Anki add-on: Backfill a Day (Heatmap Streak Fixer)

I wished for a whole year for a simple way to erase one missed day from my heatmap. No one built it—so I did. If this little tool helped tidy your streak and mind, I’d be grateful for a coffee. ☕️ Sometimes a lost streak hurts more than we expect. If a deck got deleted, a profile hiccup happened, or a sync went sideways, that little cold spot on your heatmap can feel like a blemish. This add-on helps you gently restore specific days by inserting a small number of synthetic review logs into your collection—so your calendar reflects what you know you did. ⚠️ Please use responsibly. This is meant to heal glitches and honest mistakes—not to fake learning. Your progress is yours; this tool just removes the technical scar. What it does Adds a menu item: Tools → Backfill Streak… Lets you enter one or many dates (one per line) you want to revive. Inserts review log entries on those dates (default: 3 per day), so Review Heatmap and stats recognize them. Respects your Anki day start (defaults to midnight 00:00–00:00). Places entries at a safe time window (default: 12:00 local time ) to avoid boundary misclassification. Optional: if your day starts after midnight, it can remove same-day entries before the day start to prevent them from “sliding” to the previous day. How to use Install the add-on and restart Anki. Go to Tools → Backfill Streak… Fill in: Dates to revive — one per line. Supported formats: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2025-08-08 ) or DD.MM.YYYY (e.g., 08.08.2025 ). (Optional) Deck , Front/Back text for the small dummy card the tool uses. Reviews per day (default 3). Anki day start (hour) — keep 0 if your day starts at midnight. Insert from (hour) — default 12 (noon) to safely be inside the day window. Gap (minutes) — spacing between entries. Delete entries before day start — only relevant if your day starts after midnight. Click OK . If the heatmap doesn’t refresh immediately, try Tools → Check Database or restart Anki. You do not need the Review Heatmap add-on for this to work, but most people use this tool for that purpose. Safety first Back up before changes. Use Anki’s built-in backups (Profiles → Open Backups) or your own backup routine. The add-on only: creates (or reuses) one small dummy card in your chosen deck, writes review rows (revlog) at the chosen times. It does not upload or send any data. Everything stays inside your local Anki profile. If you need to undo changes later, restore from an Anki backup (Profiles → Open Backups). Configuration (defaults) Deck name: Backfill Streak Front text: forget me not Back text: remember Reviews per day: 3 Anki day start (hour): 0 (midnight) Insert from (hour): 12 (noon) Gap (minutes): 12 Delete entries before day start: false You can also edit these in the add-on’s config. Compatibility Tested with Anki 25.02.7 (Qt6) on macOS. Should work on recent 2.1 builds (Qt6). If you hit an API difference, please report it. Troubleshooting “Nothing changed on the heatmap” Make sure the date format is correct. Check your Anki day start : if you start at, say, 08:00, entries before 08:00 count as the previous day . Use the dialog’s settings to align. Try Tools → Check Database or restart Anki. “Card/Note type/Deck error” The add-on tries to use Basic or any note type with ≥2 fields. If Basic is missing or heavily modified, pick a different deck and try again. “db-check note type” message after Check Database This can appear if your note types are unusually customized. It doesn’t affect the backfilled reviews. If in doubt, restore from backup. Why this matters We learn for ourselves, but streaks are motivational . When a technical issue puts a hole in your calendar, it can feel discouraging. This add-on acknowledges that psychological value and gives you a careful way to remove that little cold spot , so your heatmap looks like the effort you remember. Tags anki-2.1 streak heatmap review stats revlog tools calendar progress If this helped you “heal the gap,” consider leaving a note so others know it’s safe and useful 💙