Anki Issues of Slow Desktop App
date-created:: 2023-08-10
Aiyaa! A dark day for Anki. Just when I expressed my renewed interest and appreciation of Anki, it pulled this stunt on me! :-(
(2023-08-10) Sudden slowdown of desktop on browser and search
This inexplicable degradation happened suddenly today, after I had added TwMoeD (Mandarin) for weeks. I also haven't installed any new add-ons lately.
Incredible... Now it's a long wait to even open the browser. What's more appalling: More than 1 minute for any search! (Used to be 6-7 seconds).
I tried restoring from backup. No joy.
Emergency remedy
Keep slimming down until the collection isn't oversized:
- The limit seems to be 314.5MB (consistent behavior)
Slim down main profile by moving these decks to ekliao+2:
- Taigi
- MoeD（Mandarin）
- JMYH
- Note-taking
- XSHJHY
After unloading these, the main profile was able to do a full sync (required, after restoring from backup) to AnkiWeb.
Stats:
- Backup size: 124.4MB
- Database (Collection.anki2): 293.5MB < 314.5MB.
Beyond repair
After slimming, at least 30 seconds for "front:" search. Too slow still!
At this point, I realized there's no going back to the 6-7 second search. I don't know what happened, but it is what it is.
Luckily, AnkiWeb search interface is usable, and is blazing fast.
New drastic remedy
I decided to pull a Hail Mary fix just out of curiosity to see if it works:
- Make sure the cloud has the latest main profile.
- Rename the old Anki2 folder (in application support) as Anki2old.
- Delete the Anki app.
- Install it.
- Start it.
- Press Sync. Prompted to log in.
- Select "download from web."
Result
Like magic, this time a typical full text (not "front:") search took 1-2 seconds, even much better than the 6-7 seconds I had been "used to."
Follow-up action
- Use Beyond Compare on Anki2old and the new Anki2 folders.
- Move all data under root folders of profile names to the new folder.
- Don't move add-ons.
- There are strange .m3u files that seem to be playlists for audio. Don't know what they are. But it's harmless to move.
Moral of the story
Software performs in mysterious ways. Try reinstalling before giving up.
I think the accumulation and combination of certain add-ons dragged down the database performance, the cause of which was unknowable to me.
This degradation has happened to me only once in the 3+ years of active use. I guess that is acceptable, especially now that I've identified the proper remedy.
For the record, these are the Anki add-ons I'm walking away from:
And finally for sanity check, the cloud storage version does preserve each and every media file, as proved from the "no diff" status of the "collection.media" folder:
