Import from Anki

Import an Anki .apkg deck package so your existing cards become Items in a Collection.

Before you begin

• The deck must be exported from Anki as a single .apkg file. Kioku imports one package at a time.
• Importing writes into the active Collection. There is no Collection chooser in the import flow, so switch to the Collection you want before you start.
• Re-importing the same deck does not merge or update — it creates a duplicate. Import each deck once.

Steps

1. In Anki, select the deck (or All Decks), choose File → Export, set the format to Anki Deck Package (*.apkg), and save the file.
2. In Kioku, open Settings and scroll to the Import section, below the Export controls.
3. Select Import Anki (.apkg). The button changes to Importing Anki… while the import runs.
4. In the Import Anki Deck file dialog, choose your .apkg file. The picker accepts a single .apkg file. Selecting nothing and cancelling aborts the import with no changes.
5. Watch the progress bar move through Opening package…, Importing deck media…, Indexing Anki cards…, and Importing notes and cards…, ending at Import complete. Counts such as X/Y notes processed appear once totals are known.
6. Read the summary: Imported {noteCount} notes, {cardCount} cards from {deckCount} decks. It dismisses on its own after a few seconds.

Caution

If the package is missing its embedded collection data, the import fails with Invalid Anki package: could not find collection.anki21 or collection.anki2 and nothing is written. The import is all-or-nothing, so a mid-stream failure rolls back completely — you are never left with a partial import.

What carries over

The importer brings Anki content into Kioku and approximates scheduling state. Know what it preserves and what it drops before you rely on the result.

Carried over:

• Decks become groups. Each Anki deck becomes a Concept named for the deck, grouping that deck’s cards together in Browse. Decks are matched by their Anki deck ID, so two decks both named “Science” stay separate.
• Cards become Items. Every Anki card becomes an Item with one Card underneath it.
• Basic cards. Front and back are resolved from the note type’s question/answer template, with a positional fallback to the first and second fields. Multi-template note types import each card with its own front and back.
• Cloze cards. The original {{c1::...}} markup is preserved verbatim, and one Cloze Card is created per card ordinal.
• Images. Image files (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .webp, .gif, .avif) referenced by <img> tags are imported, deduplicated, and rewritten to internal media links.
• Approximate scheduling. Anki card state maps to an FSRS state, and review and lapse counts are copied. The remaining scheduling values are estimated from Anki’s ease and interval — an approximation, not an exact reconstruction. Suspended and buried cards keep that status.

Not carried over:

• Tags are dropped silently.
• Audio, video, and other non-image media are ignored. References to skipped media stay as their original, now-broken src.
• Review history is not imported — only summary counters and an approximate current scheduling state.
• Card template styling and logic (CSS, {{FrontSide}}, conditional {{#Field}} blocks) are not reproduced. Only the referenced field values become front, back, or cloze content.
• Deck selection and field remapping. There is no per-deck or per-note-type mapping UI; the entire package imports wholesale.

Caution

Oversized or unreadable images are skipped during import. The surrounding <img> keeps its original src, so a few images may not display.

Result

Each Anki deck appears as a Concept in Browse, grouping its cards beneath it as Items. Basic notes become basic Cards, cloze notes become cloze Cards, and supported images render through Kioku’s media store. The imported Items enter scheduling with an approximate FSRS state and are ready to review.

Related

• Back up & export — export Collections and data so your imported deck is safe.