Help with new card order

[plush basalt]

Hello, I am wanting my new cards to show in the order they were added to my deck. The default settings don't seem to do that despite "Deck" saying it gathers them in ascending order.

Today I was reviewing my cards and I saw cards that I created recently before cards I created longer ago

for example today, for some reason those bottom 2 cards still havent been shown to me despite being the oldest

[pseudo drum]

New card gather order Deck should actually order them by Position, which you can see either in the Position column in Browse or in the Due column (for new cards only).

I feel like there are a dozen ways to mess up the Position of your new cards accidentally (e.g. by importing a deck or repositioning stuff).

Does the order of your new cards match when ordered by Created and when ordered by Due? If not, order them the correct way via Created, select them all, right click and Reposition.

--
⚠️ ⚠️ Important ⚠️ ⚠️

I'm 90% sure you want to order your cards in ascending order (so earliest created first, later cards going down) before you reposition to make sure that the first card in the reposition is the earliest card.

[plush basalt]

ye basically every day I do my cards I'd like the oldest new card shown first, and then show them in order of date created as I continue to study

[pseudo drum]

That's generally what happens. If you have a lot of new cards right now, check them to see if for some reason the Due does not order the same way as Created

[plush basalt]

I only have 2 new cards now, but they both are shown in the same order when I sort by Due or by Created

but I studied another 18 today thats when I noticed they were not in the order I expected (oldest - newest)

[pseudo drum]

I think the only two real possibilities here are:

1. Somehow the Due order got of sync with the created order. This shouldn't be an ongoing issue, so as you create new cards you should see that their Due order matches their created order and you see them in the order you expect.
2. If you study from a parent deck, the parent deck's gather order is used, not the subdeck's. (But, I can see in your screenshot that Mining is a top level deck, so it has no parent deck.)

--
So, basically,. No idea what happened. Keep an eye on it. It'll probably be fine! 🤷‍♂️

[plush basalt]

ye these are the last 2 new cards I have in the deck right now

[pseudo drum]

I guess just for fun

create a new card rn

[plush basalt]

and due order is same as created order

[pseudo drum]

see what its Due is

[plush basalt]

lemme see

hmmm now Im getting confused

made this card just now highlighted

idk why the due numbers sorted like that

[pseudo drum]

Alright, well the good news is we see the problem

those old cards have a position 17635

but Anki is ordering your new cards starting at 17541

I have no idea how that happens

but you just need to reposition the old cards to be in created order

and then going forward you shouldn't see the issue... unless there's some addon / workflow that's causing it

[plush basalt]

that is really weird hmmm

So now its gonna show me that card I just made before the 2 older ones

[pseudo drum]

yes

so just reposition those two to start from 0

keep an eye open to see if it happens again

[plush basalt]

ok so ill delete this new card I just made, then highlight the 2 leftover and reposition to New #0 and New #1

[pseudo drum]

👍

[plush basalt]

then try adding it again and see if its New #3

[pseudo drum]

Well... I don't know if the new position counter resets

I'm not sure where that's tracked

but at least new cards will be created with a higher position than your old card

resolving the immediate issue

[plush basalt]

now it looks like this

I guess it should be good for now but ill keep an eye on it

[pseudo drum]

That's what I expected. I assume the biggest new position is stored in the DB somewhere.

Somehow yours got confused. (Addon? Weird sync thing?)

I'm not sure what the process is for resetting or adjusting that. Maybe a check database after repositioning and making sure there are no high position cards in your collection?

I don't think it really matters (if the number is big or small), since the number is arbitrary and only matters for new card order, as long as it increments correctly.

[plush basalt]

could be an addon thing not entirely sure

ill be making more new cards today, ill see what happens

im wondering if its because I make a varying amount daily so lets say I make 40 cards, but only review 20 those remaining 20 still have a lower position

[lethal heart]

After you get your existing cards repositioned how you want -- run Tools > Check Database. That will fix the queue-end number in the database.

[plush basalt]

then i make more new they get a much higher position or something

[plush basalt]

ok I did that now got this seems like it did a lot of things haha

[lethal heart]

All of that is good.

If you want to check this worked for the New-queue -- look at all of the New cards in your collection is:new, sort by Due, see what the highest number is, and verify that when you open Cards > Reposition you see that same number.

[Looks like there was something else going wrong in your database too. You might consider whether you've got any add-ons that aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing. Or run Check Database again in a week and see if "added last review time" continues to be necessary.]

