Learn words without losing the cards

Exporting words sounds like tidying up. Most of the time, it’s more like moving. A new device, a broken screen, the fear that eight hundred contacts are stuck in an old cell phone. Importing words is the opposite: you want a list you already have to end up in DeutschSprechen without having to type it out. Backing up vocabulary here means a file, not a feeling.

The flashcards live on the device. That’s on purpose. It also means that if the device is gone and you don’t have a file, the flashcards are gone. I export them before I pass the phone on. Not every night. Just before the switch.

What’s in the file

Not just the word and the translation. The example sentence you provided is part of it; otherwise, you’re just importing labels. “Get up” without “I got up at seven” will just be a label again tomorrow. The note, if you had one. The level in the SRS, as far as the file supports it. Check the Kılavuz to see what the current file actually contains before assuming an old backup is complete.

Exporting isn’t a backup to the app’s cloud. It’s your file. Save it where you’ll be able to find it again. Not in a chat that you won’t have in three months.

Importing Without Duplicates as a Hobby

You can import a list from another app. But don’t try to learn everything at once afterward. Eight cards due, as always. The import isn’t a new course. It’s a stack that will be due as usual starting tomorrow. Anyone who swipes through two hundred new words on import night will hate the list by Thursday.

Check ten cards at random. Is the sentence correct? Is the language correct? German remains the language you’re learning. The interface can be different. If the file has messed up the direction, you’ll notice it faster with ten cards than with eight hundred.

What I Don’t Export to “Share”

Don’t post private example sentences in a group just because the file lets you. The sentence “I’m sick because…” is your sentence. Saving vocabulary is for you, for your next device—not for a public list. If you want to build a flashcard deck for work, write the sentences as if you were going to read them aloud. The rest stays local.

SRS—one-three-thirty-nine—depends on the flashcards, not on the file sitting on the table. After importing, open it once, check the number due, set it to eight, and close it. The widget won’t display the number reliably until you’ve used the app normally afterward and configured the widget in the app settings.

The process: Export and Import. Where the data is stored: locally.

Before switching devices

Export. Save the file to a location you can access without the old device. New device: log in, import, check ten cards, and reset the widget. Don’t recreate the library, because it will appear empty at first glance. It looks empty until the import is complete. Wait a moment. Then say the one due card out loud so you know the sentence has been imported.

Exporting words takes half a minute. Importing words does too. The evening after that is just the usual stack—not a celebration over the file.

If the file is older than your memory

Then don’t believe everything. Read ten cards aloud. The example sentence you no longer mean is removed or replaced before it fills up the stack. Backing up vocabulary saves your work. It doesn’t save every bad card from a year ago. I delete the ones where I stumble while reading them aloud because the sentence was never really mine. Then eight due, just like any other day. I reset the widget when the device is new. First, app settings, save, then the frame. Otherwise, an empty box hangs there and acts as if the import had failed.

DeutschSprechen keeps the cards on the device. The file is your moving box. Pack it once, before you get rid of the old phone. Then it’s eight cards again, not eight hundred.