← Blog

How to edit an .apkg file without opening Anki

Maybe you downloaded a deck and there's a typo on a card. Maybe a deck is 3,000 cards and you only want one chapter. Maybe the answer choices are in the wrong order. You can fix all of that without installing Anki — right in your browser.

What an .apkg actually is

An .apkg is just a zip file containing a small database of your cards plus the media (images, audio). That's why it's editable outside Anki: a tool can open the package, change the data, and zip it back up. The catch is doing it safely — without uploading your file to someone's server.

The free, private way: edit it in your browser

We built a free in-browser .apkg editor for exactly this. It runs 100% on your device (using WebAssembly), so your file never leaves your computer — there's no upload, no account, and nothing is stored on a server. Open it, drop in a .apkg, and you can:

• Edit cards — fix text with a simple formatting toolbar (bold/italic), and images render inline just like in the app.
• Reorder & rename — drag cards up or down, rename decks and chapters, all in one pass.
• Reorganize decks — create chapters, move cards between decks, or wrap everything under a single package.
• Split a big deck — export just one deck, chapter, or a hand-picked selection of cards as a new, smaller .apkg (non-destructive — your original is untouched).
• Fix multiple-choice decks — reorder answer choices while the correct answer follows automatically.
• Save — download a clean .apkg you can import anywhere.

A few common jobs

1. Trim a giant deck

   Open the deck, select the chapter (or just the cards) you want, and use Export to save them as a new, smaller package. Great for breaking a massive shared deck into manageable pieces.

2. Clean up before importing

   Rename vague deck titles, delete cards you'll never study, and fix typos — then re-save and import the tidy version into your flashcard app.

3. Merge or restructure

   Move cards between decks and group them under a parent package so the hierarchy makes sense on import.

What it doesn't do (yet)

The editor reads the legacy Anki format (collection.anki2 / .anki21). If a deck was exported in the newest format and won't open, re-export it from Anki with “Support older Anki versions” enabled and try again.