[plush basalt]

ok thank you, I will see what happens as I make new cards today

[pseudo drum]

Every time I Check Database, I end up missing a last review time on a bunch of cards 🤔

[plush basalt]

should I reposition all my cards in the deck while sorted by created?

[lethal heart]

||Interesting! I recently updated to 25.09 and I just got that as well (first Check Database since updating). I could see that happening once, if that was newly added to the database record, but after that I wouldn't expect it to keep happening.||

[plush basalt]

now those 2 cards have position 0 and 1 but the rest are in the thousands

or does that not really matter now

i made a new card and the new # matched the number of queue bottom when I go Cards -> Reposition

now that I checked database

[lethal heart]

If that's the order you want them in -- sure. But position only matters relative to other cards that they will be introduced alongside. So, for instance, the position of the Biology cards you study in one deck, and the position of the Russian cards you study in another deck don't need to be in any certain order.

[pseudo drum]

||I've used Check Database a handful of times (including today). Each time there are thousands of cards missing review times. I guess I'll have to run it more frequently to see what I'm doing that's causing that behavior.||

[lethal heart]

||I'll keep an eye on it too ...||

[plush basalt]

ok so this shouldnt matter then

sorted by created, bottom 2 have 0 and 1 looks funny haha

new cards I guess will start at a new number (seemingly 11999 in this case)

and then will just be shown in that order

[lethal heart]

||Looks like it was new in 25.07 --https://github.com/ankitects/anki/pull/4124.||

[lethal heart]

Those should be introduced 0, 1, 17508, 17509, etc.

new cards I guess will start at a new number (seemingly 11999 in this case)
No, that shouldn't be lower than your existing New-queue numbers.

[plush basalt]

New-queue are these

I added a new card and it became 11999

I wonder if its just because of decks I deleted in the past

[lethal heart]

Oh, wait -- I didn't notice that you were showing "Position" in the screenshot above. Those cards aren't New, so they aren't in the New-queue. Review cards can have whatever position number, it doesn't matter.

[plush basalt]

Maybe I should reorder all cards in this deck with Start Position 11998 and Step by 1

[lethal heart]

Nope. Not necessary.

[plush basalt]

I see, since the reviews arent shown by position

but by due date

I assume

position is irrelevent at this point unless I share the deck or something?

[lethal heart]

There are different sort orders for Reviews.

[I'm not going to answer about what all position is relevant for, because I don't have time now, and it's not necessary to understand all that for your New-queue ordering.]

[plush basalt]

I see, mine is set due date, then random which has been fine

default anyway

[pseudo drum]

The only activity between check database + sync on Desktop was studying my cards via a filtered deck on AnkiDroid.

AnkiDroid v 2.23.3

I did not study 286 cards. I studied 173 cards (those cards do all have siblings, but...)

🤔

... studying one learning (red) card on AnkiDroid prompted "Added last review time" on Desktop...

studying one relearning (red) card on Desktop from the same deck did not

studying one relearning (red) card on AnkiDroid from the same deck did

So, this appears to be an AnkiDroid problem.

@plush basalt
AnkiDroid user?

[plush basalt]

as of recently only

but Ive used it only a small amount

mainly desktop and ios

[pseudo drum]

#mobile-apps message complained to the chef

[plush basalt]

I maye have studied around that number of cards on anki droid

im not sure

[pseudo drum]

Do you have any cards to study on AnkiDroid? Just try to study one, sync it, go to the Desktop, sync it, check Database.

This is 100% reproducible for me at least.

[plush basalt]

i can try in some old decks

didnt give me a popup

[pseudo drum]

😭 just lie to me and tell me it did

What version of AnkiDroid are you on?

[plush basalt]

2.23.3

[pseudo drum]

🤔 🤔 🤔 🤔 🤔

Oh well. It's 100% reproducible for me and that's what matters 😭

Which version of Anki Desktop are you on?

[plush basalt]

25.09.2

[pseudo drum]

So we're using the same environment.

🤔 🤔 🤔

Oh well. I hope someone else can reproduce it!

[plush basalt]

idk if theres a difference between them but I am using ankidroid on a tablet not a phone

shouldnt be a difference I guess

[pseudo drum]

@lethal heart @plush basalt

My issue was my own doing. I was using an out-of-date custom sync server. This is not a general problem to worry about.

😭