the App Store on the device you want to install AnkiMobile on.
  • Tap on your profile icon in the top right
  • Tap on Purchased
  • If you have family sharing enabled, tap on the person who bought the app originally.
  • When you've located AnkiMobile, tap on the cloud icon to download it.

Account troubles

Apple do not provide us with any access to their systems, so we do not have the ability to help you recover an old account, or confirm a previous purchase you have made. If you have any trouble with the purchase or download process, please give Apple a call:

http://support.apple.com

AnkiMobile beta testing

Joining

Beta testing is open to existing AnkiMobile users. To join the beta testing program, you must be using the latest version from the app store, and you must be syncing to AnkiWeb.

To join, please post a private ticket requesting an invite. If you sync AnkiMobile with a different email address, please include your AnkiWeb ID in the message as well.

Switching to/from stable

Switching between beta versions and stable versions will preserve any cards you have on your device. But just to be safe, please sync any changes you've made to AnkiWeb before switching versions.

Once you've received an invite, please accept it and install the TestFlight app from the app store. Using the TestFlight app, you can download the latest beta. As new beta versions are released, you will receive a notification, and can upgrade as you please.

If you would like to revert to the store version, you can go to AnkiMobile's app store page and tap on the cloud icon. Once you switch back to the store version, you will receive normal app updates as you did before.

If you no longer wish to beta test and do not want to receive further notifications, you can remove yourself using the TestFlight app.

If you experience any issues with the betas, please either post a private ticket, or post on the Beta Testing section of the forums.

More Features

Javascript

The warnings that apply to the computer version also apply to AnkiMobile.

In addition to the above, another thing to be aware of in AnkiMobile is that your code also needs to play nicely with AnkiMobile’s tap detection. Taps on A/BUTTON elements, or elements that have an onclick handler should work as you expect.

If you have other elements that must receive tap events, give them the class 'tappable' to tell AnkiMobile 2.0.39 or later that it should pass taps through to the element.

Play Buttons

To change the styling of the audio replay buttons, please see https://docs.ankiweb.net/templates/styling.html#audio-replay-buttons

Image Resizing

When you attach an image from the photo gallery it is automatically resized to have a maximum length of 1024 along its longest edge.

Recent Anki versions allow you to customize this limit in the Preferences > General screen, and control whether the limit should also be applied to images pasted from the clipboard.